What is basic difference between guard statement and if...else statement? [duplicate] - swift

This question already has answers here:
Swift's guard keyword
(13 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
I am confused about when to use guard and when to use if...else.
Is guard is replacement or alternative for If statement ?
Main thing want to know what are the functional benefits of guard statement for Swift language?
Any help to clear this situation will be appreciated.

Using guard might not seem much different to using if, but with guard your intention is clearer: execution should not continue if your conditions are not met. Plus it has the advantage of being shorter and more readable, so guard is a real improvement, and I'm sure it will be adopted quickly.
There is one bonus to using guard that might make it even more useful to you: if you use it to unwrap any optionals, those unwrapped values stay around for you to use in the rest of your code block. For example:
guard let unwrappedName = userName else {
return
}
print("Your username is \(unwrappedName)")
This is in comparison to a straight if statement, where the unwrapped value would be available only inside the if block, like this:
if let unwrappedName = userName {
print("Your username is \(unwrappedName)")
} else {
return
}
// this won't work – unwrappedName doesn't exist here!
print("Your username is \(unwrappedName)")
https://www.hackingwithswift.com/swift2

Related

Swift Functional with Array and a Guard ... Possible?

Trying to make this common swift pattern more functional.
for object in objects.allObjects {
guard let _object = object as? SomeTypeOfObject else { continue }
_object.subObject(subObject, objectStateChanged: changedState)
}
I'd love to use something like "any" (instead of map) to get rid of the for loop - like in Kotlin - but that dose not seem to be possible in Swift.
Trying to figure out a way to include the guard in the functional representation of this block.
Feels like I'm missing something. Am I?
Thanks
A common functional pattern is to compactMap and then call the method with side-effect in a forEach. This eliminates the guard entirely:
objects.allObjects // Add `.lazy` if you don’t want to build the intermediary array
.compactMap { $0 as? SomeTypeOfObject }
.forEach { $0.subObject(subObject, objectStateChanged: changedState) }

Swift guard with self

I am doing the weak strong dance in swift this way:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(QOS_CLASS_DEFAULT, 0), { [weak self] in
guard let `self` = self else {
return
}
self.doSomething(1)
})
Before this, I was using strongSelf instead of `self`. On a website I've seen that I can use this character ` .
But what does this character do in Swift? Without this I cannot assign to self. Why does this work? Is it a good practice to use it?
A bit of an update (I will not refer here when to use it but rather how).
From Swift 4.2 the use should be like:
guard let self = self else { return }
Using ` is basically based on the compiler bug thus not advised.
For more information there is no better source than this. Explaining all reasoning behind and other considerations.
In short the above is more consistent with other cases seen in the code like:
if let myVariable = myVariable
So does not create confusion/discrepancies.
Swift Programming Language
Presents a note that says the following:
If you need to give a constant or variable the same name as a reserved
Swift keyword, surround the keyword with backticks (`) when using it
as a name. However, avoid using keywords as names unless you have
absolutely no choice.
EDIT:
The way I do this is using any other name for example strongSelf like you previously did. Because in the end, both `self` and strongSelf will be some variable to act upon. So I suggest if we can use some other variable name that is fine.

Using guard keyword

I have encountered numerous situations where a coder have used the guard keyword. And then later, in a seemingly almost identical situation the same coder in the same code does not use the guard keyword. I am aware that this may be a stupid question, so please don't bash it. When should I use the guard keyword and where shouldn't I?
Here is an example (there are many more). This is part of a script that is requesting data form an API.
//Here I am using guard
guard let json = json else {
//Now I am not using guard
if let error = error {
completion(.Failure(error))
} else {
//Error handling
}
return
}
Why not use the:
if let var1 = var1 {
//Keep on going
} else {
//Don't crash
}
syntax all the time instead of the guard syntax? At first glance it even seems to have more functionality, but I am certain that does not have to be the case.
One great benefit of the guard statement is that you know that if the condition is not satisfied then the execution flow gets stopped.
This is important for several reasons
Unwrapping
You can define unwrapped values which don't need a new scope { ... } to be available
func next(num:Int?) -> Int? {
guard let num = num else { return nil }
return num + 1
}
Readability
When you read the code you know that if the guard condition is not satisfied then the following lines won't be executed.
Semantics
You know a guard statement is there to check conditions required for the following block of code.
But I can replace every guard with an if
Sure. We could also replace every while and for with a goto in some languages. And we could always replace recursion with iteration (and viceversa).
But this doesn't necessarily means it is always a good idea.
Despite we can implement some behaviours with more then one programming "tool", we should still use the one that better fits that specific scenario.

