Here is some code of a simple SpriteKit game I am working on:
let square = SKShapeNode()
let square2 = SKShapeNode()
override func didMoveToView(view:SKView) {
var moveSquare: SKAction
moveSquare = SKAction.moveTo(CGPoint(x: someNumber, y:otherNumber), duration: NSTimeInterval(3))
square.runAction(SKAction.sequence([moveSquare1, SKAction.runBlock(checkIfSquareMatches(square)),SKAction.removeFromParent()]))
square2.runAction(SKAction.sequence([SKAction.waitForDuration(1.0),SKAction.runBlock(self.addChild(self.square2)) ,moveSquare, SKAction.removeFromParent()]))
}
func checkIfSquareMatches(shape:SKShapeNode) {...}
So I had two errors, one on the square.runAction line and the other on the square2.runAction line. The first says
"Cannot convert value of type '()' to expected argument type 'dispatch_block_t' (aka '#convention(block) () -> ()')"
The second says the same as above, except instead of "type '()'" it says
"type 'Void' (aka '()')"
which I believe is the same thing because of the "(aka '()')".
Why am I getting these errors and how can I fix them? I saw a slightly similar post on stackoverflow about the problem of running a function in a SKAction.runBlock() but the solution stated the problem was that you cannot return a value in the runBlock, but my function does not return any value; it only changes the values of some variables, so I don't see the problem. Thanks.
when you put snippets in the runBlock statement they need to be within curly braces {} unless they are a simple func call with no parameters
change it to
square.runAction(SKAction.sequence([moveSquare1, SKAction.runBlock( { self.checkIfSquareMatches(self.square) } ),SKAction.removeFromParent()]))
square2.runAction(SKAction.sequence([SKAction.waitForDuration(1.0),SKAction.runBlock( { self.addChild(self.square2 } )) ,moveSquare, SKAction.removeFromParent()]))
}
and the errors go away
Note you must reference variables using self. in runBlock calls
Related
I'm trying to convert height in feet with a decimal to height in feet and inches.
I'm trying to use the .round(.down) method to get the feet, and multiply the decimal by 12 for the inches. I'm getting all kinds of errors, like so:
var heightInFeet: Float = 5.45
let feetRounded = heightInFeet.round(.down) // feetRounded is "type ()." What is that?
percentToNextFoot = heightInFeet - feetRounded // Error: Binary operator '-' cannot be applied to operands of type 'Float' and '()'
I tried the following and got another error:
percentToNextFoot = heightInFeet - Float(feetRounded) // Cannot invoke initializer for type 'Float' with an argument list of type '(())'
I finally got it working by avoiding the .round() method, but I'm still really confused by the value type (). Can anyone explain what's going on here?:
var heightInFeet: Float = 5.45
var feet = Int(heightInFeet) // 5
var percentToNextFoot = heightInFeet - Float(feet) // 0.45
let heightInFeetAndInches = "\(feet)ft \(Int(percentToNextFoot * 12))in" // 5ft 5in
() is shorthand for void. It means "no value is possible here".
In this example, it means that the .round() method does not return anything - it is a mutating function called on its receiver. So assigning its void return to a var causes that var's type to be inferred to be void. Void vars can be useful, sometimes, rarely*, but not in this case.
Methods on value types often come in pairs: a verb like round, and a passive verb e.g. rounded. The first operates directly on, and modifies, its target; the second returns a modified version of its target. For another example, see sort() and sorted() on collections, or append(_) and appending(_) on strings, etc.
(* note: filter is an annoying exception; it means "filtered", and there is no handy "filter in place".)
To get the effect you were going for in the first example, rounded() is what you want.
--
(* To answer the tangential question in your title: how would one actually use a void variable? Well, here's a way I use them sometimes:
In an object with some setup that I would like to happen sometime after init, but guaranteed at most once per instance, I used to use Objective-C's dispatch_once. That's not available in Swift, so now I'll make a lazy void member like so:
class Foo {
lazy var setup: () = {
// do some complicated stuff I couldn't do in `init` for some reason
// this will only run once
}()
func doSomethingUseful() {
_ = setup // runs the setup initializer just the first time we get here
// do useful things that depend on setup having happened
}
}
I'll leave it to the comments to judge whether we're "meant to" use such a technique. :)
Welcome to stack overflow!
Double has two rounding methods:
Double.round(), which rounds a Double value by mutating it in-place. This is one you called. It doesn't return anything, which strictly speaking means it returns Void, a.k.a. (), the empty tuple.
Double.rounded(), which rounds a Double value by returning a new Double. This is the one you probably intended to call.
By calling the first, and trying to assign the value to a variable, you end up with a variable of type Void, whose value is ().
This is a common Swift convention: "object.foo" edits it in place. "object.fooed" returns a mutated copy.
