FIREBASE Database - Storing Unique Key to child node(Swift/IOS)

Question

I am attempting to store the generated Unique Key when childByAutoId is called. In theory it would help map updates or changes on a specified child that need to happen later on in my app.

I am fairly new to Firebase's hierarchical database and if the approach described below isn't correct please do not hesitate to give an alternative.

I'm fairly new to Firebase and have a multiplayer app, where my structure currently looks like the following:

"HTGames" : {

"-KFGX5H3rLSnpPvupakm" : {
  {
    "Red" : 1,
    "Green" : 3,
    "Blue" : 2,
    "GameLimit" : 1,
    "P1Name" : 3,
    "P2Name" : 2,
    "P3Name" : 1,
    "P1Points" : 3,
    "P2Points" : 2,
    "P3Points": 3,
    "numberOfPlayers" : 1.
    "gameStart": true
  }
},
   "-X5Hhgljh3rLSnpPvum" : {
  {
    "Red" : 1,
    "Green" : 3,
    "Blue" : 2,
    "GameLimit" : 1,
    "P1Name" : 3,
    "P2Name" : 2,
    "P3Name" : 1,
    "P1Points" : 3,
    "P2Points" : 2,
    "P3Points": 3,
    "numberOfPlayers" : 1.
    "gameStart": true
  }}}
}

Swift method call below...

func startNewGame(){
//Database reference object
    let databaseRef = FIRDatabase.database().reference()

    let gameTable : [String : AnyObject] = ["Green": "", "Red": "", "Blue": "", "GameTypePoint": "","P1Name": "",  "P2Name": "", "P3Name": "", "P1Points": "","P2Points": "", "P3Points": "","NumOfPlayers": "","GameStart": ""]

//Auto generates unique ID and creates child under "HTGame" parent
    databaseRef.child("HTGame").childByAutoId().setValue(gameTable)

//**********I would like to store key locally here*********//
    //let key =
}

Answer 1

You can grab the key from the new child, if you keep a reference to it:

let newRef = databaseRef.child("HTGame").childByAutoId()
newRef.setValue(gameTable)

let key = newRef.key

More on this in the saving data guide: https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/ios/save-data#append_to_a_list_of_data