正如许多人已经指出复制结构体和类的区别一样，这可以从它们在c语言中的来源来理解，像这样的结构体

struct A {
    let a: Int
    let c: Bool
}

在func父对象或结构体的局部内存中，它将是这样的

64bit for int
8 bytes for bool

现在

class A {
    let a: Int
    let c: Bool
}

而不是存储在本地内存或结构或类中的数据内容，它将是一个单一指针

64bit address of class A instance

当你复制这两个时，很容易看出为什么会有区别，复制第一个，你复制了64位的int和8位的bool，复制第二个，你复制了64位的地址到A类的实例，你可以有同一个内存地址的多个副本，都指向同一个实例，但结构体的每个副本都将是它自己的副本。

现在事情变得复杂了因为你可以把这两个混合起来

struct A {
    let a: ClassA
    let c: Bool
}

你的记忆会是这样的

64bit address of class A instance
8 bytes for bool

This is a problem because even though you have multiple copies of the struct in your program, they all have a copy to the same object ClassA, this means just like multiples reference to instance ClassA you pass around have to have a reference count kept of how many reference to the object exists to know when to delete them, you program can have multiple references to struct A that need to keep a reference count to their ClassA instances, this can be time consuming if your struct has a lot of classes in them, or the structs it contains has lots of classes in them, now when you copy your struct, the compiler has to generate code that goes through every single class instance referenced in your struct and substructs, and increment there reference count to keep track of how many references there are. This can make classes much faster to pass around as you just need to copy its single address, and it won't need to increase the reference count of any of its children because it want reduce the reference count of any child it contains until its own reference count reaches 0.

The thing gets even more complicated with some Apple struct types, that they actually have object types in them, the good thing about data that is reference to, is it can be stored in memory and be lengthened and contractor at will and they can be very large, unlike data stored on local stack, so types like String, Array, Set, Dictionary though they act like struct and will even make a duplicate of there internal data if you try to modify them so you don't change all occurrence, there data still has to be reference counted and so a struct containing a lots of these types can still be slow, because the internal data for each one has to be retained.

当然，传递结构类型可以减少大量错误的可能性，但它们也会降低程序的速度，这取决于所包含的类型。

下面是一个例子，它精确地显示了struct和class之间的区别。

在操场上写的代码的截图

struct Radio1{
    var name:String
    //    init(name:String) {
    //        self.name = name
    //    }
}

struct Car1{
    var radio:Radio1?
    var model:String

}

var i1 = Car1(radio: Radio1(name:"murphy"),model:"sedan")
var i2 = i1
//since car instance i1 is a struct and 
//this car has every member as struct ,
//all values are copied into i2

i2.radio?.name //murphy
i2.radio = Radio1(name: "alpha")
i2.radio?.name //alpha

i1.radio?.name //murphy

//since Radio1 was struct , 
//values were copied and thus
// changing name  of instance of Radio1 in i2 
//did not bring change in i1

class Radio2{
    var name:String
    init(name:String) {
        self.name = name
    }
}

struct Car2{
    var radio:Radio2?
    var model:String

}
var i3 = Car2(radio: Radio2(name:"murphy"),model:"sedan")
//var radioInstance = Radio2(name: "murphy")
//var i3 = Car2(radio: radioInstance,model:"sedan")

var i4 = i3
//since i3 is instance of struct
//everything is copied to i4 including reference of instance of Radio2
//because Radio2 is a class



i4.radio?.name //murphy
i4.radio?.name="alpha"
i4.radio?.name //alpha

i3.radio?.name //alpha

//since Radio2 was class, 
//reference was copied and 
//thus changing name of instance 
//of Radio2 in i4 did  bring change in i3 too


//i4.radio?.name
//i4.radio = Radio2(name: "alpha")
//i4.radio?.name
//
//i3.radio?.name

Usually (in most programming languages), objects are blocks of data that are stored on heap, and then a reference (normally a pointer) to these blocks, contains a name is using to access these blocks of data. This mechanism allows sharing objects in the heap by copying the value of their references (pointers). This is not the case of basic data types such as Integers, and that is because the memory needed to create a reference is almost the same as the object (in this case integer value). Thus, they will be passed as values not as a reference in the case of large objects.