That said, in your case, I would recommend doing this using the existing Measurement API:
import Foundation
extension Measurement where UnitType == UnitLength {
func toFeetAndInches() -> (feet: Measurement<UnitLength>, inches: Measurement<UnitLength>) {
let numberOfWholeFeet = self.converted(to: .feet).value.rounded(.towardZero)
return (
feet: Measurement(value: numberOfWholeFeet, unit: UnitLength.feet),
inches: Measurement(value: self.value - numberOfWholeFeet, unit: UnitLength.feet).converted(to: .inches)
)
}
}
let heightInFeet = Measurement(value: 5.5, unit: UnitLength.feet)
let (feet, inches) = heightInFeet.toFeetAndInches()
let mf = MeasurementFormatter()
mf.unitOptions = .providedUnit // force the use of feet/inches, rather than the unit appropriate for the user's locale.
mf.unitStyle = .medium
print(mf.string(for: feet)!, mf.string(for: inches)!) // => "5 ft. 6 in."
If you look at the reference for the round function of Float type, you will see that it returns nothing. It just mutate the float you called this method on.
You can do
var feetRounded = heightInFeet
feetRounded.round(.down)
Please take a look at the documentation. The method
mutating func round(_ rule: FloatingPointRoundingRule)
has no return value (aka Void aka ())
If you need a result you have to use rounded(_:) which has a return value
func rounded(_ rule: FloatingPointRoundingRule) -> Float
round changes the value in place; you use it like this:
var heightInFeet: Float = 5.45
heightInFeet.round(.down)
You notice that no value is returned; there is no = in the second line. We do not need to set anything to the result of the round call, because it has no result.
If, as in your code, you accidentally do capture the "result", it is expressed as type (). So () is the "result" type of a method call that has no result.
When we accidentally write this:
var heightInFeet: Float = 5.45
let x = heightInFeet.round(.down)
we get this error: "Constant 'x' inferred to have type '()', which may be unexpected." That is just a fancy way of saying, "You've taken a method call that has no result and captured its 'result'. You probably didn't mean to do that!" And indeed, you didn't.
I'm having an issue with evaluation of one line of code
if i break it down to two lines, it's working , but in one line of code, it's just evaluate in a 'new' to a 'wrong' way.
my main reason for asking this question, is not to solve it, I know I can use parenthesis to solve it, and break it to Two line, but don't want to solve it, I just want to know why its evaluated like this , and if there's a solution for this : some setting to patch , in Order THAT it will work in ONE LINE OF CODE :
Heres the code that working in Two lines
Heres the code that trying to do the same thing, but rise an error as you can see:
full code of both working and not working :
class ClosuresStack {
var dic = Dictionary<String,(()->String)->String >()
subscript(_ str:String)-> (()->String)->String {
get {
return dic[str]!
}
set {
dic[str] = newValue
}
}
}
func createClosuresStak() -> ClosuresStack {
let cs = ClosuresStack()
func takesAClosureReturnA_string(_ closure:()->String) ->String {
return closure() + " Two"
}
cs["C"] = takesAClosureReturnA_string
return cs
}
let c = createClosuresStak()["C"]
let str = c{"One"}
print(str) // print: One Two
let c = createClosuresStak()["C"]{"One"} // error -->
now, I want to somehow understand how to change it that it will work in ONE LINE OF CODE : meaning that the evaluation of 'createClosuresStak()["C"]{"One"}' will create a closure after ["C"] , and then from that point writing the {"One"}
will make it a full evaluate of the line :
let c = createClosuresStak()["C"]{"One"}
making 'c' a String
if that's not possible, I need to know it Too , tnx :)
UPDATE
tnx for the comments , its help me understand the problem more clearly :
1) im understanding that the createClosuresStak()["C"]{"One"}
acutely trying to add the string 'One' as another parameter to the sub script , and there for the error from the compiler was that is cannot subscript (String,()->String} , 'C' as the string inside the [] , and the other parameter {"One"} -> BUT , isn't that some kind of a bug?, been that i'm using [] ,Cleary the compiler need to 'understand' that I want to subscript a String, also by power of inferring that swift has,
2) now I'm still trying to get that syntax to work as it is so I try to change some things, in order to get it to work :
so I created a function that take a string, and return a dictionary of type : Dictionary<String,()->String>, and then trying so subscript it
and the compiler don't rise an error that way :
func closuresDictionary(_ s:String) -> Dictionary<String,()->String> {
var dic = Dictionary<String,()->String>()
func foo()->String {
return s + " Two"
}
dic["C"] = foo
return dic
}
let c = closuresDictionary("One")["C"]{ "SomeString" }
c is now a closure of type ()->String which does noting with string that I put inside, so the syntax works, but the outcome is not doing anything.
when im changing the return type of the dictionary to a different closure : (String)->String instead of ()->String , im getting the same old error, that I'm trying to subscript a (String,(String)->String)
and I need a function that will take the string inside the {} , and create something from it meaning that I need to subscript to return a closure of (String)->String
its seems like there's no way to do that
im adding two more pictures of my last trying in order to get this line of code in current syntax to work
the wanted syntax working but the outcome is not an outcome not doing any thing with the string inside the {}:
same error, by changing the function to (String)->String
Your example:
let c = createClosuresStak()["C"]{"One"}
is using trailing closure syntax.
