Swift - Store Closures in Dictionary - dictionary

Question

Is it possible to store closures in dictionaries (how we could store ObjC blocks in dictionaries)? Example:
data = [String:AnyObject]()
data!["so:c0.onSelection"] = {() in
Debug.log(.Debug, message: "Hello, World!")
}

Answer 1

You can, but with some restrictions. First of all, function types don't inherit from AnyObject and don't share a common base class. You can have a dictionary [String: () -> Void] and [String: (String) -> Int], but they can't be stored in the same dictionary.
I also had to use a typealias to define the dictionary so that swift would parse correctly. Here's an example based off of your snippet.
typealias myClosure = () -> Void
var data: [String: myClosure]? = [String: myClosure]()
data!["so:c0.onSelection"] = {() -> Void in
Debug.log(.Debug, message: "Hello, World!")
}

Answer 2

I have a different approach
I create a "holder" class to hold your closures something like this:
typealias SocialDownloadImageClosure = (image : UIImage?, error: NSError?) -> ()
typealias SocialDownloadInformationClosure = (userInfo : NSDictionary?, error: NSError?) -> ()
private class ClosureHolder
{
let imageClosure:SocialDownloadImageClosure?
let infoClosure:SocialDownloadInformationClosure?
init(infoClosure:SocialDownloadInformationClosure)
{
self.infoClosure = infoClosure
}
init(imageClosure:SocialDownloadImageClosure)
{
self.imageClosure = imageClosure
}
}
then i make the dictionary like this:
var requests = Dictionary<String,ClosureHolder>()
Now to add a closure to the dictionary just do this:
self.requests["so:c0.onSelection"] = ClosureHolder(completionHandler)

Answer 3

Connor is correct, I did try many ways to store variables and closures in the same dictionary, but I failed and couldn't parse it out, the swift decompiler will throw the error:
"Command failed due to signal: Segmentation fault: 11" (the hell is it?!)
For example:
//This won't work
var params:[String: Any] = ["x":100, "onFoundX": {println("I found X!")}]
if var onFoundX: (()->Void) = params["onFoundX"] as? (()->Void) {
onFoundX()
}
//This should work by separate into 2 dictionaries and declare the "typealias" obviously
var params:[String: Any] = ["x":"100"}]
var events:[String: (()->Void)] = ["onFoundX": {println("I found X!")]
if var onFoundX: (()->Void) = events["onFoundX"] as? (()->Void) {
onFoundX() // "I found X!"
}
if var x = events["x"] as? String {
println(x) // 100
}
I hope Swift will allow this to happen in the future..
Cheers!

Answer 4

This simple example helped me understand a bit more:
//Init dictionary with types (i.e. String type for key, Closure type for value):
var myDictionary: [String: ()->(String)] = [:]
//Make a closure that matches the closure signature above and assign to variable (i.e. no parameter and returns a String):
let sayHello: () -> (String) = {
return "Hello!"
}
//Add closure to dictionary with key:
myDictionary["myFunc"] = sayHello
//Access closure by known key and call it:
myDictionary["myFunc"]!() //"Hello!"