Using "let" inside Struct - Swift

Question

I'm currently practicing examples from Swift Language iBook. My understanding of "let" is that we use "let" to make a constant. Once we assign a value to it, we cannot assign another value to it again. Like the codes below:

let city="NY"
city="LA"  <--error (Cannot assign 'let' value city)

But I saw this example on iBook which really confused me:

struct Color{
let red=0.0, green=0.0, blue=0.0  //<---declare variables using "let" and assign value
init(red:Double,green:Double,blue:Double){
    self.red=red                  //<---assign value to variable again?
    self.green=green               
    self.blue=blue                
    }
}

In this example, it has already assigned values to red, green and blue which use "let".

Why can we assign values to these three variables again in init?

Note that this is no longer possible from Swift 1.2.

Patrick Pijnappel
– Patrick Pijnappel

2015-03-21 19:57:23 +00:00
Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 19:57 — Patrick Pijnappel
– Patrick Pijnappel, Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 19:57

Kevin · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 20:44:03Z

13

The initialization in the let provides default values if you don't initialize them yourself in the constructor. Constructors (init) are special. Inside them, you can assign to a constant instance variable. In fact, if you don't have a default value for them, you have to assign to them. (This applies to classes too.)

Thanks to Qwerty Bob for finding this in the docs

Modifying Constant Properties During Initialization

You can modify the value of a constant property at any point during initialization, as long as it is set to a definite value by the time initialization finishes.

Excerpt From: Apple Inc. “The Swift Programming Language.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/jEUH0.l

edited Jun 26, 2014 at 20:44

answered Jun 26, 2014 at 14:38

Kevin

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2 Comments

user1040049 Over a year ago

You need something more explicit than "Modifying Constant Properties During Initialization" ? ;)

Kevin Over a year ago

@QwertyBob Thanks, apparently I missed that skimming through that chapter.

SomeGuy · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 14:39:31Z

5

You may set constant variables during the init process, before the self keyword is used. After this they are then truly 'constant'.

You must do it before the self keyword is used, as if you pass it to another object it could in turn call a method of yours which relies on that constant property

answered Jun 26, 2014 at 14:39

SomeGuy

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Comments

Kametrixom · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-27 10:51:56Z

2

And also: structs get passed by value and not by reference, so you cannot modify the variables in a struct at all after their set. So the let keyword really makes sense.

answered Jun 27, 2014 at 10:51

Kametrixom

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Comments

Firo · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-26 16:52:21Z

If you continue reading a few paragraphs after the example you gave from the book (unless they use it in multiple locations), it actually talks about this behavior:

You can modify the value of a constant property at any point during initialization, as long as it is set to a definite value by the time initialization finishes.

So basically you can modify constants and upon ending the initialization all constants must have a definitive value. It also goes on to talk about how this works with subclasses too:

For class instances, a constant property can only be modified during initialization by the class that introduces it. It cannot be modified by a subclass.

Here is the doc reference for it (same as the book), the quoted sections is under the "Modifying Constant Properties During Initialization" subheading.

Krzak · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-28 13:12:10Z

Apart from the initialization part, which was answered by Kevin, you're still missing the constant part of let. So to clarify let is not exactly a constant.

According to „The Swift Programming Language.” Apple Inc., 2014-05-27T07:00:00Z. iBooks:

Like C, Swift uses variables to store and refer to values by an identifying name. Swift also makes extensive use of variables whose values cannot be changed. These are known as constants, and are much more powerful than constants in C.

Both var and let are references, therefore let is a const reference. Using fundamental types doesn't really show how let is different than const. The difference comes when using it with class instances (reference types):

class CTest
{
    var str : String = ""
}

let letTest = CTest()
letTest.str = "test" // OK

letTest.str = "another test" // Still OK

//letTest = CTest() // Error

var varTest1 = CTest()
var varTest2 = CTest()
var varTest3 = CTest()

varTest1.str = "var 1"
varTest2.str = "var 2"
varTest3 = varTest1
varTest1.str = "var 3"

varTest3.str // "var 3"

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