Swift: Changing value of global variable via function. - arrays

Question

I'm trying to change the value of a global variable transferredData in the function didTransferData(_ data: Data?). My code looks like this:
var transferredData: [Double] = [0.0]
func didTransferData(_ data: Data?) {
var dataArray = [CUnsignedChar](repeating:0, count: (data?.count)!)
data?.copyBytes(to: &dataArray, count: dataArray.count)
let dataInt = dataArray.filter({ Int(String($0)) != nil }).map({ Int(String($0))! })
let dataDouble = dataInt.map { Double($0) }
print("Data double: \(dataDouble)")
transferredData = dataDouble
}
Printing transferredData inside of didTransferData returns the correct array, containing all values of dataDouble. But when I try to access it in this function later on
func returnData() -> [Double]{
print("return Data: \(transferredData)")
return transferredData
}
it returns [0.0]. I'm not sure if I'm missing something crucial here, but I thought that even if I change the value of a global variable in a function, the new value should be accessible for every other functions, too.
Thanks for any advice!!

Answer 1

You said that this code is inside a class. The variable transferredData is not a global, it is a member variable.
There is one of these per object of the class. I suspect that you are not using the same object to make these two calls.
You could make the member shared between all objects by declaring it static, but I think it would be better to leave as is and arrange to use the same object.
EDIT: based on comment
If you write the code
let centralInstance = CentralViewController()
You will get a new object with its own transferredData member initially set to [0.0]. You need to either
Get a reference to the same VC object that has the data
Store the data some where else in an object that you can get back (since the VC might be gone)
To hack something that works (not recommended, but to help understand)
You could move transferredData out of the class and make it an actual global variable. I would do this only to help you get past this issue and understand what's going on.
You could also make it static, which makes all of the VC's share the same instance of the transferredData
When you understand what is going on, you can try to do something a little better (at least move it to its own model object, and not in the VC at all). The next simplest thing is some kind of singleton to manage it -- this is just a glorified global variable but puts you more on the road to a more typical solution.

Answer 2

Where is the problem:
$ swift
Welcome to Apple Swift version 3.0.2 (swiftlang-800.0.63 clang-800.0.42.1). Type :help for assistance.
1> var data:[Double] = [0.0]
2.
3. class MuckWithData {
4.
5. func showData () -> [Double] {
6. print ("Data: \(data)")
7. return data
8. }
9.
10. func modifyData () {
11. data = [1.0]
12. }
13. }
data: [Double] = 1 value {
[0] = 0
}
14>
15> var mucked = MuckWithData()
mucked: MuckWithData = {}
16> mucked.showData()
Data: [0.0]
$R0: [Double] = 1 value {
[0] = 0
}
17> mucked.modifyData()
18> mucked.showData()
Data: [1.0]
$R1: [Double] = 1 value {
[0] = 1
}
Probably your computation for dataDouble is actually [0.0] and thus it appears that transferredData didn't change, but it did.