Re-initialize a lazy initialized variable in Swift

lazy is explicitly for one-time only initialization. The model you want to adopt is probably just an initialize-on-demand model:

var aClient:Client {
    if(_aClient == nil) {
        _aClient = Client(ClientSession.shared())
    }
    return _aClient!
}

var _aClient:Client?

Now whenever _aClient is nil, it will be initialized and returned. It can be reinitialized by setting _aClient = nil

Because the behavior of lazy changed in Swift 4, I wrote a few structs that give very specific behavior, which should never change between language versions. I put these on GitHub, under the BH-1-PD license: https://github.com/RougeWare/Swift-Lazy-Patterns

ResettableLazy

Here is the one relevant to this question, which gives you a way to lazily-initialize a value, cache that value, and destroy it so it can be lazily-reinitialized later.

Note that this requires Swift 5.1! For the Swift 4 version, see version 1.1.1 of that repo.

The simple usage of this is very straightforward:

@ResettableLazy
var myLazyString = "Hello, lazy!"

print(myLazyString) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value "Hello, lazy!"
print(myLazyString) // Just returns the value "Hello, lazy!"

_myLazyString.clear()
print(myLazyString) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value "Hello, lazy!"
print(myLazyString) // Just returns the value "Hello, lazy!"

myLazyString = "Overwritten"
print(myLazyString) // Just returns the value "Overwritten"
_myLazyString.clear()
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value  "Hello, lazy!"

This will print:

Hello, lazy!
Hello, lazy!
Hello, lazy!
Hello, lazy!
Overwritten
Hello, lazy!

If you have complex initializer logic, you can pass that to the property wrapper:

func makeLazyString() -> String {
    print("Initializer side-effect")
    return "Hello, lazy!"
}

@ResettableLazy(initializer: makeLazyString)
var myLazyString: String

print(myLazyString) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value "Hello, lazy!"
print(myLazyString) // Just returns the value "Hello, lazy!"

_myLazyString.clear()
print(myLazyString) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value "Hello, lazy!"
print(myLazyString) // Just returns the value "Hello, lazy!"

myLazyString = "Overwritten"
print(myLazyString) // Just returns the value "Overwritten"
_myLazyString.clear()
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value  "Hello, lazy!"

You can also use it directly (instaed of as a property wrapper):

var myLazyString = ResettableLazy<String>() {
    print("Initializer side-effect")
    return "Hello, lazy!"
}

print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value "Hello, lazy!"
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Just returns the value "Hello, lazy!"

myLazyString.clear()
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value "Hello, lazy!"
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Just returns the value "Hello, lazy!"

myLazyString.wrappedValue = "Overwritten"
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Just returns the value "Overwritten"
_myLazyString.clear()
print(myLazyString.wrappedValue) // Initializes, caches, and returns the value  "Hello, lazy!"

These will both print:

Initializer side-effect
Hello, lazy!
Hello, lazy!
Initializer side-effect
Hello, lazy!
Hello, lazy!
Overwritten
Initializer side-effect
Hello, lazy!

This answer has been updated; its original solution no longer works in Swift 4 and newer.

Instead, I recommend you use one of the solutions listed above, or @PBosman's solution

Previously, this answer hinged on behavior which was a bug. Both that old version of this answer, its behavior, and why it's a bug are described in the text and comments of Swift bug SR-5172 (which has been resolved as of 2017-07-14 with PR #10,911), and it's clear that this behavior was never intentional.

That solution is in that Swift bug's text, and also in the history of this answer, but because it's a bug exploit that doesn't work in Swift 3.2+ I recommend you do not do that.

EDIT: As per Ben Leggiero's answer, lazy vars can be nilable in Swift 3. EDIT 2: Seems like nilable lazy vars are no more.

Very late to the party, and not even sure if this will be relevant in Swift 3, but here goes. David's answer is good, but if you want to create many lazy nil-able vars, you will have to write a pretty hefty block of code. I'm trying to create an ADT that encapsulates this behaviour. Here's what I've got so far:

struct ClearableLazy<T> {
    private var t: T!
    private var constructor: () -> T
    init(_ constructor: @escaping () -> T) {
        self.constructor = constructor
    }
    mutating func get() -> T {
        if t == nil {
            t = constructor()
        }
        return t
    }
    mutating func clear() { t = nil }
}

You would then declare and use properties like this:

var aClient = ClearableLazy(Client.init)
aClient.get().delegate = self
aClient.clear()

There are things I don't like about this yet, but don't know how to improve:

• You have to pass a constructor to the initializer, which looks ugly. It has the advantage, though, that you can specify exactly how new objects are to be created.
• Calling get() on a property every time you want to use it is terrible. It would be slightly better if this was a computed property, not a function, but computed properties cannot be mutating.
• To eliminate the need to call get(), you have to extend every type you want to use this for with initializers for ClearableLazy.

If someone feels like picking it up from here, that would be awesome.

This allows setting the property to nil to force reinitialization:

private var _recordedFileURL: NSURL!

/// Location of the recorded file
private var recordedFileURL: NSURL! {
    if _recordedFileURL == nil {
        let file = "recording\(arc4random()).caf"
        let url = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: NSTemporaryDirectory()).URLByAppendingPathComponent(file)
        NSLog("FDSoundActivatedRecorder opened recording file: %@", url)
        _recordedFileURL = url
    }
    return _recordedFileURL
}