1

The Swift book on ARC says:

This strong reference cycle occurs because closures, like classes, are reference types . When you assign a closure to a property, you are assigning a reference to that closure.

I would have expected the last sentence to end with “to that property” instead of “closure”.

Why is it that, when I assign a closure to a property, I’m also assigning a reference to that closure? What reference is being assigned to that closure?

2

The Swift book on ARC says:

… When you assign a closure to a property, you are assigning a reference to that closure.

I think a longer version of that sentence would say:

When you assign a closure to a property, you are assigning a reference to that closure to the property.

So your intuition is correct. No reference is being assigned to the closure. A reference to the closure is being assigned to the property.

4 Likes
3

I think you’re being confused by an ambiguous use of “to that”. An English language confusion rather than a Swift one.

Maybe this would be clearer: “When you assign a closure to a property, the property’s value is set to a reference to the closure.”

10 Likes
4

Thanks for clarification!