How would I create a constant that could be one of several strings depending on conditions? - swift

Question

I want to have a constant using let that may be one of several values.
For instance:
if condition1 {
constant = "hi"
}
else if condition2 {
constant = "hello"
}
else if condition3 {
constant = "hey"
}
else if condition4 {
constant = "greetings"
}
I'm not sure how to do this with Swift and the let feature. But I'm inclined to believe it's possible, as this is in the Swift book:
Use let to make a constant and var to make a variable. The value of a constant doesn’t need to be known at compile time, but you must assign it a value exactly once.
How would I accomplish this?

Answer 1

As pointed out in the other answers you can't directly do this. But if you're looking to just variably set the initial value of a constant, then yes, that is possible. Here's an example with a computed property.
class MyClass {
let aConstant: String = {
if something == true {
return "something"
} else {
return "something else"
}
}()
}

Answer 2

I think you are looking for variable which will be assigned later inside switch-case:
let constant :String
switch conditions {
case condition1:
constant = "hi"
case condition2:
constant = "hello"
case condition3:
constant = "hey"
case condition4:
constant = "greetings"
default:
constant = "salute"
}

Answer 3

One option would be something like this, using a closure:
let constant: String = ({ value in
if conditionOne {
return "Hi"
} else if conditionTwo {
return "Bye"
}
return "Oops!"
})(myData /*needed for condition*/)
Or, for another twist, using generics:
func fancySwitch<S, T>(val: S, fn: S -> T) -> T {
return fn(val)
}
let x: String = fancySwitch(3) { val in
if val == 2 {
return "Hi"
} else if val < 5 {
return "Bye"
}
return "Oops"
}
let y: String = fancySwitch((3, 4)) { (a, b) in
if a == 2 {
return "Hi"
} else if b < 5 {
return "Bye"
}
return "Oops"
}

Answer 4

I understand what you're looking for. In Scala and some other functional languages this can be done using the match statement (kind of like switch) because the entire statement resolves to a value like this:
val b = true
val num = b match {
case true => 1
case false => 0
}
This is unfortunately not directly possible in Swift because there is no way to get a value from a branch statement. As stated in the Swift book, "Swift has two branch statements: an if statement and a switch statement." Neither of these statements resolve to a value.
The closest code structure I can think of is to first use a variable to retrieve the correct value and then assign it to a constant to be used in any later code:
let b = true
var num_mutable: Int
switch b {
case true:
num_mutable = 1
default:
num_mutable = 0
}
let num = num_mutable

Answer 5

Just add the line let constant: String before your if/else statement.
Below, an excerpt from Swift 1.2 and Xcode 6.3 beta - Swift Blog - Apple Developer elaborates.
let constants are now more powerful and consistent — The new rule is
that a let constant must be initialized before use (like a var), and
that it may only be initialized, not reassigned or mutated after
initialization. This enables patterns like:
let x : SomeThing
if condition {
x = foo()
} else {
x = bar()
}
use(x)
This formerly required the use of a var even though there is no
mutation taking place. Properties have been folded into this model to
simplify their semantics in initializers as well.
I found the Swift blog post above from the article "Let It Go: Late Initialization of Let in Swift", which I found by googling: swift let constant conditional initialize.