Proper style in Swift: Guard Statement - swift

Question

I am getting my feet wet with Swift and I am wondering what proper style for guards is. Am I using the guard statement correctly? It feels a little clunky, but I prefer it to an if let statement. Or could this be simplified?
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
var tableView: UITableView?
...
required init() {
super.init(nibName:nil, bundle:nil)
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
setupUI()
}
// MARK: - User Interface
func setupUI() {
...
// tableView
tableView = UITableView()
guard let tableView = tableView else {
Log.msg("tableView could not be initialized")
return
}
tableView.delegate = self
tableView.dataSource = self
tableView.separatorInset = UIEdgeInsetsZero
tableView.layoutMargins = UIEdgeInsetsZero
tableView.accessibilityIdentifier = "tableView"
tableView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
self.view.addSubview(tableView)
...
}
}
Log is a custom logging class that has optimized console output.

Answer 1

Although I think this question should be moved to the codereview site, I'll mention this:
You are using the guard statement correctly from a syntactic point of view. It's a way to check something and return early if the condition isn't met. Your overall implementation needs a bit of refactoring though so you don't need the guard at all.
When creating a view controller, do this instead:
class ViewController: UIViewController {
private var tableView: UITableView!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView = {
let tableView = UITableView()
tableView.property = ...
return tableView
}()
view.addSubview(tableView)
// setup constraints on tableView...
}
}
By using an implicitly unwrapped optional for your tableView property you forego the need for a guard and testing the tableView for nil wherever you need to use it, but you also get the benefit of deferred initialization (in viewDidLoad()).