<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I'm pretty sure solutions like the one you proposed are impossible, unfortunately :(. The compiler has to choose the static override at compile time, but it can't tell until runtime whether the type conforms to `Equatable` or not (because of retroactive conformance).<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">It's also not possible to use the as or is dynamic casting machinery to work with `Equatable`, because of the use of the `Self` type in its requirements.<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A feature that the community has expressed interest in, "generalized existentials", may allow you to implement a function that does what you want.<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best,</div><div class="">Austin<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jul 3, 2017, at 5:00 PM, David Baraff via swift-users <<a href="mailto:swift-users@swift.org" class="">swift-users@swift.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I’m searching for the simplest way to write a function<div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>func maybeEqual<T>(_ lhs:T, _rhs:T) -> Bool</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">where it returns lhs == rhs if T is equatable, and false, otherwise.</div><div class="">I tried</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #ba2da2" class="">func</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> maybeEqual<T>(</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #ba2da2" class="">_</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> lhs:</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">T</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">, _rhs:</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">T</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">) -> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">Bool</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(186, 45, 162);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">return</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">false</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">}</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #ba2da2" class="">func</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> maybeEqual<T:</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">Equatable</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">>(</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #ba2da2" class="">_</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> lhs:</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">T</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">, </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #ba2da2" class="">_</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> rhs:</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">T</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">) -> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">Bool</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #ba2da2" class="">return</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> lhs == rhs</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">}</span></div></div><div class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class="">but that doesn’t work. Is there a way to express a type not matching something?</div><div class="">Alternately, how can I write this?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div>_______________________________________________<br class="">swift-users mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:swift-users@swift.org" class="">swift-users@swift.org</a><br class="">https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-users<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></div></body></html>