How to pass a class type as a function parameter
I have a generic function that calls a web service and serialize the JSON response back to an object.
class func invokeService<T>(service: String, withParams params: Dictionary<String, String>, returningClass: AnyClass, completionHandler handler: ((T) -> ())) {
/* Construct the URL, call the service and parse the response */
}
What I'm trying to accomplish is is the equivalent of this Java code
public <T> T invokeService(final String serviceURLSuffix, final Map<String, String> params,
final Class<T> classTypeToReturn) {
}
- Is my method signature for what I'm trying to accomplish correct?
- More specifically, is specifying
AnyClassas a parameter type the right thing to do? - When calling the method, I'm passing
MyObject.selfas the returningClass value, but I get a compilation error "Cannot convert the expression's type '()' to type 'String'"
CastDAO.invokeService("test", withParams: ["test" : "test"], returningClass: CityInfo.self) { cityInfo in /*...*/
}
Edit:
I tried using object_getClass, as mentioned by holex, but now I get:
error: "Type 'CityInfo.Type' does not conform to protocol 'AnyObject'"
What need to be done to conform to the protocol?
class CityInfo : NSObject {
var cityName: String?
var regionCode: String?
var regionName: String?
}
Solution 1:
You are approaching it in the wrong way: in Swift, unlike Objective-C, classes have specific types and even have an inheritance hierarchy (that is, if class B inherits from A, then B.Type also inherits from A.Type):
class A {}
class B: A {}
class C {}
// B inherits from A
let object: A = B()
// B.Type also inherits from A.Type
let type: A.Type = B.self
// Error: 'C' is not a subtype of 'A'
let type2: A.Type = C.self
That's why you shouldn't use AnyClass, unless you really want to allow any class. In this case the right type would be T.Type, because it expresses the link between the returningClass parameter and the parameter of the closure.
In fact, using it instead of AnyClass allows the compiler to correctly infer the types in the method call:
class func invokeService<T>(service: String, withParams params: Dictionary<String, String>, returningClass: T.Type, completionHandler handler: ((T) -> ())) {
// The compiler correctly infers that T is the class of the instances of returningClass
handler(returningClass())
}
Now there's the problem of constructing an instance of T to pass to handler: if you try and run the code right now the compiler will complain that T is not constructible with (). And rightfully so: T has to be explicitly constrained to require that it implements a specific initializer.
This can be done with a protocol like the following one:
protocol Initable {
init()
}
class CityInfo : NSObject, Initable {
var cityName: String?
var regionCode: String?
var regionName: String?
// Nothing to change here, CityInfo already implements init()
}
Then you only have to change the generic constraints of invokeService from <T> to <T: Initable>.
Tip
If you get strange errors like "Cannot convert the expression's type '()' to type 'String'", it is often useful to move every argument of the method call to its own variable. It helps narrowing down the code that is causing the error and uncovering type inference issues:
let service = "test"
let params = ["test" : "test"]
let returningClass = CityInfo.self
CastDAO.invokeService(service, withParams: params, returningClass: returningClass) { cityInfo in /*...*/
}
Now there are two possibilities: the error moves to one of the variables (which means that the wrong part is there) or you get a cryptic message like "Cannot convert the expression's type () to type ($T6) -> ($T6) -> $T5".
The cause of the latter error is that the compiler is not able to infer the types of what you wrote. In this case the problem is that T is only used in the parameter of the closure and the closure you passed doesn't indicate any particular type so the compiler doesn't know what type to infer. By changing the type of returningClass to include T you give the compiler a way to determine the generic parameter.
Solution 2:
you can get the class of AnyObject via this way:
Swift 3.x
let myClass: AnyClass = type(of: self)
Swift 2.x
let myClass: AnyClass = object_getClass(self)
and you can pass it as paramater later, if you'd like.
Solution 3:
I have a similar use case in swift5:
class PlistUtils {
static let shared = PlistUtils()
// write data
func saveItem<T: Encodable>(url: URL, value: T) -> Bool{
let encoder = PropertyListEncoder()
do {
let data = try encoder.encode(value)
try data.write(to: url)
return true
}catch {
print("encode error: \(error)")
return false
}
}
// read data
func loadItem<T: Decodable>(url: URL, type: T.Type) -> Any?{
if let data = try? Data(contentsOf: url) {
let decoder = PropertyListDecoder()
do {
let result = try decoder.decode(type, from: data)
return result
}catch{
print("items decode failed ")
return nil
}
}
return nil
}
}
Solution 4:
Simply copy paste each code here into swift file:
# save as: APICaller.swift
import Foundation
struct APICaller
{
public static func get<T: Decodable>(url: String, receiveModel: T.Type, completion:@escaping (Decodable) -> ())
{
send(url: url, json: nil, receiveModel: receiveModel, completion: completion, httpMethod: "GET")
}
public static func post<T: Decodable>(url: String, json: [String: Any]?, receiveModel: T.Type, completion:@escaping (Decodable) -> ())
{
send(url: url, json: nil, receiveModel: receiveModel, completion: completion, httpMethod: "POST")
}
public static func delete<T: Decodable>(url: String, json: [String: Any]?, receiveModel: T.Type, completion:@escaping (Decodable) -> ())
{
send(url: url, json: nil, receiveModel: receiveModel, completion: completion, httpMethod: "DELETE")
}
private static func send<T: Decodable>(url: String, json: [String: Any]?, receiveModel: T.Type, completion:@escaping (Decodable) -> (), httpMethod: String)
{
// create post request
let urlURL: URL = URL(string: url)!
var httpRequest: URLRequest = URLRequest(url: urlURL)
httpRequest.httpMethod = httpMethod
if(json != nil)
{
// serialize map of strings to json object
let jsonData: Data = try! JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: json!)
// insert json data to the request
httpRequest.httpBody = jsonData
httpRequest.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
}
// create an asynchronus task to post the request
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: httpRequest)
{ jsonData, response, error in
// on callback parse the json into the receiving model object
let receivedModelFilled: Decodable = Bundle.main.decode(receiveModel, from: jsonData!)
// cal the user callback with the constructed object from json
DispatchQueue.main.async {
completion(receivedModelFilled)
}
}
task.resume()
}
}
# save as: TestService.swift
import Foundation
struct TestService: Codable
{
let test: String
}
then you can use it like this:
let urlString: String = "http://localhost/testService" <--- replace with your actual service url
// call the API in post request
APICaller.post(url: urlString, json: ["test": "test"], receiveModel: TestService.self, completion: { testReponse in
// when response is received - do something with it in this callback
let testService: TestService = testReponse as! TestService
print("testService: \(testService)")
})
Tip: i use online service to turn my JSONs into swift files, so all i have left is to write the call and handle the response i use this one: https://app.quicktype.io but you can search for the one you prefer