[swift-evolution] Pitch: Soft unwrapping of optionals

[Basem Emara]

Forcing unwrapping of optionals is bad practice, but safely unwrapping can be tedious. I’m hoping for something in between that would that would provide soft unwrapping using a syntax like: myVar?!

For example, currently we have to do this:

let temp = (myString ?? “”); print(“\(temp)”)
if (myString ?? “”).isEmpty {…}
if myBool ?? false {…}
if (myInt ?? 0) > otherInt {…}

To something like this instead:

print(“\(temp?!)”)
if myString?!.isEmpty {…}
if myBool?! {…}
if myInt?! > otherInt {…}

What this is implying is that it will attempt to unwrap or use the default of the type.

Of course, this will only work with primitive types and leverage their implicit default values which would go a long way with tedious code and more safety (less forced unwrapping in the world). Otherwise it will produce a compile error if doing something like: myCustomType?!. What do you think?

Basem