根据2015年非常流行的WWDC演讲，Swift中面向协议的编程(视频，文本)，Swift提供了许多特性，使得结构在很多情况下比类更好。

如果结构相对较小且可复制，则更可取，因为复制比类中对同一个实例有多个引用要安全得多。当将一个变量传递给多个类和/或多线程环境时，这一点尤其重要。如果你总是可以将变量的副本发送到其他地方，你就不必担心其他地方会改变你下面变量的值。

使用Structs，不太需要担心内存泄漏或多个线程竞相访问/修改变量的单个实例。(对于更有技术头脑的人来说，例外情况是在闭包内捕获结构时，因为它实际上是在捕获实例的引用，除非您显式地将其标记为要复制)。

类也可能变得臃肿，因为一个类只能继承一个超类。这鼓励我们创建巨大的超类，其中包含许多不同的能力，而这些能力之间只有松散的关联。使用协议，特别是使用可以为协议提供实现的协议扩展，允许您消除实现此类行为所需的类。

演讲列出了优先使用类的这些场景:

复制或比较实例没有意义(例如，Window) 实例生命周期与外部效果(例如，TemporaryFile)相关联。 实例只是“接收器”——只写外部状态的管道(例如cgcontext)

这意味着结构应该是默认的，而类应该是备用的。

另一方面，Swift编程语言文档有些矛盾:

Structure instances are always passed by value, and class instances are always passed by reference. This means that they are suited to different kinds of tasks. As you consider the data constructs and functionality that you need for a project, decide whether each data construct should be defined as a class or as a structure. As a general guideline, consider creating a structure when one or more of these conditions apply: The structure’s primary purpose is to encapsulate a few relatively simple data values. It is reasonable to expect that the encapsulated values will be copied rather than referenced when you assign or pass around an instance of that structure. Any properties stored by the structure are themselves value types, which would also be expected to be copied rather than referenced. The structure does not need to inherit properties or behavior from another existing type. Examples of good candidates for structures include: The size of a geometric shape, perhaps encapsulating a width property and a height property, both of type Double. A way to refer to ranges within a series, perhaps encapsulating a start property and a length property, both of type Int. A point in a 3D coordinate system, perhaps encapsulating x, y and z properties, each of type Double. In all other cases, define a class, and create instances of that class to be managed and passed by reference. In practice, this means that most custom data constructs should be classes, not structures.

在这里，它声称我们应该只在特定的情况下默认使用类和使用结构。最后，您需要了解值类型与引用类型的实际含义，然后才能就何时使用结构或类做出明智的决定。此外，请记住，这些概念一直在发展，Swift编程语言文档是在面向协议编程演讲之前编写的。

假设我们知道Struct是值类型，Class是引用类型。

如果你不知道值类型和引用类型是什么，那么看看按引用传递和按值传递之间的区别是什么?

根据mikeash的帖子:

... Let's look at some extreme, obvious examples first. Integers are obviously copyable. They should be value types. Network sockets can't be sensibly copied. They should be reference types. Points, as in x, y pairs, are copyable. They should be value types. A controller that represents a disk can't be sensibly copied. That should be a reference type. Some types can be copied but it may not be something you want to happen all the time. This suggests that they should be reference types. For example, a button on the screen can conceptually be copied. The copy will not be quite identical to the original. A click on the copy will not activate the original. The copy will not occupy the same location on the screen. If you pass the button around or put it into a new variable you'll probably want to refer to the original button, and you'd only want to make a copy when it's explicitly requested. That means that your button type should be a reference type. View and window controllers are a similar example. They might be copyable, conceivably, but it's almost never what you'd want to do. They should be reference types. What about model types? You might have a User type representing a user on your system, or a Crime type representing an action taken by a User. These are pretty copyable, so they should probably be value types. However, you probably want updates to a User's Crime made in one place in your program to be visible to other parts of the program. This suggests that your Users should be managed by some sort of user controller which would be a reference type. e.g struct User {} class UserController { var users: [User] func add(user: User) { ... } func remove(userNamed: String) { ... } func ... } Collections are an interesting case. These include things like arrays and dictionaries, as well as strings. Are they copyable? Obviously. Is copying something you want to happen easily and often? That's less clear. Most languages say "no" to this and make their collections reference types. This is true in Objective-C and Java and Python and JavaScript and almost every other language I can think of. (One major exception is C++ with STL collection types, but C++ is the raving lunatic of the language world which does everything strangely.) Swift said "yes," which means that types like Array and Dictionary and String are structs rather than classes. They get copied on assignment, and on passing them as parameters. This is an entirely sensible choice as long as the copy is cheap, which Swift tries very hard to accomplish. ...

