Overriding Enum init?(rawValue: String) to not be optional

Question

I want to have init from rawValue for my enum in Swift to return default value if rawValue init will return nil. Right now I have something like this:

public init(fromRawValue: String){
        self = Language(rawValue: fromRawValue) ?? .English
}

I don't like this because it is completely new initializer. I tried to make something like this:

public init(rawValue: String){
        self = Language(rawValue: fromRawValue) ?? .English
}

But I have got runtime exception with bad access. Can I somehow make it work or I just have to use this new and I cannot override original one to not be optional?

I would like to know if it possible to override original init from rawValue not workaround with completely new one that is using failable one.

Solution 1

The default initializer is failable. It means that if the received parameter does not match a valid enum case it does return nil.

Now you want to do 2 incompatibles things:

1. You want to redefine the default initializer making it not failable. In fact you want a default enum value created when the received param is not valid.
2. Inside your redefined initializer you want to call a failable initializer (which no longer exists) using the same name of the new one.

This is not possible, I the 3 possible solutions as follows:

1. Creating a different init

You define a new not failable initializer with a default value, a different parameter name and inside it you call the default failable initializer.

enum Language: String {
    
    case english = "English", italian = "Italian", french = "French"
    
    init(fromRawValue: String) {
        self = Language(rawValue: fromRawValue) ?? .english
    }
}

2. Redefining the default init

You redefine the default initializer, you make it not failable and you write the full logic inside it.

enum Language: String {
    
    case english = "English", italian = "Italian", french = "French"
    
    init(rawValue: String) {
        switch rawValue {
        case "Italian": self = .italian
        case "French": self = .french
        default: self = .english
        }
    }
}

3. Creating a static func

enum Language: String {

    case english = "English", italian = "Italian", french = "French"

    static func build(rawValue: String) -> Language {
        return Language(rawValue: rawValue) ?? .english
    }
}

Now you can build a Language value writing:

let italian = Language.build(rawValue: "Italian") // Italian
let defaultValue = Language.build(rawValue: "Wrong input") // English

Solution 2

Adding to Luca's solution for redefining the default init, it is possible to additionally make the rawValue parameter type optional, which cuts down on some code at the call site when the data source is not reliable.

enum PrecipitationType: String {
    case rain, snow, sleet, none

    typealias RawValue = String

    init(rawValue: String?) {
        guard let rawValue = rawValue else { self = .none; return }

        switch rawValue {
            case PrecipitationType.rain.rawValue: self = .rain
            case PrecipitationType.snow.rawValue: self = .snow
            case PrecipitationType.sleet.rawValue: self = .sleet
            default: self = .none
        }
    }
}

When I initially tried this it generated multiple errors. The key was to redefine the RawValue typealias to maintain conformance to RawRepresentable.