ForEach - Index out of range? - swiftui

Question

Why running this code shows "Fatal error: Index out of range"?
import SwiftUI
struct MyData {
var numbers = [Int](repeating: 0, count: 5)
}
#main
struct TrySwiftApp: App {
#State var myData = MyData()
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ChildView(myData: myData)
.frame(width: 100, height: 100)
.onAppear {
myData.numbers.removeFirst() // change myData
}
}
}
}
struct ChildView: View {
let myData: MyData // a constant
var body: some View {
ForEach(myData.numbers.indices) {
Text("\(myData.numbers[$0])") // Thread 1: Fatal error: Index out of range
}
}
}
After checking other questions,
I know I can fix it by following ways
// fix 1: add id
ForEach(myData.numbers.indices, id: \.self) {
//...
}
or
// Edited:
//
// This is not a fix, see George's reply
//
// fix 2: make ChildView conforms to Equatable
struct ChildView: View, Equatable {
static func == (lhs: ChildView, rhs: ChildView) -> Bool {
rhs.myData.numbers == rhs.myData.numbers
}
...
My Questions:
How a constant value (defined by let) got out of sync?
What ForEach really did?

Answer 1

Let me give you a simple example to show you what happened:
struct ContentView: View {
#State private var lowerBound: Int = 0
var body: some View {
ForEach(lowerBound..<11) { index in
Text(String(describing: index))
}
Button("update") { lowerBound = 5 }.padding()
}
}
if you look at the upper code you would see that I am initializing a ForEach JUST with a Range like this: lowerBound..<11 which it means this 0..<11, when you do this you are telling SwiftUI, hey this is my range and it will not change! It is a constant Range! and SwiftUI says ok! if you are not going update upper or lower bound you can use ForEach without showing or given id! But if you see my code again! I am updating lowerBound of ForEach and with this action I am breaking my agreement about constant Range! So SwiftUI comes and tell us if you are going update my ForEach range in count or any thing then you have to use an id then you can update the given range! And the reason is because if we have 2 same item with same value, SwiftUI would have issue to know which one you say! with using an id we are solving the identification issue for SwiftUI! About id you can use it like this: id:\.self or like this id:\.customID if your struct conform to Hash-able protocol, or in last case you can stop using id if you confrom your struct to identifiable protocol! then ForEach would magically sink itself with that.
Now see the edited code, it will build and run because we solved the issue of identification:
struct ContentView: View {
#State private var lowerBound: Int = 0
var body: some View {
ForEach(lowerBound..<11, id:\.self) { index in
Text(String(describing: index))
}
Button("update") { lowerBound = 5 }.padding()
}
}

Answer 2

Things go wrong when you do myData.numbers.removeFirst(), because now myData.numbers.indices has changed and so the range in the ForEach showing Text causes problems.
You should see the following warning (at least I do in Xcode 13b5) hinting this could cause issues:
Non-constant range: not an integer range
The reason it is not constant is because MyData's numbers property is a var, not let, meaning it can change / not constant - and you do change this. However the warning only shows because you aren't directly using a range literal in the ForEach initializer, so it assumes it's not constant because it doesn't know.
As you say, you have some fixes. Solution 1 where you provide id: \.self works because now it uses a different initializer. Definition for the initializer you are using:
#available(iOS 13.0, macOS 10.15, tvOS 13.0, watchOS 6.0, *)
extension ForEach where Data == Range<Int>, ID == Int, Content : View {
/// Creates an instance that computes views on demand over a given constant
/// range.
///
/// The instance only reads the initial value of the provided `data` and
/// doesn't need to identify views across updates. To compute views on
/// demand over a dynamic range, use ``ForEach/init(_:id:content:)``.
///
/// - Parameters:
/// - data: A constant range.
/// - content: The view builder that creates views dynamically.
public init(_ data: Range<Int>, #ViewBuilder content: #escaping (Int) -> Content)
}
Stating:
The instance only reads the initial value of the provided data and doesn't need to identify views across updates. To compute views on demand over a dynamic range, use ForEach/init(_:id:content:).
So that's why your solution 1 worked. You switched to the initializer which didn't assume the data was constant and would never change.
Your solution 2 isn't really a "solution". It just doesn't update the view at all, because myData.numbers changes so early that it is always equal, so the view never updates. You can see the view still has 5 lines of Text, rather than 4.
If you still have issues with accessing the elements in this ForEach and get out-of-bounds errors, this answer may help.