DebugPrinter Intermezzo

Now that we have our writable KeyPath types, we'd like to introduce a type that allows us to define the logging behaviour of an object. We'd like to define which properties should be printed when our debug print function is called. It will be a very simple example.

We will actually start by looking at how we would invoke the code before we write it. This will make it easier to understand what is going on here. The class we will define is called DebugPrinter and it is used to dynamically change how to debug print and object at runtime.

Say, if you will, that you're working on a Presentation app (aka something like Keynote). You have one structure that represents the current state of a presentation.

class Presentation {

   class Slide {

     var name: String

     var number: Int

     var template: Template

     var backgroundColor: UIColor

     var content: String

     var leftImage: UIImage?

     var rightImage: UIImage?

   }

   var currentSlide: Slide

   var currentSlideIndex: Int

   var slides: [Slide]

   var title: String

   var startedPresenting: Date?

   var isAnimating: Bool

}

Now, you'd like to define at runtime which of the properties of this type to print. For example depending on whether a user is currently presenting or editing slides. This is, how we would do that:

let state = Presentation(...) // we need a presentation instance

let printer = DebugPrinter(\"State\", for: state)

printer.addLog(\Presentation.currentSlideIndex, prefix: \"Current\")

printer.addLog(\Presentation.isAnimating)

printer.addLog(\Presentation.currentSlide.name)

printer.addLog(\Presentation.currentSlide.leftImage)



printer.log()

So here, we first create a printer that holds a reference to our state (an instance of our Presentation). Next, we define which parts of the animation we want to print (including an optional prefix). Here, we want to print, for example, the current slide, whether we're currently animating, the name of the current slide and, finally, the optional image of the current slide.

So, how would we implement this DebugPrinter? here is the code.

/// Dynamically define a debug description for an object

class DebugPrinter<T> where T: AnyObject {

     /// 1

     var keyPaths: [(String?, KeyPath<T, String>)] = []

     let reference: T

     let prefix: String



     /// 2

     init(_ prefixString: String, for instance: T) {

         reference = instance

         prefix = prefixString

     }



     /// 3

     func addLog(_ path: KeyPath<T, String>, prefix: String? = nil) {

         keyPaths.append((prefix, path))

     }



     /// 4

     func log() {

         print(prefix, terminator: \": \")

         for entry in keyPaths {

           if let prefix = entry.0 { print(prefix, terminator: \"\") }

           print(reference[keyPath: entry.1], terminator: \", \")

         }

     }

}

So lets go through step by step. First, we're creating a new class that is generic over the type T so that we can store keypaths of type KeyPath<T, String> in our keyPaths array [1]. Each keypath is stored in a tuple with an optional prefix.

Then, we can initialize a DebugPrinter with a prefix String - which will be printed at the beginning of each future print invocation - and a reference to the actual instance we want to debug T [2].

The addLog function, then, inserts a new KeyPath into our keyPaths array (again, including the optional prefix) [3].

Finally, the log function, when called, iterates over all the keypaths and, for each of them, prints the contents of the KeyPath in our reference (including the prefix).

Before you move on, have a brief look at the implementation of the DebugPrinter and at the usage example. Would this actually work?

No, it actually doesn't. The problem is that our Presentation state has properties of various types: currentSlideIndex: Int, title: String, leftImage: UIImage?. However, our DebugPrinter only stores keypaths of the type KeyPath<T, String>. We could try to make the second parameter generic as well, but that still doesn't help, because it would be generic for the full instance of DebugPrinter, for example:

class DebugPrinter<Root, Value> {

   var keyPaths: [KeyPath<Root, Value>]

}

Here, our KeyPath still have to be of the same type. All Int, all String, etc. What we actually want is a keypath that doesn't care about the Value type! A KeyPath that just cares about the Root type (our reference). This is, what the PartialKeyPath is for. Lets have a look at it.