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Ed Williams
2,969 PointsWhy not return a tuple (Bool, String) instead of an optional String?
Is there a reason why this example returns an optional String instead of a Bool? From the previous lesson, I learned this could be done using a tuple. Why do we do this...
func findApt(aptNumber: String) -> String? {
let aptNumbers = ["101", "202", "303", "404"]
for tempAptNumber in aptNumbers {
if (tempAptNumber == aptNumber) {
return aptNumber
}
}
return nil
}
When we could do this...
func findApt(aptNumber: String) -> (hasCulprit: Bool, culprit: String) {
let aptNumbers = ["101", "202", "303", "404"]
for tempAptNumber in aptNumbers {
if (tempAptNumber == aptNumber) {
return (True, aptNumber)
}
}
return (false, "")
}
if (findApt("101").hasCulprit) {
// ...
}
Is there a reason to use an optional instead?
3 Answers
obey me
1,135 PointsFrom what i learned when you make a your function optional , it help to test any possible way without crashing because its not every time you will test a function and get a fix result . I hope this help .
Umut Kahramankaptan
1,349 PointsIf you can guarantee no apt number could be an empty string, ""; then you do not need to use a Tuple anyhow, since it will be mutually seperated. I guess that optional is used (specifically when I hear "optional chaining", and I haven't seen that video yet), in a concept very close to exceptions.
With "optional" approach functional signature will be much more clear. It returns a String, if it can. With "tuple" approach, you will always include it as a data.
But most probably under the hood, it is using a very similar mechanism.
Adam Short
11,153 PointsThe first option is more compact, easier to write and look at and, this is just a wild guess, could be used for Integers. I might be wrong, but I don't think you could achieve the same result with the same amount of code using tuples for both integers and strings.