Make a public var without making its class and related functions public? - xcode

Question

I'm starting to learn Swift.
I've a viewController that has a var which needs updating from an outside viewController. So I added public to its declaration but my code won't compile because my class is internal (by default). So i make my class public but then it forces me to make all functions inside my class public including viewDidLoad, the tableView dataSource and delegate methods. What am i doing wrong? I don't want anyone else to call my controller's viewDidLoad.
All I wanted to viewControllerA to access a var inside viewControllerB without exposing every function inside viewControllerB to the outside world.
In ObjC, this can be achieved very easily by marking the property readonly in the headerfile and readwrite in the implementation. In this case, I would've the property in the header file so it's read-writable from outside.
here's some pseudo code
class MyViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
var myTitle: NSString?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
}
}
// objC part
MyViewController *myViewController = [[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MyViewController" bundle:nil];
myViewController.myTitle = #""; // not available
Now if i make myTitle a public var, i get this error
Declaring a public var for an internal class
So I make MyViewController a public class.
Now i get bunch of errors
Method 'tableView(_:numberOfRowsInSection:)' must be declared public
because it matches a requirement in public protocol
'UITableViewDataSource'

Answer 1

You could make a protocol to save and access data across view controllers. Here's one way to do it.
// Make a custom protocol delegate with a method to store the variable. In this case I'll store a boolean.
protocol storeViewControllerBVariableDelegate {
func storeVariable(data: Bool?)
}
// In your view controller A, assign your custom protocol delegate to it and add the new delegate method.
class viewControllerA: UIViewController, storeViewControllerBVariableDelegate {
func storeVariable(data: Bool?) {
self.variableName = data
}
}
// In your view controller A's prepare for segue, assign the stored variable to view controller B if you wanted to pass it forward and backward between view controllers.
override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: AnyObject?) {
let viewControllerB = segue.destinationViewController as! viewControllerB
viewControllerB.variableName = variableName
}
// In your view controller B, initialize a variable and assign it to the delegate.
class viewControllerB: UIViewController {
var variableName: Bool!
var delegate: storeViewControllerBVariableDelegate?
// However you want to save the variable in view controller B, you can do so in an IBAction, viewDidLoad, etc.
#IBAction func saveVariable(sender: UIButton) {
delegate?.storeVariable(self.variableName)
}
}

Answer 2

Here are two solutions that I can think of for passing variables between view controllers
Global Option
ViewController2.swift
import UIKit
var globalVariable = String()
class ViewController1: UIViewConroller {
}
ViewController2.swift
class ViewController2: UIViewController {
overload func viewDidLoad() {
globalVariable = "some string data"
}
}
you can now access that variable globally.
Segue Option
I think a better way to handle sending data back and forth between View Controllers is by using delegates and the prepareForSegue function which is covered in depth here.
You declare your prepareForSegue function like so:
View Controller 1
override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: AnyObject?) {
if(segue.identifier == "yourIdentifierInStoryboard") {
var yourNextViewController = (segue.destinationViewController as yourNextViewControllerClass)
yourNextViewController.value = yourValue
ViewController 2
class yourNextViewControllerClass {
var value:Int! // or whatever
The you can call it programmatically
self.performSegueWithIdentifier("yourIdentifierInStoryboard", sender: self)
If you want to set values back from your second View Controller, you can use a delegate Method, to respect the original author of this content I'll redirect you to his post:
Read the rest from the original post.