Swift Proposal: Value and Type Parameter Packs
Many modern Swift libraries include ad-hoc variadic APIs with an arbitrary upper bound, typically achieved with overloads that each have a different fixed number of type parameters and corresponding arguments. Without variadic generic programming support in the language, these ad-hoc variadic APIs have a significant cost on library maintenance and the developer experience of using these APIs.
This proposal adds type parameter packs and value parameter packs to enable abstracting over the number of types and values with distinct type. This is the first step toward variadic generics in Swift.
[…]
A parameter pack itself is not a first-class value or type, but the elements of a parameter pack can be used anywhere that naturally accepts a comma-separated list of values or types using pack expansions. A pack expansion unpacks the elements of a pack into a comma-separated list, and elements can be appended to either side of a pack expansion by writing more values in the comma-separated list.
A pack expansion consists of the
repeatkeyword followed by a type or an expression. The type or expression thatrepeatis applied to is called the repetition pattern. The repetition pattern must contain pack references.
Previously:
- Swift Proposal: Noncopyable Structs and Enums
- A Vision for Variadic Generics in Swift
- Swift Tuple Overloads
- On the Road to Swift 6
