ReferenceWritableKeyPath

In the previous example code, we always defined User struct instances. Which meant that the actual instance we instantiated also had to be mutable (var):

var firstUser = User(username: String)

firstUser[keyPath: \User.username] = \"Ok\"

If this had be a let firstUser, it would not have worked, because let instances are immutable. However, if our User is a class type, we could still mutate it just fine:

class User {

   var username: String = \"Nothing\"

}

let firstUser = User()

// This works

firstUser[keyPath: \User.username] = \"Something\"

in The example above, the username property can still be modified because User is a class. Swift distinguishes between keypaths for reference (class) types and value types. Keypaths to reference types are of the type ReferenceWritableKeyPath<Root, Value>.

It is important to note that ReferenceWritableKeyPaths are subclasses of WritableKeyPath, so any function that accepts a WritableKeyPath can also accept a ReferenceWritableKeyPath.

The next KeyPath we want to look at is the PartialKeyPath, however, before we do so, we'll have a detour and look at a short example to better understand the need for it and to see some of what we've seen so far in action.