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Jesse Lopez
1,870 Pointsexplicit variable type?
Why would someone want to specify the type of a variable?
for example : var greeting: String = "Hello"
Why add "String" to it? is it just for better readability?
1 Answer
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 PointsHi Jesus Lopez If you declare a variable without assigning a value it, then you have to specify the type
var greeting: String
But in the case of var greeting: String = "Hello", you don't have to do that, Swift can determine the variable's type by the value it's being assigned to. I'd argue that specifying a type here doesn't bring anything to the table when it comes to readability, because by reading the code, one can easily tell what the variable's type is by its assigned value, so it's best to write it as var greeting = "Hello" for the sake of simplicity.
I think the reason that Amit Bijlani shows you how to specify type for variable during the lecture isn't because that he's suggesting that you should always write the variable assignment this way; he's simply just teaching students this concept and allow you to familiarize with it a bit, so that you won't get too confused as you progress through lectures and eventually come across topics like specifying types for Struct, function argument and return value.