Mutual optional reference loop in Swift

Question

Consider the following use case:

In the model for some game, you have a class Player. Each Playerhas unowned let opponent: Playerwhich represents an adversary against which they play. They are always created in pairs, but Playeralways has opponent, because it is not optional. However, it is very difficult to model, since one player must be created before another, and the first player will not have an opponent until the second is created!

After some ugly hack, I came up with this solution:

class Player {
    private static let placeholder: Player = Player(opponent: .placeholder, name: "")

    private init(opponent: Player, name: String) {
        self.opponent = opponent
        self.name = name
    }

    unowned var opponent: Player
    let name: String

    class func getPair(named names: (String, String)) -> (Player, Player) {
        let p1 = Player(opponent: .placeholder, name: names.0)
        let p2 = Player(opponent: p1, name: names.1)
        p1.opponent = p2
        return (p1, p2)
    }
}

let pair = Player.getPair(named:("P1", "P2"))

print(pair.0.opponent.name)
print(pair.1.opponent.name)

. opponent . , opponent set, var, .

Swift :

class func getPair(named names: (String, String)) -> (Player, Player) {
    var p1 = Player(opponent: .placeholder, name: names.0 + "FAKE")
    let p2 = Player(opponent: p1, name: names.1)

    withUnsafeMutablePointer(to: &p1) {
        var trueP1 = Player(opponent: p2, name: names.0)
        $0.moveAssign(from: &trueP1, count: 1)
    }
    return (p1, p2)
}

segfault. , lldb , p1 :

(lldb) p p1
(Player2.Player) $R3 = 0x0000000101004390 {
  opponent = 0x0000000100702940 {
    opponent = <uninitialized>
    name = ""
  }
  name = "P1FAKE"
}

lldb :

(lldb) p p1
(Player2.Player) $R5 = 0x00000001010062d0 {
  opponent = 0x00000001010062a0 {
    opponent = 0x0000000101004390 {
      opponent = 0x0000000100702940 {
        opponent = <uninitialized>
        name = ""
      }
      name = "P1FAKE"
    }
    name = "P2"
  }
  name = "P1"
}

(lldb) p p2
(Player2.Player) $R4 = 0x00000001010062a0 {
  opponent = 0x0000000101004390 {
    opponent = 0x0000000100702940 {
      opponent = <uninitialized>
      name = ""
    }
    name = "P1FAKE"
  }
  name = "P2"
}

, p1 p2, p2 p1. , p1 !

:

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• , UnsafeMutablePointer .. Swift, ?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

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class Player: CustomStringConvertible {
    var name: String
    private(set) weak var opponent: Player!

    init(name: String) {
        self.name = name
    }

    class func getPair(named names: (String, String)) -> (Player, Player) {
        let p1 = Player(name: names.0)
        let p2 = Player(name: names.1)

        p1.opponent = p2
        p2.opponent = p1
        return (p1, p2)
    }

    var description: String {
        return self.name
    }
}

let (p1, p2) = Player.getPair(named: ("Player One", "Player Two"))
print(p1.opponent) // Player Two
print(p2.opponent) // Player One

setter , , :

let p3 = Player(name: "Player Three")
p1.opponent = p3 // Error: Cannot assign to property: 'opponent' setter is inaccessible

, getPair Player getPair, init private, opponent:

private init(name: String) {
    // ...
}

Answer 3

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, , - , (.. , Player, ). (Match) , opponent(for:Player) . opponent Player.

public class Match {

    public enum PlayerIndex {
        case first
        case second
    }

    private(set) var players:PlayerPair

    init(players:PlayerNamePair) {
        // match needs to be first set to nil because Match fields need setting before 'self' can be referenced.
        self.players = (Player(match: nil, name: players.A, index: .first),
                        Player(match: nil, name: players.A, index: .second))

        // then set the 'match' reference in the Player objects.
        self.players.A.match = self
        self.players.B.match = self
    }

    public func opponent(for player:Player) -> Player {
        switch (player.index) {
        case .first:
            return self.players.B

        case .second:
            return self.players.A
        }
    }

    /* Player modelled here as a nested type to a Match.
     * That just a personal preference, but incidental to the question posted. */

    typealias PlayerNamePair = (A:String, B:String)
    typealias PlayerPair = (A:Player, B:Player)

    public class Player {
        public let name:String

        fileprivate let index:PlayerIndex
        fileprivate weak var match:Match?

        /* This init method is only visible inside the file, and only called by Match initializer. */
        fileprivate init(match:Match?, name:String, index:PlayerIndex) {
            self.name = name
            self.match = match
            self.index = index
        }

        /* We dare implicitly unwrap here because Player initialization and lifecycle
        * is controlled by the containing Match.
        *
        * That is, Players only ever exists in context of an owning match,
        * therefore it OK to treat it as a bug which crashes reproducibly
        * if you query for the opponent for the first time only after the match (which we know to have been non-nil) has already been deallocated. */
        public lazy var opponent:Player = public lazy var opponent:Player = self.match!.opponent(for: self)
    }
}