Learn how to identify objects when using SwiftUI's List and ForEach

When we use List or ForEach to create dynamic views, SwiftUI needs to know how to identify them. If an object conforms to the Identifiable protocol, SwiftUI will automatically use its id property for identifying.

struct Recipe: Identifiable {
    let id = UUID()
    let title: String
}

ForEach(recipes) {
    RecipeView($0)
}

But what happens if we for example use ForEach on an array of existing types like strings?

Since a String does not conform to the Identifiable protocol, we need to add the id as the second parameter.

let texts = ["a", "b", "c"]
ForEach(texts, id: \.self) {
    Text($0)
}

By using \.self, we tell SwiftUI to use the whole object as the identifier. In our case, it tells SwiftUI that each String value in the array is unique and can be used for identifying.

In the last approach, it is important to make sure that the values in the array are unique, since otherwise ForEach might incorrectly reuse the resulting views.