What is the syntax for a closure argument in swift - swift

In Swift headers, the isSeparator: argument accepts a closure
public func split(maxSplit: Int = default, allowEmptySlices: Bool = default, #noescape isSeparator: (Self.Generator.Element) throws -> Bool) rethrows -> [Self.SubSequence]
But in the documentation, it lists closure syntax differently
{ (parameters) -> return type in
statements
}
How are you supposed to know that (Self.Generator.Element) throws -> Bool rethrows refers to a closure / requires a closure? Are there other ways that the headers/docs might list argument as meaning a closure?

The "thing" giving away that this is a closure is the ->. The full type is
(Self.Generator.Element) throws -> Bool
It means that the closure takes a variable of type Self.Generator.Element and has to return a Bool upon some calculation based on the input. It may additionally throw some error while doing so - that is what the throws is for.
What you then write
{ (parameters) -> return type in
statements
}
would be an actual implementation, a value of some generic closure type.
The type of a closure is for example (someInt:Int, someDouble:Double) -> String:
var a : ((someInt:Int, someDouble:Double) -> String)
Once again the thing giving away that a is actually a closure is the -> in the type declaration.
Then you assign something to a via some code snippet following your second code block:
a = { (integer, floating) -> String in
return "\(integer) \(floating)"
}

You can tell by the argument's type. Everything in Swift has a type, including functions and closures.
For example, this function...
func add(a: Int, to b: Int) -> Int { return a + b }
...has type (Int, Int) -> Int. (It takes two Ints as parameters, and returns an Int.)
And this closure...
let identity: Int -> Int = { $0 }
...has type Int -> Int.
Every function and closure has a type, and in the type signature there is always a -> that separates the parameters from the return value. So anytime you see a parameter (like isSeparator) that has a -> in it, you know that the parameter expects a closure.

the isSeparator definition means (Self.Generator.Element) throws -> Bool that you will be given an Element and you should return a Bool. When you will call split, you then can do the following :
[1,2,3].split(…, isSeparator : { element -> Bool in
return false
})
This is a pure silly example but that illustrates the second part of your question

