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swift-mirror/userdocs/diagnostics/mutable-global-variable.md
2025-03-03 21:22:33 -08:00

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# Unsafe mutable global and static variables
Concurrency checking prohibits mutable global and static variables that are `nonisolated` because they can be accessed from arbitrary concurrency domains at once and lead to data races.
For example:
```swift
struct Constants {
static var value = 10
}
```
Building this code with complete concurrency checking will point out the unsafe static variable:
```
| struct Constants {
| static var value = 10
| |- error: static property 'value' is not concurrency-safe because it is nonisolated global shared mutable state
| |- note: convert 'value' to a 'let' constant to make 'Sendable' shared state immutable
| |- note: add '@MainActor' to make static property 'value' part of global actor 'MainActor'
| `- note: disable concurrency-safety checks if accesses are protected by an external synchronization mechanism
```
If the type of the variable conforms to `Sendable` and the value is never changed, a common fix is to change the `var` to a `let` to make the state immutable. Immutable state is safe to access concurrently!
If you carefully access the global variable in a way that cannot cause data races, such as by wrapping all accesses in an external synchronization mechanism like a lock or a dispatch queue, you can apply `nonisolated(unsafe)` to opt out of concurrency checking:
```swift
nonisolated(unsafe) static var value = 10
```
Now consider a static variable with a type that does not conform to `Sendable`:
```swift
class MyModel {
static let shared = MyModel()
// mutable state
}
```
This code is also diagnosed under complete concurrency checking. Even though the `shared` variable is a `let` constant, the `MyModel` type is not `Sendable`, so it could have mutable stored properties. A common fix in this case is to isolate the variable to the main actor:
```swift
class MyModel {
@MainActor
static let shared = MyModel()
}
```
Alternatively, isolate the `MyModel` class to the main actor, which will also make the type `Sendable` because the main actor protects access to all mutable state:
```swift
@MainActor
class MyModel {
static let shared = MyModel()
}
```