should a URL be stored as a string?

The context provided from the WWDC sessions does not directly address whether a URL should be stored as a string. However, it does provide some insights into how URLs are handled in Swift.

In the session Explore Swift performance, it is mentioned that the layout of a URL is not known statically and must be handled dynamically at runtime. This implies that URLs are complex types with potentially variable sizes, which might influence your decision on how to store them.

If you need to store a URL in a way that is efficient and easy to manage, you might consider the following:

1. Storing as a String: This is straightforward and can be useful if you need to serialize the URL or store it in a database. However, you lose the type safety and convenience methods provided by the URL type.

2. Storing as a URL: This keeps the type safety and allows you to use all the methods and properties of the URL class. However, it might require more complex handling in terms of memory allocation and layout, as discussed in the session.

For more detailed information on how Swift handles memory and layout for types like URL, you can refer to the chapter on Dynamically-sized types in the "Explore Swift performance" session.

Relevant Sessions

1. Explore Swift performance
2. Create a custom data store with SwiftData