Method requirements

A protocol can require that the conforming types provide specific methods. These methods are defined within the protocol exactly as we define them within a class or structure, but without the curly brackets and method body. We can define that these methods are instance or type methods using the static keyword. Adding default values to the method's parameters is not allowed when defining the method within a protocol.

Let's add a method named getFullName() to the FullName protocol:

protocol FullName { 
  var firstName: String {get set}  
  var lastName: String {get set} 
 
  func getFullName() -> String 
} 

The fullName protocol now requires one method named getFullName() and two read-write properties named firstName and lastName.

For value types, such as the structure, if we intend for a method to modify the instances that it belongs to, we must prefix the method definition with the mutating keyword. This keyword indicates that the method is allowed to modify the instance it belongs to. The following example shows how to use the mutating keyword with a method definition:

mutating func changeName() 

If we mark a method requirement as mutating, we do not need to write the mutating keyword for that method when we adopt the protocol with a reference (class) type. The mutating keyword is only used with value (structures or enumerations) types.