I have a use case where I want to return reference from Swift Function just like we can do in C++.
This is How we do it in C++:
int & ReturnIntRef () noexcept
{
static int a = 4;
return a;
}
Do we have equivalent of this in Swift ?
Returning Reference from Swift Function
You seem to have a major concern with reference values. What is the main issue you have ?
As a general comment, you should avoid trying to replicate exactly C++ patterns into Swift. Some logics (notably about types, memory management…) are pretty different and it may be risky with dangerous side effects. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/752658/is-the-practice-of-returning-a-c-reference-variable-evil
In your example, what is the purpose of noexcept here ?
Are you sure it is correct ?
int & ReturnIntRef ()
It should be
int& ReturnIntRef ()
Similar pattern in Swift would not work, as the var a would be deleted when exiting the function, unless you use an escaping closure, but that may be overkill.
There are several ways to do what you want.
- A simple one, as I answered in another post is to call parameter as inout.
- you can also declare a class type that holds the parameter
- use pointers, at your own risks, as described in detail here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27539533/how-to-return-an-inout-reference-in-a-swift-function
Are you trying to implement a singleton?