---
title: "assign(to:)"
framework: combine
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Method
path: "combine/publisher/assign(to:)"
---

# assign(to:)

Republishes elements received from a publisher, by assigning them to a property marked as a publisher.

## Declaration

```swift
func assign(to published: inout Published<Self.Output>.Publisher)
```

## Parameters

- `published`: A property marked with the @Published attribute, which receives and republishes all elements received from the upstream publisher.

## Discussion

Discussion Use this operator when you want to receive elements from a publisher and republish them through a property marked with the @Published attribute. The assign(to:) operator manages the life cycle of the subscription, canceling the subscription automatically when the Published instance deinitializes. Because of this, the assign(to:) operator doesn’t return an AnyCancellable that you’re responsible for like assign(to:on:) does. The example below shows a model class that receives elements from an internal Timer.TimerPublisher, and assigns them to a @Published property called lastUpdated. Because the to parameter has the inout keyword, you need to use the & operator when calling this method. class MyModel: ObservableObject {     @Published var lastUpdated: Date = Date()     init() {          Timer.publish(every: 1.0, on: .main, in: .common)              .autoconnect()              .assign(to: &$lastUpdated)     } } If you instead implemented MyModel with assign(to: lastUpdated, on: self), storing the returned AnyCancellable instance could cause a reference cycle, because the Subscribers.Assign subscriber would hold a strong reference to self. Using assign(to:) solves this problem. While the to parameter uses the inout keyword, this method doesn’t replace a reference type passed to it. Instead, this notation indicates that the operator may modify members of the assigned object, as seen in the following example:     class MyModel2: ObservableObject {         @Published var id: Int = 0     }     let model2 = MyModel2()     Just(100).assign(to: &model2.$id)

## See Also

### Connecting simple subscribers

- [assign(to:on:)](combine/publisher/assign(to:on:).md)
- [sink(receiveCompletion:receiveValue:)](combine/publisher/sink(receivecompletion:receivevalue:).md)
- [sink(receiveValue:)](combine/publisher/sink(receivevalue:).md)