I want to do something like that: access my dictionary values with a String enumeration. I am trying to overload the subscript of the dictionary but without success.
Accessing the dictionary:
let district = address[JsonKeys.district]
where JsonKeys is:
enum JsonKeys: String {
case key1
case key2
case key...
}
and my subscript overload is as follow:
extension Dictionary where Key: StringLiteralConvertible, Value: AnyObject {
subscript(index: FOJsonKeys) -> AnyObject {
get {
return self[ index.rawValue] as! AnyObject
}
}
}
I get the following message:
**Cannot subscript a value of type 'Dictionary<Key, Value>' with an index of type 'String'**
Where am I wrong?
PS: don't want to do this (this would correct the error, but the code is unreadable this way):
let district = address[JsonKeys.district.rawValue]
The dictionary is a Json parsed dictionary given to me by AlamoFire. I am pretty sure I can't change its type.
The simplest approach is to just lift the dictionary into more context. The context in this case is "it only has keys from this enum." Lifting a type in Swift is very straightforward. Just wrap it in a struct.
// This could be a nested type inside JSONObject if you wanted.
enum JSONKeys: String {
case district
}
// Here's my JSONObject. It's much more type-safe than the dictionary,
// and it's trivial to add methods to it.
struct JSONObject {
let json: [String: AnyObject]
init(_ json: [String: AnyObject]) {
self.json = json
}
// You of course could make this generic if you wanted so that it
// didn't have to be exactly JSONKeys. And of course you could add
// a setter.
subscript(key: JSONKeys) -> AnyObject? {
return json[key.rawValue]
}
}
let address: [String: AnyObject] = ["district": "Bob"]
// Now it's easy to lift our dictionary into a "JSONObject"
let json = JSONObject(address)
// And you don't even need to include the type. Just the key.
let district = json[.district]
Try this:
extension Dictionary where Key: StringLiteralConvertible {
subscript(index: JsonKeys) -> Value {
get {
return self[index.rawValue as! Key]!
}
}
}
Remember, with having constraint as Key: StringLiteralConvertible
, the extension works for any Dictionaries with its Key conforming to StringLiteralConvertible
. (You know many types other than String
conform to StringLiteralConvertible
.)
To call subscript self[]
, you need to pass a value of type Key
. index.rawValue
is String
, which may not always be a Key
in the extension.
So, the extension I have shown would work for some Dictionaries, would cause runtime crash for some other Dictionaries.
A little bit more type-safe way:
protocol MyJsonKeysConvertible {
init(jsonKeys: JsonKeys)
}
extension String: MyJsonKeysConvertible {
init(jsonKeys: JsonKeys) {self = jsonKeys.rawValue}
}
extension Dictionary where Key: MyJsonKeysConvertible {
subscript(index: JsonKeys) -> Value {
get {
return self[Key(jsonKeys: index)]!
}
}
}
I know that this is an old question, but I'd thought I'd add an implementation that is easier to extend, reuse, and more lightweight
public protocol UsesRawValue {
var rawValue: String { get }
}
extension JsonKeys: UsesRawValue {}
extension Dictionary where Key: ExpressibleByStringLiteral {
public subscript(key: UsesRawValue) -> Value? {
get { return self[key.rawValue as! Key] }
set { self[key.rawValue as! Key] = newValue }
}
}
Based on this blog post
This approach only requires us to extend our dictionary once, rather than for each enum. Instead, each enum needs to conform to UsesRawValue
. Now we can use it like this.
ajson[JsonKeys.key1]
ajson[JsonKeys.key1] = "name"