Is it correct to say all erased types are non-initializable?

Question

(By erased types I mean: (Any, AnyHashable, AnyObject), protocol, or root class NSObject).

I'm asking this question because in the code below I can't initialize something to AnyObject. I get error:

cannot invoke initializer for type 'AnyObject?' with no arguments

and I'm looking for a proper workAround. I don't think the right choice is to initialize something in each statement...

func returnObject() -> AnyObject{

    var something = AnyObject()

    if x == someProperty{
        something = y
    }
    else if x == anotherProperty{
        something = z
    }else{
        something = t
    }
    return something   

}

Answer 1

What would you expect the initialization to do? What does it matter anyway, if you plan to immediately overwrite something with y, z or t?

func returnObject() -> AnyObject {

    let something: AnyObject

    if x == someProperty{
        something = y
    }
    else if x == anotherProperty{
        something = z
    }
    else{
        something = t
    }
    return something   

}

However, it's more succinct to use a switch:

func returnObject() -> AnyObject {
    let something: AnyObject

    switch x {
        case someProperty:    something = y
        case anotherProperty: something = z
        default:              something = t
    }

    return something
}

And if you're just returning something, you can just inline it:

func returnObject() -> AnyObject {
    switch x {
        case someProperty:    return y
        case anotherProperty: return z
        default:              return t
    }
}