Trailing closure syntax works by including the trailing closure as an additional parameter to a function call. Subscripting an array is really a function call under the hood (to a function called subscript), and Swift is trying to pass that closure as a second parameter to the subscripting call, which is what the error is explaining:
Cannot subscript a value of type 'ClosuresStack' with an argument of type '(String, () -> String)'.
In other words, you can't pass both "C" and the closure {"One"} to the subscripting function.
There are at least 3 ways to fix this and still put it on one line:
Option 1: Use an explicit call to pass the closure instead of using trailing closure syntax
Wrap the closure in () to make the call explicit:
let c1 = createClosuresStak()["C"]({"One"})
print(c1)
Option 2: Wrap the createClosureStak()["C"] in parentheses
That lets Swift know the subscripting only gets "C" as a parameter and allows trailing closure syntax to work as expected:
let c2 = (createClosuresStak()["C"]){"One"}
print(c2)
Option 3: Add .self to the result before the trailing closure syntax:
That again finishes the subscripting call and avoids the confusion.
let c3 = createClosuresStak()["C"].self {"One"}
print(c3)
Personally, I would choose option one, because trailing closure syntax is unnecessary syntactic sugar that clearly is not working here.
extension Array where Element : Double {
public var asArrayOfFloat: [Float] {
return self.map { return Float(other:$0) } // compiler error
}
}
I get a compiler error complaining about Float(other:$0) "Argument labels '(other:)' do not match any available overloads." But, $0 is a Double, and there is a Float.init(other:Double) initializer. What's the problem?
EDIT: Changing to Float($0) creates a different compilation error: "Ambiguous use of 'init'", and has 16 candidates.
EDIT: Float.init(other:Double) originally suggested by compiler, snapshot:
The issue was with where Element : Double ... This needs to be rewritten as where Element == Double (notice the use of == instead of :) because Double is not a protocol but a type. Now compilation works with Float($0) as suggested.
Get rid of the other: label. If there is an init override that uses that label (FWIW, I don't see one), then it's not a required label.
I will first explain what I'm trying to do and how I got to where I got stuck before getting to the question.
As a learning exercise for myself, I took some problems that I had already solved in Objective-C to see how I can solve them differently with Swift. The specific case that I got stuck on is a small piece that captures a value before and after it changes and interpolates between the two to create keyframes for an animation.
For this I had an object Capture with properties for the object, the key path and two id properties for the values before and after. Later, when interpolating the captured values I made sure that they could be interpolated by wrapping each of them in a Value class that used a class cluster to return an appropriate class depending on the type of value it wrapped, or nil for types that wasn't supported.
This works, and I am able to make it work in Swift as well following the same pattern, but it doesn't feel Swift like.
What worked
Instead of wrapping the captured values as a way of enabling interpolation, I created a Mixable protocol that the types could conform to and used a protocol extension for when the type supported the necessary basic arithmetic:
protocol SimpleArithmeticType {
func +(lhs: Self, right: Self) -> Self
func *(lhs: Self, amount: Double) -> Self
}
protocol Mixable {
func mix(with other: Self, by amount: Double) -> Self
}
extension Mixable where Self: SimpleArithmeticType {
func mix(with other: Self, by amount: Double) -> Self {
return self * (1.0 - amount) + other * amount
}
}
This part worked really well and enforced homogeneous mixing (that a type could only be mixed with its own type), which wasn't enforced in the Objective-C implementation.
Where I got stuck
The next logical step, and this is where I got stuck, seemed to be to make each Capture instance (now a struct) hold two variables of the same mixable type instead of two AnyObject. I also changed the initializer argument from being an object and a key path to being a closure that returns an object ()->T
struct Capture<T: Mixable> {
typealias Evaluation = () -> T
let eval: Evaluation
let before: T
var after: T {
return eval()
}
init(eval: Evaluation) {
self.eval = eval
self.before = eval()
}
}
This works when the type can be inferred, for example:
let captureInt = Capture {
return 3.0
}
// > Capture<Double>
but not with key value coding, which return AnyObject:\
let captureAnyObject = Capture {
return myObject.valueForKeyPath("opacity")!
