UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS: Learn advanced Swift and SwiftUI on Hacking with Swift+! >>

What does weak mean?

Swift version: 5.6

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

Unless you specific otherwise, all Swift properties are strong, which means they will not be removed from RAM until whatever owns them is removed from RAM. So, if you create an array in your view controller and you want it to stick around until the view controller is destroyed, that's what strong does.

Weak on the other hand is there when you want to say "I want to be able to reference this variable, but I don't mind if it goes away, so I don't want to own it." This might seem strange: after all, where's the point in having a reference to a variable that might not be there?

Well, the answer lies in a thing called reference cycles. If object A has a strong variable pointing at object B, and object B has a strong variable pointing at object A, neither object would ever be deleted because they both keep each other alive.

In this situation, having one of the objects change their property to be weak would solve the problem. For example, object A has a strong variable to object B, but object B has a weak variable pointing at object A. This guarantees that B cannot be destroyed while A still exists, but A can be destroyed because B doesn't have a strong variable owning it.

Hacking with Swift is sponsored by Essential Developer

SPONSORED Join a FREE crash course for mid/senior iOS devs who want to achieve an expert level of technical and practical skills – it’s the fast track to being a complete senior developer! Hurry up because it'll be available only until April 28th.

Click to save your free spot now

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

Available from iOS 7.0 – see Hacking with Swift tutorial 1

Similar solutions…

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.

BUY OUR BOOKS
Buy Pro Swift Buy Pro SwiftUI Buy Swift Design Patterns Buy Testing Swift Buy Hacking with iOS Buy Swift Coding Challenges Buy Swift on Sundays Volume One Buy Server-Side Swift Buy Advanced iOS Volume One Buy Advanced iOS Volume Two Buy Advanced iOS Volume Three Buy Hacking with watchOS Buy Hacking with tvOS Buy Hacking with macOS Buy Dive Into SpriteKit Buy Swift in Sixty Seconds Buy Objective-C for Swift Developers Buy Beyond Code

Was this page useful? Let us know!

Average rating: 4.3/5

 
Unknown user

You are not logged in

Log in or create account
 

Link copied to your pasteboard.