Related

Swift Generics: Cannot convert value of type to expected argument type

Here is my code:
protocol SomeProtocol {
}
class A: SomeProtocol {
}
func f1<T: SomeProtocol>(ofType: T.Type, listener: (T?) -> Void) {
}
func f2<T: SomeProtocol>(ofType: T.Type, listener: ([T]?) -> Void) {
}
func g() {
let l1: (SomeProtocol?) -> Void = ...
let l2: ([SomeProtocol]?) -> Void = ...
f1(ofType: A.self, listener: l1) // NO ERROR
f2(ofType: A.self, listener: l2) // COMPILE ERROR: Cannot convert value of type '([SomeProtocol]?) -> Void' to expected argument type '([_]?) -> Void'
}
What is the problem with the second closure having an argument of an array of generic type objects?
Swift 4.1 Update
This is a bug that was fixed in this pull request, which will make it into the release of Swift 4.1. Your code now compiles as expected in a 4.1 snapshot.
Pre Swift 4.1
This just looks like you're just stretching the compiler too far.
It can deal with conversions from arrays of sub-typed elements to arrays of super-typed elements, e.g [A] to [SomeProtocol] – this is covariance. It's worth noting that arrays have always been an edge case here, as arbitrary generics are invariant. Certain collections, such as Array, just get special treatment from the compiler allowing for covariance.
It can deal with conversions of functions with super-typed parameters to functions with sub-typed parameters, e.g (SomeProtocol) -> Void to (A) -> Void – this is contravariance.
However it appears that it currently cannot do both in one go (but really it should be able to; feel free to file a bug).
For what it's worth, this has nothing to do with generics, the following reproduces the same behaviour:
protocol SomeProtocol {}
class A : SomeProtocol {}
func f1(listener: (A) -> Void) {}
func f2(listener: ([A]) -> Void) {}
func f3(listener: () -> [SomeProtocol]) {}
func g() {
let l1: (SomeProtocol) -> Void = { _ in }
f1(listener: l1) // NO ERROR
let l2: ([SomeProtocol]) -> Void = { _ in }
f2(listener: l2)
// COMPILER ERROR: Cannot convert value of type '([SomeProtocol]) -> Void' to
// expected argument type '([A]) -> Void'
// it's the same story for function return types
let l3: () -> [A] = { [] }
f3(listener: l3)
// COMPILER ERROR: Cannot convert value of type '() -> [A]' to
// expected argument type '() -> [SomeProtocol]'
}
Until fixed, one solution in this case is to simply use a closure expression to act as a trampoline between the two function types:
// converting a ([SomeProtocol]) -> Void to a ([A]) -> Void.
// compiler infers closure expression to be of type ([A]) -> Void, and in the
// implementation, $0 gets implicitly converted from [A] to [SomeProtocol].
f2(listener: { l2($0) })
// converting a () -> [A] to a () -> [SomeProtocol].
// compiler infers closure expression to be of type () -> [SomeProtocol], and in the
// implementation, the result of l3 gets implicitly converted from [A] to [SomeProtocol]
f3(listener: { l3() })
And, applied to your code:
f2(ofType: A.self, listener: { l2($0) })
This works because the compiler infers the closure expression to be of type ([T]?) -> Void, which can be passed to f2. In the implementation of the closure, the compiler then performs an implicit conversion of $0 from [T]? to [SomeProtocol]?.
And, as Dominik is hinting at, this trampoline could also be done as an additional overload of f2:
func f2<T : SomeProtocol>(ofType type: T.Type, listener: ([SomeProtocol]?) -> Void) {
// pass a closure expression of type ([T]?) -> Void to the original f2, we then
// deal with the conversion from [T]? to [SomeProtocol]? in the closure.
// (and by "we", I mean the compiler, implicitly)
f2(ofType: type, listener: { (arr: [T]?) in listener(arr) })
}
Allowing you to once again call it as f2(ofType: A.self, listener: l2).
The listener closure in func f2<T: SomeProtocol>(ofType: T.Type, listener: ([T]?) -> Void) {...} requires its argument to be an array of T, where T is a type that implements SomeProtocol. By writing <T: SomeProtocol>, you are enforcing that all elements of that array are of the same type.
Say for example you have two classes: A and B. Both are completely distinct. Yet both implement SomeProtocol. In this case, the input array cannot be [A(), B()] because of the type constraint. The input array can either be [A(), A()] or [B(), B()].
But, when you define l2 as let l2: ([SomeProtocol]?) -> Void = ..., you allow the closure to accept an argument such as [A(), B()]. Hence this closure, and the closure you define in f2 are incompatible and the compiler cannot convert between the two.
Unfortunately, you cannot add type enforcement to a variable such as l2 as stated here. What you can do is if you know that l2 is going to work on arrays of class A, you could redefine it as follows:
let l2: ([A]?) -> Void = { ... }
Let me try and explain this with a simpler example. Let's say you write a generic function to find the greatest element in an array of comparables:
func greatest<T: Comparable>(array: [T]) -> T {
// return greatest element in the array
}
Now if you try calling that function like so:
let comparables: [Comparable] = [1, "hello"]
print(greatest(array: comparables))
The compiler will complain since there is no way to compare an Int and a String. What you must instead do is follows:
let comparables: [Int] = [1, 5, 2]
print(greatest(array: comparables))
Have nothing on Hamish's answer, he is 100% right. But if you wanna super simple solution without any explanation or code just work, when working with array of generics protocol, use this:
func f1<T: SomeProtocol>(ofType: T.Type, listener: (T?) -> Void) {
}
func f2<Z: SomeProtocol>(ofType: Z.Type, listener: ([SomeProtocol]?) -> Void) {
}

Why does use of closure shorthand-named variables has to be exhaustive in a singular return expression in Swift?

The following piece of code are erroneous in Swift.
func foo(closure: (Int, Int) -> Int) -> Int {
return closure(1, 2)
}
print(foo(closure: {$0}))
func foo(closure: (Int, Int) -> Int) -> Int {
return closure(1, 2)
}
print(foo(closure: {return $0}))
The error given by XCode playground is Cannot convert value of type '(Int, Int)' to closure result type 'Int'.
While the following pieces of code are completely fine.
func foo(closure: (Int, Int) -> Int) -> Int {
return closure(1, 2)
}
print(foo(closure: {$0 + $1}))
func foo(closure: (Int, Int) -> Int) -> Int {
return closure(1, 2)
}
print(foo(closure: {$1; return $0}))
func foo(closure: (Int, Int) -> Int) -> Int {
return closure(1, 2)
}
print(foo(closure: {a, b in a}))
It seems that in a situation where arguments to a closure are referred to by shorthand argument names, they must be used exhaustively if the the body of the closure only consists of the return expression. Why?
If you just use $0, the closure arguments are assumed to be a tuple instead of multiple variables $0, $1 etc. So you should be able to work around this by extracting the first value of that tuple:
print(foo(closure: {$0.0}))
Your "why" is like asking "why is an American football field 100 yards long?" It's because those are the rules. An anonymous function body that takes parameters must explicitly acknowledge all parameters. It can do this in any of three ways:
Represent them using $0, $1, ... notation.
Represent them using parameter names in an in line.
Explicitly discard them by using _ in an in line.
So, let's take a much simpler example than yours:
func f(_ ff:(Int)->(Void)) {}
As you can see, the function f takes one parameter, which is a function taking one parameter.
Well then, let's try handing some anonymous functions to f.
This is legal because we name the parameter in an in line:
f {
myParam in
}
And this is legal because we accept the parameter using $0 notation:
f {
$0
}
And this is legal because we explicitly throw away the parameter using _ in the in line:
f {
_ in
}
But this is not legal:
f {
1 // error: contextual type for closure argument list expects 1 argument,
// which cannot be implicitly ignored
}

