Search Your Question

Showing posts with label Protocol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Protocol. Show all posts

What is Protocol Oriented Programming?

Protocol-Oriented Programming is a new programming paradigm ushered in by Swift 2.0. In the Protocol-Oriented approach, we start designing our system by defining protocols. We rely on new concepts: protocol extensions, protocol inheritance, and protocol compositions.

In Swift, value types are preferred over classes. However, object-oriented concepts don’t work well with structs and enums: a struct cannot inherit from another struct, neither can an enum inherit from another enum. 

On the other hand, value types can inherit from protocols, even multiple protocols. Thus, with POP, value types have become first-class citizens in Swift.

Pillars of POPs

Protocol Extensions
Protocols serve as blueprints: they tell us what adopters shall implement, but you can’t provide implementation within a protocol. What if we need to define default behavior for conforming types? We need to implement it in a base class, right? Wrong! Having to rely on a base class for default implementation would eclipse the benefits of protocols. Besides, that would not work for value types. Luckily, there is another way: protocol extensions are the way to go! In Swift, you can extend a protocol and provide a default implementation for methods, computed properties, subscripts, and convenience initializers. In the following example, I provided default implementation for the type method uid().

extension Entity {
    static func uid() -> String {
        return UUID().uuidString
    }
}
swift
Now types that adopt the protocol need not implement the uid() method anymore.

struct Order: Entity {
    var name: String
    let uid: String = Order.uid()
}
let order = Order(name: "My Order")
print(order.uid)
// 4812B485-3965-443B-A76D-72986B0A4FF4

Protocol Inheritance

A protocol can inherit from other protocols and then add further requirements on top of the requirements it inherits. In the following example, the protocol Persistable inherits from the Entity protocol I introduced earlier. It adds the requirement to save an entity to file and load it based on its unique identifier.

protocol Persistable: Entity {
    func write(instance: Entity, to filePath: String)
    init?(by uid: String)
}
swift
The types that adopt the Persistable protocol must satisfy the requirements defined in both the Entity and the Persistable protocol.

If your type requires persistence capabilities, it should implement the Persistable protocol.

struct PersistableEntity: Persistable {
    var name: String
    func write(instance: Entity, to filePath: String) { // ...
    }  
    init?(by uid: String) {
        // try to load from the filesystem based on id
    }
}
swift
Whereas types that do not need to be persisted shall only implement the Entity protocol:

struct InMemoryEntity: Entity {
    var name: String
}

Protocol inheritance is a powerful feature that allows for more granular and flexible designs.

Protocol Composition

Swift does not allow multiple inheritances for classes. However, Swift types can adopt multiple protocols. Sometimes you may find this feature useful.

Here’s an example: let’s assume that we need a type that represents an Entity.

We also need to compare instances of a given type. And we want to provide a custom description, too.

We have three protocols that define the mentioned requirements:

Entity
Equatable
CustomStringConvertible
If these were base classes, we’d have to merge the functionality into one superclass; however, with POP and protocol composition, the solution becomes:

struct MyEntity: Entity, Equatable, CustomStringConvertible {
    var name: String
    // Equatable
    public static func ==(lhs: MyEntity, rhs: MyEntity) -> Bool {
        return lhs.name == rhs.name
    }
    // CustomStringConvertible
    public var description: String {
        return "MyEntity: \(name)"
    }
}
let entity1 = MyEntity(name: "42")
print(entity1)
let entity2 = MyEntity(name: "42")
assert(entity1 == entity2, "Entities shall be equal")

This design not only is more flexible than squeezing all the required functionality into a monolithic base class but also works for value types.

Difference between objective c and swift protocol

Ans:

Protocol in Objective-C has optional methods and Protocol in Swift has all required methods to implement.

In Swift, Protocol extension is introduced and due to it swift is called protocol oriented language.

Read Protocol Extension to know difference between objective-c and swift protocol

What is protocol extension? Why Swift called as Protocol Oriented Language?

Ans : It is same as we extend class to add functions to existing class. Here we can add functions to existing protocol by extending protocol.

protocol proto {
   func add()
}

extension proto {
   func sub()

}

Benefits :

1.

We can also add default body to protocol extension function. So any type which confirm protocol has choice to implement that method or not. In other words we can say that it become optional method. Protocol extension method must have body.

protocol proto {
    func add()
}

extension proto {
    func add()  {
        print("add method called")
    }
    
    func sub() { }
}

class cp : proto {
   
}

let pq = cp()
pq.add()



Output : 
add method called

2. 

We can confirm multiple protocol and we can say that is multiple inheritance.

protocol proto1 {
    func add()
}

protocol proto2 {
    func sub()
}

class cp : proto1,proto2 {
    func add() {
        
    }
    
    func sub() {
        
    }
}

let pq = cp()
pq.add()

3. 

We can make protocol comparable due to protocol extension.

protocol Score: Comparable {
  var value: Int { get }
}

struct RacingScore: Score {
  let value: Int
  
  static func <(lhs: RacingScore, rhs: RacingScore) -> Bool {
    lhs.value < rhs.value
  }

}

4.

Mutating function in protocol to change value of protocol.

Struct is value type. You can only change property of struct only if property declared as var and instance is also var.



So, if we add mutating before func, it allow to change value in struct type. Same thing also can be done with protocol and protocol extension.

5.

