SOLVED - Swift Enum - Casting Nested Enums to String Enum to allow .rawValue - swift

Question

SOLVED
Thank you #New Dev and #Joakim Danielson for your help. I used #Joakim Danielson's answer to improve my code.
I have an extension method to assign accessibilityIdentifiers to views based on a given String Enum. I updated the method to directly accept String Enum Cases as a parameter, thus COMPLETELY eliminating the need for the AccessibilityId enum class as shown below, awesome!
Changes
Before:
.accessibility(identifier: .home(.clickButton))
// Simplified for StackOverflow.
// Imagine 20 more cases..
enum AccessibilityId {
case home(HomeId)
var rawValue: String {
switch self {
case .home(let id):
return id.rawValue
}
}
}
extension View {
func accessibility(identifier: AccessibilityId) -> ModifiedContent<Self, AccessibilityAttachmentModifier> {
self.accessibility(identifier: identifier.rawValue)
}
}
After:
.accessibility(identifier: HomeId.clickButton)
extension View {
func accessibility<T: RawRepresentable>(identifier: T) -> ModifiedContent<Self, AccessibilityAttachmentModifier> where T.RawValue == String {
self.accessibility(identifier: identifier.rawValue)
}
}
---------------------------------------------------------------
Original Question
What I have
enum Item {
case animal(AnimalId)
case vehicle(VehicleId)
case food(FoodId)
var rawValue: String {
switch self {
case .animal(let id):
return id.rawValue
case .vehicle(let id):
return id.rawValue
case .food(let id):
return id.rawValue
}
}
}
enum AnimalId: String {
case cat
case dog
}
// etc.
// Imagine more cases and more enums.
What I want
enum Item {
case animal(AnimalId)
case vehicle(VehicleId)
case food(FoodId)
var rawValue: String {
switch self {
case self as StringEnum:
return id.rawValue
default:
return ""
}
}
}
Usage
func test() {
foo(.animal(.cat))
foo(.vehicle(.plane))
foo(.food(.tacos))
}
func foo(_ item: Item) {
print(item.rawValue)
}
I am happy with the usage, but I'd like to reduce the amount of duplicate cases in the given switch statement. Notice how they all have return id.rawValue. The above is just an example, in reality I have around 30 cases.
My Question
Is there a way for me to catch all Nested String Enums in a single switch or let case to reduce the duplicate code I have to write without losing the intended usage?
Thank you for your efforts, I hope to find an improvement for my code!

Answer 1

Here is a solution that is not based on Item being an enum but instead a generic struct
struct Item<T: RawRepresentable> where T.RawValue == String {
let thing: T
var rawValue: String {
thing.rawValue
}
}
With this solution you don't need to change your other enums.
Example
let item1 = Item(thing: AnimalId.cat)
let item2 = Item(thing: VehicleId.car)
print(item1.rawValue, item2.rawValue)
outputs
cat car

Answer 2

You need something common between all these associated values, like a conformance to a shared protocol, e.g. protocol RawStringValue:
protocol RawStringValue {
var rawValue: String { get }
}
// String enums already conform without any extra implementation
extension AnimalId: RawStringValue {}
extension VehicleId: RawStringValue {}
extension FoodId: RawStringValue {}
Then you could create a switch self inside like so:
var rawValue: String {
switch self {
case .animal (let id as RawStringValue),
.vehicle (let id as RawStringValue),
.food (let id as RawStringValue):
return id.rawValue
}
}
That being said, enum with associated values isn't the most convenient type to work with, so be sure that it's the right choice.