Use Enumerations in Swift

Written by Team Kodeco

An enumeration, or enum, is a way to define a set of related values in Swift. Enums are useful when you want to represent a set of choices or options in your code. They can make your code more readable and maintainable by providing a clear and meaningful name for each value.

Here is an example of how to define an enumeration in Swift:

enum CompassPoint {
  case north
  case south
  case east
  case west
}

In this example, you defined an enumeration called CompassPoint that contains four possible values: north, south, east, and west. These values are called cases of the enumeration.

You can use the cases of an enumeration to create instances:

var directionToHead = CompassPoint.west
directionToHead = .east

In this example, you created a variable called directionToHead and assigned it the value .west. You then change the directionToHead to .east.

Using Enums in a Switch Statement

You can use a switch statement to check the value of an enumeration case:

switch directionToHead {
case .north:
  print("Lots of planets have a north")
case .south:
  print("Watch out for penguins")
case .east:
  print("Where the sun rises")
case .west:
  print("Where the skies are blue")
}

This will print “Where the sun rises”.