We’ve done a lot with structures in the previous exercises: we’ve created a structure, created instances, added properties and methods, and so on. So take a moment to think about what we’ve accomplished: we’ve created a code model of a real-world object! We also created a new data type in our program in Swift as a result of this!
Let’s go over our previous example again:
struct Car {
var name = "";
var speed = 0 ;
};
var racingCar = Car() ;
We can use Swift’s built-in type(of:)
function to determine the type of racingCar
:
type(of: racingCar) ; // Car
RacingCar
is, in fact, a Car
type. Remember that we can also give our variables an explicit type. Let’s pretend we have a second car called hatchbackCar
:
var hatchbackCar = Car() ;
It’s important to note that the type of hatchbackCar
can be specified as Car
. This means that we can use structures within structures as property values as well:
struct Vehicle {
var newCar: Car ;
var newBus: Bus ;
};
Another structure, Vehicle
, was created above to assist us in keeping track of our new vehicles. We typed Car
for the newCar
property. We also added the newBus
property for when we create a Bus
structure. With the ability to create new types, we can model more complex real-world objects!
Here are some useful tools to help you along your journey!
Setting up an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) can be difficult for beginners. The Online Compiler will enable you to run your code inside your browser without the need to install an IDE. If you need a more detailed explanation of a specific topic, the best place to find answers is in the Official Documentation.