[swift-users] wishing I could cast (sort of) to protocol, with associated type

[has]

Robert Nikander wrote:
> Cc:"swift-users at swift.org"  <swift-users at swift.org>
> Subject: Re: [swift-users] wishing I could cast (sort of) to protocol
> 	with associated type
> Message-ID:<BF76DEE9-ACA5-4A74-A4F0-FEBB84A422A4 at apple.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> The only real way to do this today is to have two layers of protocol:
>
> protocol SpecialControllerBase {
>    var currentValueBase: SpecialValue? { get }
> }
> protocol SpecialController: SpecialControllerBase {
>    associatedtype SpecialValueType : SpecialValue
>    var currentValue: SpecialValueType? { get }
> }
> extension SpecialController {
>    var currentValueBase: SpecialValue? { return self.currentValue }
> }

One other option may be to put a typealias in an extension instead of 
declaring an associated type:

// The almost-a-generic protocol:

protocol AssProtocol {
     var xxx: AssType { get }
}

extension AssProtocol {
     typealias AssType = Any
}

// My concrete classes:

class MyClass1: AssProtocol {
     typealias AssType = Int
     var xxx: AssProtocol.AssType { return 1 }
}

class MyClass2: AssProtocol {
     typealias AssType = String
     var xxx: AssProtocol.AssType { return "two" }
}

// A generic function that uses the aforementioned protocol:

func doit<T>(_ v: T) where T: AssProtocol.AssType {
     print(v, type(of: v))
}

// The rare sweet joy that is 0 compiler errors AND 0 runtime crashes:

let res1 = MyClass1().xxx
let res2 = MyClass2().xxx

doit(res1) // 1 Int.Type
doit(res2) // two String.Type


Needless to say my head is screeching "probable undefined behavior" even 
as I type this, so caveat emptor, E&OE, don't blame me when it eats your 
cat and marries your wife, etc. [1] But it did finally get me out of an 
unspeakably intractable problem with the Swift type system, thus 
preserving what precious few last shreds of sanity I still possess. Who 
knows, now that I only have a myriad of all-but-intractable problems 
left to work through, one day I might even release!

Hope this helps (or at least dies mercifully quickly on you),

has


[1] Blame this guy, 'cos he's who I got it from: 
https://medium.com/@sunshinejr/what-do-you-really-know-about-typealias-and-associatedtype-5ba25d45848e#.wqpume3n1