There's also obviously anything that you can do with generics in Swift that couldn't be done in Objective C.  So for instance the Indexable protocol could be extended to have a function that returned the index range length which might only apply if the index is an Int like this:

extension Collection where Self.Index == Int
{
  func length () -> Int
  {
     return endIndex - startIndex
  }

}


Due to this very powerful features of protocol in Swift, Swift is called Protocol Oriented  Programming Language.


Some truths about protocol

Q1 : Can structure confirm protocol?
A1 : Yes

Q2 : Can enumeration confirm protocol?
A2 : Yes

Q3 : Can we declare variable in protocol?
A3 : Yes -> It must be var and it must be read-Only or readAndWrite . Property declaration is like following : 

protocol someprotocol {
     var gettable : Int { get }
      var setAndGettable : Int { get set }

Q4 : Can we add function in the enumeration?
A4 : Yes

Q5 : Can protocol has own init method?
A5 : Yes

Q6 : Can protocol inherit another protocol?
A6 : Yes
protocol someprotocol : anotherprotocol {

}

Q7: Can we make a class-specific protocol?
A7: You can limit protocol adoption to class types (and not structures or enumerations) by adding the AnyObject or class protocol to a protocol’s inheritance list.

protocol someprotocol : AnyObject, Someanotherprotocol {
}

Now someprotocol can only be confirmed by class type. No structure or enum type can confirm this protocol.

Q8. Can we declare an optional protocol method in swift?
A8. Yes. In that protocol name and optional methods should be followed by @objc due to it consider as objective c code.

@objc protocol someprotocol {
        @objc optional func somemethod()
        @objc optional var someName : String { get set }
}

or 

We can make protocol extension and provide default body to protocol method. So any class or struct confirms that protocol doesn't require implementing that method.

Q.9 Can protocol be fileprivate?

A9. Yes. Protocol can be fileprivate, private, public. Private and fileprivate protocol can be confirmed only within current file.

Q.10 Can we define property in extension?
A10. Swift doesn’t support stored properties inside the extension. Computed property is allowed in extension.

Q.11 Can we define property in protocol?
A.11 Property in protocol must have explicit { get } or { get set } specifier. 

protocol VoiceAssistant {
        var s : String // Not allowed
        var name: String {get} // Allowed
        var voice: String {get set} // Allowed

    }

Q.12 Can we declare same name property in protocol and its extension with different datatype?
A.12 Yes. Extension declared property must have valid getter method.

protocol VoiceAssistant {
   
    var name: String {get}
    var voice: String {get set}
}

extension VoiceAssistant {
    var name: Int {get { return 5}}

}

Q.13 Can we define body in method in protocol? How?
A.13 Yes.

protocol VoiceAssistant {
    func makeMessage()
}

extension VoiceAssistant {
    func makeMessage() {
        print("Default make message method")
    }

}


What is delegate?

Ans : Delegate is means of communication between objects of iOS Applications. Delegate allows one object to send message to another object when an event occurs.

i.e
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@”title” message:@”message” delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@”Ok” otherButtonTitle:nil];

Here delegate is self. So now self is responsible for handling  all event fired by this instance of UIAlertView class.

Which button of UIAlertView is clicked, for that, event is clickedButtonAtIndex is called in or by Self or currentViewController.

Create PreDefined delegate :

  1. There are two ViewController NameVC and SurNameVC.
  2.  In NameVC, there are 2 textfield named as Name and FullName and 1 button as Submit.
  3. If I write in name and click on submit, it went to SurNameVC to take Surname parameter.
  4. On SurNameVC, after write Surname, on clicking of Submit, It call delegate method and went back to NameVC and Print Full Name in FullName textfield.

Implement above delegate and protocol in Objective-C : 


I have made protocol on SurNameVC like
    @protocol SurNameVCDelegate
      -(void)setSurName:(NSString *) strSurName;
    @end
    
    @property (nonatomic, retain) id delegate;

Now on NameVC submit button click, choose delegate of  SurNameVC object as self.

   objSurNameVC.delegate = self

and create method -(void)setSurName:(NSString *) strSurName;

on NameVC and it is called from surNameVC submit button. So setSurName is delegate method. We can print fullname by concatenating Name and Surname in FullName textfield.

So we delegate just pass message from one view controller to another view controller by delegate method.

Implement delegate and protocol in Swift

I have made custom UISlider. I want to send some value from custom UISlider value changed to view controller in which it is used. So for that, I have used delegate - protocol method.

customSlider.swift  Custom Slider file


import UIKit
protocol SliderDelegate: class {
    func sliderValueChanged(_ sender : UISlider)
}


class mpgpsSlider: UIView {
     
      weak var delegateSliderDelegate?

      required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {

        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        
        let bundle = Bundle.init(for: type(of: self))
        let nib = UINib(nibName: "Slider", bundle: bundle)
        let view = nib.instantiate(withOwner: self, options: nil)[0] as! UIView
        view.frame = bounds
        view.autoresizingMask = [.flexibleWidth,.flexibleHeight]
        addSubview(view)
        
        slider.addTarget(self, action: #selector(sliderValueChanged(_:)), for:                  .valueChanged)
    }

     @objc func sliderValueChanged(_ sender : UISlider)  {
        delegate?.sliderValueChanged(sender)
      }

}

ViewController.swift ViewController in which custom slider is used.

import UIKit

class VehicleProfileVC: BaseViewController,SliderDelegate{
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        slider.delegate = self
    }
    
    func sliderValueChanged(_ sender: UISlider) {
        label.text = String(sender.value)
    }
}