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Why does Array's contains(_:) method cause an error when comparing an optional value with a non-optional value in Swift?
I’m working with Swift and encountered an issue when using the contains method on an array. The following code works fine: let result = ["hello", "world"].contains(Optional("hello")) // ✅ Works fine However, when I try to use the same contains method with the array declared in a separate constant(or variable), I get a compile-time error: let stringArray = ["hello", "world"] let result = stringArray.contains(Optional("hello")) // ❌ Compile-time error The compiler produces the following error message: Cannot convert value of type 'Optional<String>' to expected argument type 'String' Both examples seem conceptually similar, but the second one causes a compile-time error, while the first one works fine. This confuses me because I know that Swift automatically promotes a non-optional value to an optional when comparing it with an optional value. This means "hello" should be implicitly converted to Optional("hello") for the comparison. What I understand so far: The contains(_:) method is defined as: func contains(_ element: Element) -> Bool Internally, it calls contains(where:), as seen in the Swift source code: 🔗 Reference contains(where:) takes a closure that applies the == operator for comparison. Since Swift allows comparing String and String? directly (String is implicitly promoted to String? when compared with an optional), I expected contains(where:) to work the same way. My Questions: Why does the first example work, but the second one fails with a compile-time error? What exactly causes this error in the second case, even though both cases involve comparing an optional value with a non-optional value? Does contains(_:) behave differently when used with an explicit array variable rather than a direct array literal? If so, why? I know that there are different ways to resolve this, like using nil coalescing or optional binding, but what I’m really looking for is a detailed explanation of why this issue occurs at the compile-time level. Can anyone explain the underlying reason for this behavior?
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Mar ’25
Why does Array.contains cause a compile-time error when comparing an optional value with a non-optional value in Swift?
I’m working with Swift and ran into an issue when using the contains(_:) method on an array. The following code works fine: let result = ["hello", "world"].contains(Optional("hello")) // ✅ Works fine But when I try to use the same contains method with the array declared in a separate variable, I get a compile-time error: let stringArray = ["hello", "world"] let result = stringArray.contains(Optional("hello")) // ❌ Compile-time error Both examples seem conceptually similar, but the second one causes a compile-time error, while the first one works fine. I understand that when comparing an optional value (Optional("hello")) with a non-optional value ("hello"), Swift automatically promotes the non-optional value to an optional (i.e., "hello" becomes Optional("hello")). 🔗 reference What I don’t understand is why the first code works but the second one doesn’t, even though both cases involve comparing an optional value with a non-optional value. I know that there are different ways to resolve this, like using nil coalescing or optional binding, but what I’m really looking for is a detailed explanation of why this issue occurs at the compile-time level. Can anyone explain the underlying reason for this behavior?
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Mar ’25