Associated objects still prove to be useful in Swift, but burdened with quite a lot of boilerplate. Fortunately it can be factored out to a helper class:
public final class ObjectAssociation<T: AnyObject> {
private let policy: objc_AssociationPolicy
/// - Parameter policy: An association policy that will be used when linking objects.
public init(policy: objc_AssociationPolicy = .OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC) {
self.policy = policy
}
/// Accesses associated object.
/// - Parameter index: An object whose associated object is to be accessed.
public subscript(index: AnyObject) -> T? {
get { return objc_getAssociatedObject(index, Unmanaged.passUnretained(self).toOpaque()) as! T? }
set { objc_setAssociatedObject(index, Unmanaged.passUnretained(self).toOpaque(), newValue, policy) }
}
}
In result we receive succinct and readable piece of code.
extension SomeType {
private static let association = ObjectAssociation<NSObject>()
var simulatedProperty: NSObject? {
get { return SomeType.association[self] }
set { SomeType.association[self] = newValue }
}
}