Working with Structures in Swift

In Swift, a structure is a user-defined data type that allows us to encapsulate related properties and behaviors together. Structures provide a way to create reusable pieces of code and can be used to represent real-world objects or concepts.

To define a structure in Swift, we use the struct keyword followed by the structure's name. Let's create a simple example of a Person structure:

struct Person {
    var name: String
    var age: Int
    var height: Double
}



In the above code snippet, we have defined a Person structure with three properties: name, age, and height. The properties represent the name, age, and height of a person.

We can create instances of the Person structure by using the initializer provided by Swift:


let john = Person(name: "John Doe", age: 30, height: 175.5)
let jane = Person(name: "Jane Smith", age: 25, height: 163.2)



Once we have created an instance of a structure, we can access its properties using dot notation:


print(john.name)    // Output: "John Doe"
print(jane.age)     // Output: 25



Structures can also have methods associated with them. These methods can be used to perform actions or calculations using the structure's properties. Let's add a method to our Person structure:


struct Person {
    var name: String
    var age: Int
    var height: Double
    
    func greet() {
        print("Hello, my name is \(name)!")
    }
}



Now, we can call the greet method on an instance of the Person structure:


john.greet()    // Output: "Hello, my name is John Doe!"
jane.greet()    // Output: "Hello, my name is Jane Smith!"



Structures in Swift are value types, which means they are copied when assigned to a new constant or variable, or when they are passed as a parameter to a function. This behavior is different from reference types, such as classes, which are passed by reference.

Summary: Structures in Swift allow us to define custom data types that encapsulate related properties and behaviors. They provide a way to create reusable code and represent real-world objects or concepts.