Cannot assign to property: 'self' is immutable swift error

Question

Inside my app I created a Protocol called "Positions" and extended the UIView class to conform to this protocol in order to add some properties to the UIView class. I used the code below.

import Foundation
import UIKit

protocol Positions {
    var initialPositions: [CGRect] {get set}
    var finalPositions: [CGRect] {get set}
    var positionsAreDefined: Bool {get}
}

public enum PositionsType {
    case initial
}

private var initialPositionKey: UInt = 0
private var finalPositionKey: UInt = 0

extension Positions {
    var initialPositions: [CGRect] {
        get {
            if objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &initialPositionKey) != nil {
                return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &initialPositionKey) as! [CGRect]
            } else {
                return [] as! [CGRect]
            }

        }
        set {
            objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &initialPositionKey, newValue, .OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
        }
    }

    var finalPositions: [CGRect] {
        get {
            if objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &finalPositionKey) != nil {
                return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &finalPositionKey) as! [CGRect]
            } else {
                return [] as! [CGRect]
            }
        }

        set {
            objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &finalPositionKey, newValue, .OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC)
        }
    }

    var positionsAreDefined: Bool {
        get {return initialPositions.count != 0 && finalPositions.count != 0 && initialPositions.count == finalPositions.count}
    }

    var positionsCount: Int {
        get {return initialPositions.count}
    }
}

extension UIView: Positions {}

Well, today I tried to extend the UIView class with a new method that changes the added-by-me properties but the compiler gave me this error on the line where I tried to modify the properties value:

Cannot assign to property: 'self' is immutable

Here's the method:

public func horizontallyInContainer(withShift shift: CGFloat, forExpansionNumber index: Int, forPositionType type: PositionsType) {
    if self.positionsAreDefined && self.superview != nil {
        if type == .initial {

            var newPositions = self.initialPositions
            newPositions[index].origin.x = self.superview!.bounds.width * 0.5 - self.bounds.width + shift
            self.initialPositions = newPositions //Here happens the error

        } else {

            var newPositions = self.finalPositions
            newPositions[index].origin.x = self.superview!.bounds.width * 0.5 - self.bounds.width + shift
            self.finalPositions = newPositions //Also here happens

        }
    }
}

Can anyone explain me the nature of that error?

Answer 1

Make the protocol become reference type

protocol Positions: AnyObject {