Conform to this protocol to easily deep copy reference types in Swift.

Imitable.swift

import Foundation

public protocol Imitable: Codable {
    var copy: Self? { get }
}

extension Imitable {
    public var copy: Self? {
        guard let data = try? JSONEncoder().encode(self) else { return nil }
        return try? JSONDecoder().decode(Self.self, from: data)
    }
}


final class Person: Imitable, CustomStringConvertible {
  var name: String
  var age: Int 
  
  // add any number of required properties
  
  init(name: String, age: Int) {
    self.name = name
    self.age = age
  }

  var description: String { "My name is \(name) and my age is \(age)" }
}

// MARK: Example usage
func testImitable() {
  var basith = Person(name: "Basith", age: 24)
  var aslam = basith.copy! // use "guard" or "if let" to be safe
  
  print(aslam)
  print(basith)
  
  aslam.name = "Aslam"
  basith.age = 25

  print(aslam) // only name is changed in this object
  print(basith) // only age is changed in this object
  // both objects refer to different memory locations
}

testImitable()