[swift-evolution] List of all Enum values (for simple enums)

[Chris Lattner]

> On Dec 8, 2015, at 9:53 PM, Jacob Bandes-Storch via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> Enums are often used without associated values:
> 
>     enum Attribute { case Title, Date }
>     enum Style { case Dark, Light }
> 
> In such cases, it's very useful to be able to iterate over all possible values. But you have to do it manually:
> 
>     extension Attribute {
>         static var allValues: [Attribute] {
>             return [.Title, .Date]  // imagine this x100, and not autogenerated :(
>         }
>     }
> 
> It would be nice if the compiler generated this for us. It doesn't have to be an Array, but any kind of SequenceType. Maybe something like "StaticCollection". Of course, this doesn't work in the general case, but I think simple enums are common enough that it might be worth doing.

This is a commonly requested feature, and tons of people would support the ability to do this somehow.  Similarly, for integer-backed enums, many people want to be able to know the “max” enum rawValue so they can index into them.

-Chris