Adding vars to a closure swift

hey I'm a little confused about block syntax. I currently have a function defined like so:
func presentRateAlert(ID: Int, didDismiss: (() -> Void)?)
Currently I do not have any parameters in the block, but I would like to include two. rating: Double? and message: String?. How would I include these?
In your function declaration, didDismiss is a closure. It's type is (() -> Void)?), which is an Optional closure that takes no parameters, and returns Void (no result.)
If you change it to (() -> (Double,String)?
Then your closure returns a Tuple which contains a Double and a String.
(In Swift a function can only return one result. Normally you make that result a Tuple when you want to return more than one thing.)
EDIT:
Based on your edits, it seems you want to add PARAMETERS to your closure, not a return value as you said originally.
An Optional closure that takes a Double and a String and does not return a value would be declared as ((Double, String) -> Void)?)
A function that takes such a closure might look like this:
func test(id: Int, closure: ((Double, String) -> Void)?) {
closure?(3.14, "pi")
}
And calling it might look like this:
test(id: 6, closure: {
(aDouble, aString) in
print("In closure, double = \(aDouble), string = \(aString)")
})

Parentheses in Function and Closure

I am bit confused on declaring parameter and return type in Swift.
does these parameter and return type have the same meaning? What is the use of those parentheses ()?
func myFunction() -> (()-> Int)
func myFunction() -> (Void-> Int)
func myFunction() -> Void-> Int
First... () and Void are the same thing you have two different ways of writing the same thing.
Second... The -> is right associative. So using parens as you have in your examples are meaningless, much like they are with an expression such as a + (b * c). That expression is identical to a + b * c.
Basically, the three examples in your question all define a function that takes no parameters and returns a closure that takes no parameters and returns an Int.
Some more examples to help:
func myFuncA() -> () -> Int -> String {
return { () -> Int -> String in return { (i: Int) -> String in String(i) } }
}
func myFuncB() -> () -> (Int -> String) {
return { () -> Int -> String in return { (i: Int) -> String in String(i) } }
}
func myFuncC() -> (() -> Int) -> String {
return { (f: () -> Int) in String(f()) }
}
In the above, myFuncA is identical to myFuncB, and they are both different than myFuncC.
myFuncA (and B) takes no parameters, and returns a closure. The closure it returns takes no parameters and returns another closure. This second closure takes an Int and returns a String.
myFuncC takes no parameters and returns a closure. The closure it returns takes a closure as a parameter and returns a String. The second closure takes no parameters and returns an Int.
Hopefully, writing it in Prose hasn't made it even more confusing.

Generic within a generic in Swift

Trying to make sense of the code below.
I understand that T is passed by when instantiating the Optional, as in Optional, but what about the U type in map. What type does that assume?
enum Optional<T> : LogicValue, Reflectable {
case None
case Some(T)
init()
init(_ some: T)
/// Allow use in a Boolean context.
func getLogicValue() -> Bool
/// Haskell's fmap, which was mis-named
func map<U>(f: (T) -> U) -> U?
func getMirror() -> Mirror
}
The type U comes from the f parameter to the map function. So if you pass a closure that returns a Int, then map returns a Int?. If you pass a closure that returns a Array<Int>, then map returns a Array<Int>?.
For example, try this:
var opt1: Optional<Int> = .Some(1)
var opt2 = opt1.map { (i: Int) -> String in return "String: \(i)" }
You'll find that opt1 is an Int? and opt2 is a String?.
When calling the map function the caller must provide a single argument which is a closure that:
Has a single argument that is the same type as the one used to
instantiate Optional, i.e. T
Has a return value of some type.
U will then be the type of said return value.