Swift: Accept a closure with varying parameters - ios

Question

Suppose I have a function that accepts a callback with a sender, like this:
func performAction(aNumber: Double, completion: (sender: UIButton) -> Void) {
// Does some stuff here
let button = getAButtonFromSomewhere()
completion(button)
}
And so one possible way to call this function is by passing an existing function for the callback, rather than defining the closure in-place:
performAction(10, completion: myCallback)
func myCallback(sender: UIButton) {
sender.setTitle("foo", forState: .Normal)
}
Back in my definition for performAction, how can I define the completion block to accept a UIButton or any subclass of it?
As an example, suppose I have a UIButton subclass called CustomButton. So in my callback, I'm only interested in accepting a CustomButton. I'd like to do this:
performAction(10, completion: myCallback)
// This produces a compiler error:
func myCallback(sender: CustomButton) {
sender.setTitle("foo", forState: .Normal)
}
// This works, but forces me to cast to my custom class:
func myCallback(sender: UIButton) {
let realButton = sender as! CustomButton
realButton.setTitle("foo", forState: .Normal)
}
But the compiler won't allow it, because the definition of performAction requires the callback to accept a UIButton specifically (even though CustomButton is a UIButton subclass).
I'd like performAction to be generic so that it can be packaged in a library, and work with any UIButton subclass. Is this possible to do in Swift?
EDIT: I tried to simplify what I'm doing with the example above, but I think it just caused confusion. Here's the actual code that I'm trying to make work, with some improvements thanks to #luk2302:
public extension UIButton {
private class Action: AnyObject {
private var function: Any
init(function: Any) {
self.function = function
}
}
// Trickery to add a stored property to UIButton...
private static var actionsAssocKey: UInt8 = 0
private var action: Action? {
get {
return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &UIButton.actionsAssocKey) as? Action
}
set(newValue) {
objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &UIButton.actionsAssocKey, newValue, objc_AssociationPolicy.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN)
}
}
internal func performAction(sender: UIButton) {
if let function = self.action!.function as? () -> Void {
function()
// THIS IS WHERE THINGS BREAK NOW:
} else if let function = self.action!.function as? (sender: self.Type) -> Void {
function(sender: self)
}
}
public func addTarget(forControlEvents event: UIControlEvents, action: () -> Void) {
self.action = Action(function: action)
self.addTarget(self, action: "performAction:", forControlEvents: event)
}
public func addTarget<B: UIButton>(forControlEvents: UIControlEvents, actionWithSender: (sender: B) -> Void) {
self.action = Action(function: actionWithSender)
self.addTarget(self, action: "performAction:", forControlEvents: forControlEvents)
}
}
The only piece that breaks now is the line that I commented, at (sender: self.Type) (self being either UIButton, or some subclass of it).
So this deviates from my original question slightly, but how can I can I cast function to a closure accepting a sender of the same type as self? This code works perfectly if I hard-code the type, but it should be able to work for any UIButton subclass.

Answer 1

You can make the UIButton subclass a generic parameter for the performAction function, but then you will need to cast the button before passing it to the callback, unless you also have a generic way of "getting" the right type of button.
// performAction() works with any type of UIButton
func performAction<B: UIButton>(aNumber: Double, completion: (sender: B) -> Void)
{
// Assuming getAButtonFromSomewhere returns UIButton, and not B, you must cast it.
if let button = getAButtonFromSomewhere() as? B {
completion(sender: button)
}
}

Answer 2

Ask yourself this: what should happen if you pass a closure of type (CustomButton -> Void) as completion and then getAButtonFromSomewhere returns an instance of UIButton? The code then cannot invoke the closure since the UIButton is not a CustomButton.
The compiler simply does not allow you to pass (CustomButton -> Void) to (UIButton -> Void) because (CustomButton -> Void) is more restrictive than (UIButton -> Void). Note that you can pass (UIButton -> Void) to a closure of type (CustomButton -> Void) since (UIButton -> Void) is less restrictive - you can pass everything you pass to the first to the second as well.
Therefore either make func use a generic type as #jtbandes suggests or use your initial approach a little bit improved:
func myCallback(sender: UIButton) {
if let realButton = sender as? CustomButton {
realButton.setTitle("foo", forState: .Normal)
}
}
Both solutions will result in the setTitle to not be invoked whenever the returned value of getAButtonFromSomewhere is not a CustomButton.