Why Choose Struct Over Class?

Question

Playing around with Swift, coming from a Java background, why would you want to choose a Struct instead of a Class? Seems like they are the same thing, with a Struct offering less functionality. Why choose it then?

Answer 1

Here are some other reasons to consider:

1. structs get an automatic initializer that you don't have to maintain in code at all.

   struct MorphProperty {
      var type : MorphPropertyValueType
      var key : String
      var value : AnyObject
   
      enum MorphPropertyValueType {
          case String, Int, Double
      }
    }
   
    var m = MorphProperty(type: .Int, key: "what", value: "blah")
   

To get this in a class, you would have to add the initializer, and maintain the intializer...

2. Basic collection types like Array are structs. The more you use them in your own code, the more you will get used to passing by value as opposed to reference. For instance:

   func removeLast(var array:[String]) {
      array.removeLast()
      println(array) // [one, two]
   }
   
   var someArray = ["one", "two", "three"]
   removeLast(someArray)
   println(someArray) // [one, two, three]
   

3. Apparently immutability vs. mutability is a huge topic, but a lot of smart folks think immutability -- structs in this case -- is preferable. Mutable vs immutable objects

Answer 2

Similarities between structs and classes.

I created gist for this with simple examples. https://github.com/objc-swift/swift-classes-vs-structures

And differences

1. Inheritance.

structures can't inherit in swift. If you want

class Vehicle{
}

class Car : Vehicle{
}

Go for an class.

2. Pass By

Swift structures pass by value and class instances pass by reference.

Contextual Differences

Struct constant and variables

Example (Used at WWDC 2014)

struct Point{

   var x = 0.0;
   var y = 0.0;

} 

Defines a struct called Point.

var point = Point(x:0.0,y:2.0)

Now if I try to change the x. Its a valid expression.

point.x = 5

But if I defined a point as constant.

let point = Point(x:0.0,y:2.0)
point.x = 5 //This will give compile time error.

In this case entire point is immutable constant.

If I used a class Point instead this is a valid expression. Because in a class immutable constant is the reference to the class itself not its instance variables (Unless those variables defined as constants)

Answer 3

Structure is much more faster than Class. Also, if you need inheritance then you must use Class. Most important point is that Class is reference type whereas Structure is value type. for example,

class Flight {
    var id:Int?
    var description:String?
    var destination:String?
    var airlines:String?
    init(){
        id = 100
        description = "first ever flight of Virgin Airlines"
        destination = "london"
        airlines = "Virgin Airlines"
    } 
}

struct Flight2 {
    var id:Int
    var description:String
    var destination:String
    var airlines:String  
}

now lets create instance of both.

var flightA = Flight()

var flightB = Flight2.init(id: 100, description:"first ever flight of Virgin Airlines", destination:"london" , airlines:"Virgin Airlines" )

now lets pass these instance to two functions which modify the id, description, destination etc..

func modifyFlight(flight:Flight) -> Void {
    flight.id = 200
    flight.description = "second flight of Virgin Airlines"
    flight.destination = "new york"
    flight.airlines = "Virgin Airlines"
}

also,

func modifyFlight2(flight2: Flight2) -> Void {
    var passedFlight = flight2
    passedFlight.id = 200
    passedFlight.description = "second flight from virgin airlines" 
}

so,

modifyFlight(flight: flightA)
modifyFlight2(flight2: flightB)

now if we print the flightA's id and description, we get

id = 200
description = "second flight of Virgin Airlines"

Here, we can see the id and description of FlightA is changed because the parameter passed to the modify method actually points to the memory address of flightA object(reference type).

now if we print the id and description of FLightB instance we get,

id = 100
description = "first ever flight of Virgin Airlines"

Here we can see that the FlightB instance is not changed because in modifyFlight2 method, actual instance of Flight2 is passes rather than reference ( value type).

Answer 4

As struct are value types and you can create the memory very easily which stores into stack.Struct can be easily accessible and after the scope of the work it's easily deallocated from the stack memory through pop from the top of the stack. On the other hand class is a reference type which stores in heap and changes made in one class object will impact to other object as they are tightly coupled and reference type.All members of a structure are public whereas all the members of a class are private.

The disadvantages of struct is that it can't be inherited .