Swift basic expression

I'm very new to swift, but proficient in other languages like Java, JavaScript, C, ... I'm lost with Swift syntax when it comes to create expressions. Look at this basic example where I just try to find out if one string is contained into another by calling String.rangeOfString that returns an Optional Range (Range?)
This works as expected:
let LEXEMA:String="http://"
let longUrl:String="http://badgirls.many/picture.png"
let range=longUrl.rangeOfString(LEXEMA);
if (range? != nil) {
// blah
}
Now I'm trying to combine the expression inside the if, something like:
if (longUrl.rangeOfString(LEXEMA)? !=nil) {
// blah
}
But I always get syntax errors, the above yields a "Expected Separator" and can't understand why. Done some more tests:
if (absolutePath.rangeOfString(URL_LEXEMA) !=nil) { }
Expected Separator before "!"
if absolutePath.rangeOfString(URL_LEXEMA) !=nil { }
Braced block of statements is an unused closure
What am I doing wrong?
If you’re coming from other like Java, you might be thinking of optionals like pointers/references, and so used to equating them to nil and if non-nil, using them. But this is probably going to lead to more confusion. Instead, think of them like a container for a possible result, that you need to unwrap to use. if let combines the test and unwrapping operation.
With this in mind, here’s how you could adapt your code:
let LEXEMA: String="http://"
let longUrl: String="http://badgirls.many/picture.png"
if let range = longUrl.rangeOfString(LEXEMA) {
// use range, which will be the unwrapped non-optional range
}
else {
// no such range, perhaps log an error if this shouldn’t happen
}
Note, that ? suffixing behaviour you were using changes in Swift 1.2 so even the code in your question that compiles in 1.1 won’t in 1.2.
It’s possible that sometimes you are whether there was a value returned, but you don’t actually need that value, just to know it wasn’t nil. In that case, you can compare the value to nil without the let:
if longUrl.rangeOfString(LEXEMA) != nil {
// there was a value, but you don't care what that value was
}
That said, the above is probably better expressed as:
if longUrl.hasPrefix(LEXEMA) { }
For starters:
You don't need parenthesis with if statements unless you have nested parenthetical subexpressions that require it.
You don't need to specify the type on the left side of the = of a let or var declaration if Swift can figure it out from the right side of the =. Very often Swift can figure it out, and you can tell that Swift can figure it out, so you can avoid that redundant clutter.
You do need to specify the type if Swift cannot figure out the type from
the right side. Example:
For example, consider the following lines:
let LEXEMA = "http://"
let longUrl = "http://badgirls.many/picture.png"
Swift can figure out that they're strings.
Similarly for this function or class that returns a UIView:
var myView = ViewReturningClassOrFunc()
Consider this:
#IBOutlet var myView : UIView!
In the above line, Swift cannot figure out ahead of time it will be assigned a UIView, so you have to provide the type. By providing a ! at the end you've made it an implicitly unwrapped optional. That means, like ?, you're indicating that it can be nil, but that you are confident it will never be nil at the time you access it, so Swift won't require you to put a ! after it when you reference it. That trick is a time saver and big convenience.
You should NOT add the ? to the line:
if (longUrl.rangeOfString(URL_LEXEMA) !=nil) {
As another answer pointed out, you're missing the let.
if let longUrl.rangeOfString(URL_LEXEMA) {
println("What do I win? :-)")
}
swift is case sensitive language. you need to check about whitespaces as well
if longUrl.rangeOfString(LEXEMA) != nil {
//your condition
}
there should be space between statement != nil
Just add a space between != and nil like:
if longUrl.rangeOfString(LEXEMA) != nil {
// blah
}
I tested your code in playground, an error of Expected ',' separator reported.
And do not forget the rules that 1s and 0s and Airspeed Velocity said.

Manual unwrapping vs. if let with Optionals [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:
Swift Optionals - Different ways of unwrapping
(1 answer)
Closed 8 years ago.
When dealing with an optional in Swift, there are two different ways to access the value behind the optional if it exists. You can do a manual check:
if someOptional != nil {
doSomethingWithValue(someOptional!)
}
else {
//handle nil...
}
or, you can use an if let block to unwrap the optional automatically:
if let unwrapped = someOptional {
doSomethingWithValue(unwrapped)
}
else {
//handle nil...
}
Is one of these options preferable to the other for any reason? Which, if either, is more idiomatic?
EDIT: In response to the close votes, I'm attempting to ask if there is a reason to use one over the other for any reason other than preference, whether it is for performance reasons, safety reasons, or something else.
I think you missed one line of code in your "manual check": Before checking
if someOptional != nil
you'd rather had to assign by something like:
someOptinal : <TypeOptional>? = anyFunctionThatProvidesAnOptional
And therefore this is my opinion: The second way (the so called "optional binding") combines that two lines in one line, so it is shorter and therefore better way.