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iOS Enumerations and Optionals in Swift Objects and Optionals Optional Chaining

Posted by Sam GGG
Sam GGG
5,195 Points

Using 'guard' instead of 'if let'

I wanted to try out using 'guard' instead of 'if let' in the example on line 33 given by Pasan:

guard let buildingNumber = susan.residence?.address?.buildingNumber else { return nil }

print(buildingNumber)

I got the following error: Return invalid outside of a func.

Can someone please elaborate as to why this doesn't work? Can I only use guard statements inside methods?

Many thanks

1 Answer

Abdullah Althobetey
Abdullah Althobetey
18,216 Points
Abdullah Althobetey
Abdullah Althobetey
18,216 Points

Hi Sam, You can use guard statements inside and outside methods, but you can 'return' only inside methods. I believe you entered this code inside a playground, so you can, for example, print an error message instead of return nil, or you may use the fatalError() function if you want to stop program execution. Hope this help.

Sam GGG
Sam GGG
5,195 Points

Thank you Abduallah for your quick response. I haven't studied fatalError() yet but tried it out and worked for me. Thanks very much!