Optional unwrapping syntax in Swift 5.7

Gurjit Singh
2 min readJun 15, 2022
Photo by Danial Igdery on Unsplash

Optional unwrapping is one of the most used patterns in iOS development. Swift 5.7 introduces new features included a new way to unwrap optional values using if let and guard let statements. It eliminates duplication to make writing and reading code easier. Previously, we unwrapped optional values in the following manner:

var someVariable: String?

if let someVariable = someVariable {

}

However, in Swift 5.7 we utilize a more obvious and accurate way to unwrap optional values.

var someVariable: String?

if let someVariable {

}

On the other hand, the guard let statement can be used in the same way.

var someVariable: String?

if guard someVariable else {

}

What problem is it supposed to solve?

It’s more harder to read and write code when we have long variable names for unwrapping. As an example,

let someVariableName: String?
let anotherVariableName: String?

if let someVariableName = someVariableName,
let anotherVariableName = anotherVariableName {

}

One approach is to use a name that is shorter and less descriptive. As an example,

if let x = someVariableName,let y = anotherVariableName {

}

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Gurjit Singh

I’m Computer Science graduate and an iOS Engineer who writes about Swift and iOS development. Follow me on twitter @gurjitpt and for more articles www.gurjit.co