Why an ObservedObject array is not updated in my SwiftUI application?

Question

I'm playing with SwitUI, trying to understand how ObservableObject works. I have an array of Person objects. When I add a new Person into the array, it is reloaded in my View. However, if I change the value of an existing Person, it is not reloaded in the View

//  NamesClass.swift
import Foundation
import SwiftUI
import Combine

class Person: ObservableObject,Identifiable{
    var id: Int
    @Published var name: String

    init(id: Int, name: String){
        self.id = id
        self.name = name
    }

}

class People: ObservableObject{
    @Published var people: [Person]

    init(){
        self.people = [
            Person(id: 1, name:"Javier"),
            Person(id: 2, name:"Juan"),
            Person(id: 3, name:"Pedro"),
            Person(id: 4, name:"Luis")]
    }

}

struct ContentView: View {
    @ObservedObject var mypeople: People

    var body: some View {
        VStack{
            ForEach(mypeople.people){ person in
                Text("(person.name)")
            }
            Button(action: {
                self.mypeople.people[0].name="Jaime"
                //self.mypeople.people.append(Person(id: 5, name: "John"))
            }) {
                Text("Add/Change name")
            }
        }
    }
}

If I uncomment the line to add a new Person (John), the name of Jaime is shown properly. However if I just change the name, this is not shown in the View.

I'm afraid I'm doing something wrong or maybe I don't get how the ObservedObjects work with Arrays.

Any help or explanation is welcome!

Answer 1

You can use a struct instead of a class. Because of a struct's value semantics, a change to a person's name is seen as a change to Person struct itself, and this change is also a change to the people array so @Published will send the notification and the View body will be recomputed.

import Foundation
import SwiftUI
import Combine

struct Person: Identifiable{
    var id: Int
    var name: String

    init(id: Int, name: String){
        self.id = id
        self.name = name
    }

}

class Model: ObservableObject{
    @Published var people: [Person]

    init(){
        self.people = [
            Person(id: 1, name:"Javier"),
            Person(id: 2, name:"Juan"),
            Person(id: 3, name:"Pedro"),
            Person(id: 4, name:"Luis")]
    }

}

struct ContentView: View {
    @StateObject var model = Model()

    var body: some View {
        VStack{
            ForEach(model.people){ person in
                Text("(person.name)")
            }
            Button(action: {
                self.mypeople.people[0].name="Jaime"
            }) {
                Text("Add/Change name")
            }
        }
    }
}

Alternatively (and not recommended), Person is a class, so it is a reference type. When it changes, the People array remains unchanged and so nothing is emitted by the subject. However, you can manually call it, to let it know:

Button(action: {
    self.mypeople.objectWillChange.send()
    self.mypeople.people[0].name="Jaime"    
}) {
    Text("Add/Change name")
}