Multiple index types in Swift - swift

Question

In Swift (a language I'm still fairly new to), I'm trying to define a class that allows indexing using either an Int or Range<Int>. For example:
var m = Matrix(rows: 10, cols: 10)
var v = m[1, 0..<10]
The two ways I can think of allowing this issue is to either adding an extension to the Range class:
extension Range {
init(_ intValue:Element) {
self.init(start: intValue, end: intValue.successor())
}
}
or to create an enum that allows for either type:
enum IndexType {
case value(Int)
case range(Range<Int>)
init(_ v:Int) {
self = .value(v)
}
init(_ r:Range<Int>) {
self = .range(r)
}
}
However, neither solution works as intended, as I still need to specify the type manually. For example, given the function:
func slice(indices:IndexType...) -> [Double] {
// ...
}
I can't then just do:
slice(1, 3...4, 5)
but instead have to do:
slice(IndexType(1), IndexType(3...4), 5)
Is there a way to accomplish this in Swift? I'm used to c++, which would do type inference automatically, but the same doesn't appear to work with Swift.
One similar question I found was:
Swift Arrays of Multiple Types
However, I really would like to avoid the use of Any as I know the two types it should be.

Answer 1

protocol MatrixIndex {
var Matrix_range: Range<Int> { get }
}
extension Int : MatrixIndex {
var Matrix_range: Range<Int> {
get {
return Range<Int>(start: self, end: self+1)
}
}
}
extension Range : MatrixIndex {
var Matrix_range: Range<Int> {
get {
return Range<Int>(start: self.startIndex as! Int, end: self.endIndex as! Int)
}
}
}
class Matrix {
subscript(row: MatrixIndex, column: MatrixIndex) -> () {
get {
print("getting \(row.Matrix_range) \(column.Matrix_range)")
}
set(newValue) {
print("setting \(row.Matrix_range) \(column.Matrix_range)")
}
}
}