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swiftfunctiongenericsfirst-class

First class generic function in swift?


Swift has first class functions that can be passed as arguments.

func a() {
}

func b(x: ()) {
}

// Pass a to b…
b(a)

Swift has generic functions.

func generic<T>(x: T) {
}

But, does Swift let me pass a generic function as an argument to another function?

let anIntService = Service<Int>()
let astringService = Service<String>()

func attach<T>(service: Service<T>, to value: T) {
  // Perform type safe attaching of `value` to `service`.
}

func doAttaching(attach: (Service<T>, to T)->Void) {
  attach(anIntService, to: 42)
  attach(aStringService, to: "Hello World!")
}

doAttaching(attach)

…Or does it only let me pass a specific instantiation of a generic function?

If this is possible, please illustrate the syntax for defining a function that accepts a generic function as an argument.

If this isn't supported, a workaround is to define the generic function as a method of a struct, or something, and pass an instead of that. This is not ideal though, as the consuming function doesn't get such a nice calling syntax, they need to do:

func doAttaching(attach: Attacher) {
  attacher.attach(anIntService, to: 42)
  attacher.attach(aStringService, to: "Hello World")
}

Solution

  • I realised, five years after asking this question, Swift supports something a little like this which can be useful via callAsFunction.

    Here's an example:

    
    final class Service<T> {
        // Implementation here
    }
    
    final class Attacher {
        // Important state here.
        var state = Void()
        
        func callAsFunction<T>(service: Service<T>, to: T) {
            // Implementation here.
        }
    }
    
    func doAttaching(attach: Attacher) {
        attach(service: Service<Int>(), to: 42)
        attach(service: Service<String>(), to: "Hello World!")
    }
    
    

    A Repeater can be passed in to generic code and provide useful behaviour.