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iOS Swift 2.0 Enumerations and Optionals Introduction to Enumerations Getting Rid of Strings

Posted by Boaz Keren Gil
Boaz Keren Gil
18,947 Points

Switch overkill

It seems in this video that we are using switch also when its not needed. For example:

func muteNotifications(dayType: DayType) -> Bool {
    switch dayType {
        case DayType.Weekend: return true
        case DayType.Weekday: return false
    }
}

can be:

func muteNotifications(dayType: DayType) -> Bool {
    if dayType == DayType.Weekend {
        return true
    } else {
        return false
    }
}

Isn't it a bit overkill to use a switch here?

2 Answers

Grant Jason
Grant Jason
10,713 Points

Both answers make sense and definitely work, however in the scope of that particular course switch statements work much better when using enumerations since the compiler will actively search for exhaustiveness. In addition, the switch statement is more readable since you can tell just by looking at the code that weekends will return true for muteNotifications while weekdays will return false.

Jhoan Arango
Jhoan Arango
14,575 Points

Hello:

I agree with Grant Jason. Also apple does recommend to use switch statements when dealing with enums.

My two cents :)

But you make a fair point, and it's also a "coding" style depending on how you like your code to look.

Happy coding

faraz
PLUS
faraz
Courses Plus Student 21,474 Points
faraz
faraz
Courses Plus Student 21,474 Points

You're right, in this particular example a switch statement statement could be considered "overkill". For succinctness I would suggest the following:

func muteNotifications(dayType: DayType) -> Bool {
      return dayType == DayType.Weekend
}

This combines the return statement with the equality check. In cases where you would be checking more values, I would highly recommend a switch statement for the reasons Grant mentioned.

Let me know if you are confused or have any other questions!