KeyPath use in production. 🎉

I made my first production use of key paths around a month ago.

In this project, we have a Location model. A simplified version is:

struct Location {
    let id: String
    let barcode: String

    let isStandardLocation: Bool
    let isNestedCarton: Bool
    let isCarton: Bool
    let isFloorLocation: Bool
}

We want to find the first location in an array of Location where isStandardLocation == true. If none are isStandardLocation, then find the first location with isNestedCarton. Then isCarton, then isFloorLocation.

We don’t want to get the first item that’s a standard location or nested carton etc. We want to check the entire array for the first standard location, then entire list for first nested carton. If locations[2].isNestedCarton and locations[9].isStandardLocation, we want locations[9].

The easiest way to solve this is using [Location].first(where:).

if let standardLocation = locations.first(where: { $0.isStandardLocation }) {
    return standardLocation
} else if let nestedCarton = locations.first(where: { $0.isNestedCarton }) {
    return nestedCarton
} else if let carton = locations.first(where: { $0.isCarton }) {
    return carton
} else if let floor = locations.first(where: { $0.isFloorLocation }) {
    return floor
} else {
    return nil
}

This works, but it’s repetitive. The if let and else if let statements are unnecessary. The only part that changes is the property after $0.

This can be simplified by removing the if lets.

let standard = locations.first(where: { $0.isStandardLocation })
let nested = locations.first(where: { $0.isNestedCarton })
let carton = locations.first(where: { $0.isCarton })
let floor = locations.first(where: { $0.isFloorLocation })
return [standard, nested, carton, floor].compactMap { $0 }.first

Better. Everything up to $0 is repeated, and the compactMap is unintuitive, though.

They can be optional-chained together.

return
  locations.first(where: { $0.isStandardLocation })
  ?? locations.first(where: { $0.isNestedCarton })
  ?? locations.first(where: { $0.isCarton })
  ?? locations.first(where: { $0.isFloorLocation })

This is the best we can do using the first method. This is fine in the majority of cases.

However, if you want to go the extra mile, you can use KeyPath.

First, define the method for retrieving a location by KeyPath.

func first(_ keyPath: KeyPath<Location, Bool>) -> Location? {
    return locations.first(where: { $0[keyPath: keyPath] })
}

This method says, “Return the first item in locations.where: { keyPath == true}.”

keyPath is a KeyPath generic over Location and Bool. Meaning, keyPath must be a Bool property on Location.

To get our desired location, we simply:

return first(\.isStandardLocation) 
    ?? first(\.isNestedCarton) 
    ?? first(\.isCarton) 
    ?? first(\.isFloorLocation)

🎉