}
error: cannot invoke initializer for type 'Capture' with an argument list of type '(() -> _)'
AnyObject does not conform to the Mixable protocol, so I can understand why this doesn't work. But I can check what type the object really is, and since I'm only covering a handful of mixable types, I though I could cover all the cases and return the correct type of Capture. Too see if this could even work I made an even simpler example
A simpler example
struct Foo<T> {
let x: T
init(eval: ()->T) {
x = eval()
}
}
which works when type inference is guaranteed:
let fooInt = Foo {
return 3
}
// > Foo<Int>
let fooDouble = Foo {
return 3.0
}
// > Foo<Double>
But not when the closure can return different types
let condition = true
let foo = Foo {
if condition {
return 3
} else {
return 3.0
}
}
error: cannot invoke initializer for type 'Foo' with an argument list of type '(() -> _)'
I'm not even able to define such a closure on its own.
let condition = true // as simple as it could be
let evaluation = {
if condition {
return 3
} else {
return 3.0
}
}
error: unable to infer closure type in the current context
My Question
Is this something that can be done at all? Can a condition be used to determine the type of a generic? Or is there another way to hold two variables of the same type, where the type was decided based on a condition?
Edit
What I really want is to:
capture the values before and after a change and save the pair (old + new) for later (a heterogeneous collection of homogeneous pairs).
go through all the collected values and get rid of the ones that can't be interpolated (unless this step could be integrated with the collection step)
interpolate each homogeneous pair individually (mixing old + new).
But it seems like this direction is a dead end when it comes to solving that problem. I'll have to take a couple of steps back and try a different approach (and probably ask a different question if I get stuck again).
As discussed on Twitter, the type must be known at compile time. Nevertheless, for the simple example at the end of the question you could just explicitly type
let evaluation: Foo<Double> = { ... }
and it would work.
So in the case of Capture and valueForKeyPath: IMHO you should cast (either safely or with a forced cast) the value to the Mixable type you expect the value to be and it should work fine. Afterall, I'm not sure valueForKeyPath: is supposed to return different types depending on a condition.
What is the exact case where you would like to return 2 totally different types (that can't be implicitly casted as in the simple case of Int and Double above) in the same evaluation closure?
in my full example I also have cases for CGPoint, CGSize, CGRect, CATransform3D
The limitations are just as you have stated, because of Swift's strict typing. All types must be definitely known at compile time, and each thing can be of only one type - even a generic (it is resolved by the way it is called at compile time). Thus, the only thing you can do is turn your type into into an umbrella type that is much more like Objective-C itself:
let condition = true
let evaluation = {
() -> NSObject in // *
if condition {
return 3
} else {
return NSValue(CGPoint:CGPointMake(0,1))
}
}
I'm using Swift to make a game in SpriteKit.
In Objective-C I could use the following method:
(void)enumerateChildNodesWithName:(NSString *)name usingBlock:(void (^)(SKNode *node, BOOL *stop))block
to perform actions on that *node, but I can't get this function working in Swift. Basically, I don't know how to reference that node in Swift.
This is the code I'm using, but I'm having trouble with the "usingBlock:" part. I've tried many things for many hours, but have not succeeded. Help please!
func spawnEnemy() -> () {
let enemy = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "enemy")
enemy.name = "enemy"
enemy.position = CGPointMake(100, 100)
self.addChild(enemy)
}
func checkCollisions() -> () {
self.enumerateChildNodesWithName("enemy", usingBlock: ((SKNode!, CMutablePointer<ObjCBool>) -> Void)?)
}
For now, don't trust autocomplete to insert the code you need — it drops in signatures from the "header", but a block signature is not the same as the declaration you need when inserting your own closure for a block parameter.
The formal way to write a closure would be to replicate the signature inside braces, adding local parameter names and using the in keyword to mark the start of the closure body:
self.enumerateChildNodesWithName("enemy", usingBlock: {
(node: SKNode!, stop: UnsafeMutablePointer <ObjCBool>) -> Void in
// do something with node or stop
})
But Swift's type inference means you don't have to write that much. Instead, you can just name the parameters, because their type (as well as the closure's return type) is known:
self.enumerateChildNodesWithName("enemy", usingBlock: {
node, stop in
// do something with node or stop
})
You can also use trailing closure syntax:
self.enumerateChildNodesWithName("enemy") {
node, stop in
// do something with node or stop
}
(You can even drop the local parameter names and refer to parameters by position — e.g. $0 for node — but here isn't a great place to do that because it makes your code far less readable. It's best to reserve $0 and friends for closures where it's blindingly obvious what the parameters are, like the closures you use with map and sort.)
See Closures in The Swift Programming Language for further explanation.
Also, because stop is an UnsafeMutablePointer, the syntax for using it is a bit different than in ObjC: set stop.memory = true to break out of enumeration.