Swift使用struct来提高String和Array对象的性能。

这是一本很好的读物

1.structure is value type.
   = > when we assign structure variable to other variable or pass as parameter to function, it creates separate/new copy => so that changes made on one variable does not  reflect on another.[We can say like **call by value** concept] 
Example :

    struct DemoStruct 
    { 
        var value: String 
        init(inValue: String) 
        { 
            self.value = inValue 
        } 
    } 


var aStruct = DemoStruct(inValue: "original") 
var bStruct = aStruct // aStruct and bStruct are two structs with the same value! but references to diff location`enter code here`
bStruct.value = "modified" 

print(aStruct.value) // "original" 
print(bStruct.value) // "modified"


2.class is reference type.
 = > when we assign structure variable to other variable or pass as parameter to function, it **does not** creates separate/new copy => so that changes made on one variable does not  reflect on another.[We can say like **call by reference** concept] 
Example:
class DemoClass 
{   
    var value: String 
    init(inValue: String) 
    {
        self.value = inValue 
    } 
} 

var aClass = DemoClass(inName: "original") 
var bClass = aClass // aClass and bClass now reference the same instance! 
bClass.value = "modified" 

print(aClass.value) // "modified" 
print(bClass.value) // "modified"

为了理解struct和class之间的区别，我们需要知道值类型和引用类型之间的主要区别。struct是值类型，这意味着对它们的每一次更改都只会修改该值，类是引用类型，引用类型中的每一次更改都将修改分配在内存或引用位置的值。例如:

让我们从一个类开始，这个类符合Equatable只是为了能够比较实例，我们创建了一个名为pointclassinstancea的实例和另一个名为pointClassInstanceB的实例，我们将类a分配给类B，现在断言说它们是相同的…

class PointClass: Equatable {
    var x: Double
    var y: Double

    init(x: Double, y: Double) {
        self.x = x
        self.y = y
    }

    static func == (lhs: PointClass, rhs: PointClass) -> Bool {
        return lhs.x == rhs.x && lhs.y == rhs.y
    }
}

var pointClassInstanceA = PointClass(x: 0, y: 0)
var pointClassInstanceB = pointClassInstanceA

assert(pointClassInstanceA==pointClassInstanceB) 

pointClassInstanceB.x = 10
print(pointClassInstanceA.x)
//this prints 10

好的，这里发生了什么为什么如果我们改变了pointclassinstanceb的x值它也改变了pointClassInstanceA的x值?这展示了引用类型是如何工作的，当我们将实例A赋值为实例B的值，然后我们修改其中一个的X，它会改变两个X，因为它们共享相同的引用，而改变的是该引用的值。

让我们用结构体做同样的事情

struct PointStruct: Equatable {
    var x: Double
    var y: Double

    init(x: Double, y: Double) {
        self.x = x
        self.y = y
    }

    static func == (lhs: PointStruct, rhs: PointStruct) -> Bool {
        return lhs.x == rhs.x && lhs.y == rhs.y
    }
}
var pointStructInstanceA = PointStruct(x: 0, y: 0)
var pointStructInstanceB = pointStructInstanceA

assert(pointStructInstanceA==pointStructInstanceB)
pointStructInstanceB.x = 100
print(pointStructInstanceA.x)
//this will print 0

我们的结构与我们的类基本相同，但现在你可以看到，当你打印pointStructInstanceA的x值时，它没有改变，这是因为值类型的工作方式不同，它们的一个实例上的每一个变化都是“独立的”，不会影响到另一个实例。

Swift建议使用更多的值类型，你可以看出他们的库是基于结构的，以避免引用类型带来的问题，比如无意中修改一个值等。结构是斯威夫特的发展方向。 希望能有所帮助。

如果你仔细看苹果手册，你会看到这部分: 结构和枚举是值类型

在本节中，你会看到:

“​let​ ​hd​ = ​Resolution​(​width​: ​1920​, ​height​: ​1080​) ​var​ ​cinema​ = ​hd This example declares a constant called hd and sets it to a Resolution instance initialized with the width and height of full HD video (1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high). It then declares a variable called cinema and sets it to the current value of hd. Because Resolution is a structure, a copy of the existing instance is made, and this new copy is assigned to cinema. Even though hd and cinema now have the same width and height, they are two completely different instances behind the scenes. Next, the width property of cinema is amended to be the width of the slightly-wider 2K standard used for digital cinema projection (2048 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high): ​cinema​.​width​ = ​2048 Checking the width property of cinema shows that it has indeed changed to be 2048: ​println​(​"cinema is now ​(​cinema​.​width​)​ pixels wide"​) ​// prints "cinema is now 2048 pixels wide However, the width property of the original hd instance still has the old value of 1920: println​(​"hd is still ​(​hd​.​width​)​ pixels wide"​) // prints "hd is still 1920 pixels wide” When cinema was given the current value of hd, the values stored in hd were copied into the new cinema instance. The end result is two completely separate instances, which just happened to contain the same numeric values. Because they are separate instances, setting the width of cinema to 2048 doesn’t affect the width stored in hd.” Excerpt From: Apple Inc. “The Swift Programming Language.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/jEUH0.l

这是结构体和类之间最大的区别。复制结构，引用类。