Swift (and Cocoa APIs) should not return implicitly unwrapped optional types

Originator:jimroepcke
Number:rdar://17219760 Date Originated:07-Jun-2014 07:36 PM
Status:Duplicate of 17219047 (Open) Resolved:
Product:Developer Tools Product Version:6.0 (6A215l)
Classification: Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
The Swift Cocoa APIs are full of methods that return ! types, like AnyObject[]!, String!, NSData!, etc.

I contend that this is unsafe by definition. The book says “it can be safely assumed to have a value all of the time”, so callers can and will assume the return value is not nil. If it is, the program will crash.

If the callee will never return nil, it shouldn't use an optional return type.
If the callee might return nil, it should use a ? type.

Please replace implicitly unwrapped optional return types non-optional or wrapped optional types in the Cocoa API.

Steps to Reproduce:
func someFunction() -> String!
{
    return nil
}

someFunction().uppercaseString

Expected Results:
I expect Swift code to be safe.

Actual Results:
This program crashes.

Version:
6.0 (6A215l)

Notes:


Configuration:
This always occurs

Attachments:

Comments

Dup created

I just created a duplicate (http://openradar.appspot.com/18119727) to create more exposure, because I think this will cause a lot of unexpected crashes and should be addressed!


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