我个人不会这样命名我的类。我通常将我的命名为UserManager而不是UserController，但想法是一样的

另外，当你必须重写一个函数的每个实例(即它们没有任何共享功能)时，不要使用类。

所以不是一个类的几个子类。使用几个符合协议的结构体。

使用结构体的另一种合理情况是，当你想对新旧模型进行delta/diff运算时。对于引用类型，你不能开箱即用。对于值类型，突变是不共享的。

对于类，您获得继承并通过引用传递，而结构则没有继承并通过值传递。

有很多关于Swift的WWDC会议，其中一个会议详细回答了这个问题。确保你看了这些，因为它会让你更快地跟上语言指南或iBook。

结构vs类

[堆栈vs堆] [值vs参考类型]

结构更可取。但是缺省情况下，Struct并不能解决所有问题。通常你会听说值类型是在堆栈上分配的，但这并不总是正确的。只有局部变量被分配到堆栈上

//simple blocks
struct ValueType {}
class ReferenceType {}

struct StructWithRef {
    let ref1 = ReferenceType()
}

class ClassWithRef {
    let ref1 = ReferenceType()
}

func foo() {
    
    //simple  blocks
    let valueType1 = ValueType()
    let refType1 = ReferenceType()
    
    //RetainCount
    //StructWithRef
    let structWithRef1 = StructWithRef()
    let structWithRef1Copy = structWithRef1
    
    print("original:", CFGetRetainCount(structWithRef1 as CFTypeRef)) //1
    print("ref1:", CFGetRetainCount(structWithRef1.ref1)) //2 (originally 3)
    
    //ClassWithRef
    let classWithRef1 = ClassWithRef()
    let classWithRef1Copy = classWithRef1
    
    print("original:", CFGetRetainCount(classWithRef1)) //2 (originally 3)
    print("ref1:", CFGetRetainCount(classWithRef1.ref1)) //1 (originally 2)
     
}

*你不应该使用/依赖retainCount，因为它没有提供有用的信息

检查堆栈或堆

在编译过程中SIL(Swift中间语言)可以优化你的代码

swiftc -emit-silgen -<optimization> <file_name>.swift
//e.g.
swiftc -emit-silgen -Onone file.swift

//emit-silgen -> emit-sil(is used in any case)
//-emit-silgen           Emit raw SIL file(s)
//-emit-sil              Emit canonical SIL file(s)
//optimization: O, Osize, Onone. It is the same as Swift Compiler - Code Generation -> Optimization Level

在那里你可以找到alloc_stack(在堆栈上的分配)和alloc_box(在堆上的分配)

(优化级别(SWIFT_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL)]

根据2015年非常流行的WWDC演讲，Swift中面向协议的编程(视频，文本)，Swift提供了许多特性，使得结构在很多情况下比类更好。

如果结构相对较小且可复制，则更可取，因为复制比类中对同一个实例有多个引用要安全得多。当将一个变量传递给多个类和/或多线程环境时，这一点尤其重要。如果你总是可以将变量的副本发送到其他地方，你就不必担心其他地方会改变你下面变量的值。

使用Structs，不太需要担心内存泄漏或多个线程竞相访问/修改变量的单个实例。(对于更有技术头脑的人来说，例外情况是在闭包内捕获结构时，因为它实际上是在捕获实例的引用，除非您显式地将其标记为要复制)。

类也可能变得臃肿，因为一个类只能继承一个超类。这鼓励我们创建巨大的超类，其中包含许多不同的能力，而这些能力之间只有松散的关联。使用协议，特别是使用可以为协议提供实现的协议扩展，允许您消除实现此类行为所需的类。

演讲列出了优先使用类的这些场景:

复制或比较实例没有意义(例如，Window) 实例生命周期与外部效果(例如，TemporaryFile)相关联。 实例只是“接收器”——只写外部状态的管道(例如cgcontext)

这意味着结构应该是默认的，而类应该是备用的。

另一方面，Swift编程语言文档有些矛盾:

Structure instances are always passed by value, and class instances are always passed by reference. This means that they are suited to different kinds of tasks. As you consider the data constructs and functionality that you need for a project, decide whether each data construct should be defined as a class or as a structure. As a general guideline, consider creating a structure when one or more of these conditions apply: The structure’s primary purpose is to encapsulate a few relatively simple data values. It is reasonable to expect that the encapsulated values will be copied rather than referenced when you assign or pass around an instance of that structure. Any properties stored by the structure are themselves value types, which would also be expected to be copied rather than referenced. The structure does not need to inherit properties or behavior from another existing type. Examples of good candidates for structures include: The size of a geometric shape, perhaps encapsulating a width property and a height property, both of type Double. A way to refer to ranges within a series, perhaps encapsulating a start property and a length property, both of type Int. A point in a 3D coordinate system, perhaps encapsulating x, y and z properties, each of type Double. In all other cases, define a class, and create instances of that class to be managed and passed by reference. In practice, this means that most custom data constructs should be classes, not structures.

在这里，它声称我们应该只在特定的情况下默认使用类和使用结构。最后，您需要了解值类型与引用类型的实际含义，然后才能就何时使用结构或类做出明智的决定。此外，请记住，这些概念一直在发展，Swift编程语言文档是在面向协议编程演讲之前编写的。

从值类型和引用类型的角度来回答这个问题，从苹果博客的这篇文章来看，它看起来非常简单:

使用值类型[例如struct, enum]: 用==比较实例数据是有意义的 你希望副本有独立的状态 这些数据将在代码中跨多个线程使用 在以下情况下使用引用类型[例如class]: 比较实例标识和===是有意义的 您希望创建共享的、可变的状态

正如在那篇文章中提到的，没有可写属性的类将与结构体的行为相同，但有一点需要注意:结构体最适合线程安全模型——这是现代应用程序架构中日益迫切的需求。