Swift type does not conform to protocol NilLiteralConvertible

Question

I have method:

func  getByEmail(email:String) -> MeeterAccount{    for  acct in accountsList  {      if  acct.getEmail().equalsIgnoreCase(email)  {     return acct;     } }   return nil; // here I get an error: type 'MeeterAccount' does not conform to protocol NilliteralConvertible } 

How to get rid of this error?

I thought to write something like that:

func  getByEmail(email:String) -> MeeterAccount{      var out:MeeterAccount!      for  acct in accountsList  {         if  acct.getEmail().equalsIgnoreCase(email)  {             out = acct         }     }     return out; } 

That doesn't throw this error. Sounds like Swift makes me write only 2nd way.

Why I can't return nil?

Answer 1

If your function can return nil, then it should be declared as ... -> MeeterAccount? (an optional type). Then the caller knows that it can be nil. (Your second example works but would crash because return out will implicitly try to unwrap nil.)