Using Autolayout Visual Format with Swift?

Question

I've been trying to use the Autolayout Visual Format Language in Swift, using NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat. Here's an example of some code that does nothing useful, but as far as I can tell should make the type checker happy:

let foo:[AnyObject]! = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat(   format: "", options: 0, metrics: {}, views: {}) 

However, this triggers the compiler error:

"Cannot convert the expression's type '[AnyObject]!' to type 'String!'".

Before I assume this is a Radar-worthy bug, is there anything obvious I'm missing here? This happens even without the explicit casting of the variable name, or with other gratuitous downcasting using as. I can't see any reason why the compiler would be expecting any part of this to resolve to a String!.

Answer 1

this works for me with no error:

let bar:[AnyObject]! = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat(   nil, options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(0), metrics: nil, views: nil) 

update

the line above may not be compiled since the 1^st and 4^th parameters cannot be optionals anymore.

syntactically those have to be set, like e.g. this:

let bar:[AnyObject] = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("", options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(0), metrics: nil, views: ["": self.view]) 

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update

(for Xcode 7, Swift 2.0)

the valid syntax now requests the parameters's name as well, like:

NSLayoutFormatOptions(rawValue: 0) 

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NOTE: this line of code shows the correct syntax only, the parameters itself won't guarantee the constraint will be correct or even valid!

Answer 2

The first gotcha here is that Swift Dictionary is not yet bridged with NSDictionary. To get this to work, you'll want to explicitly create a NSDictionary for each NSDictionary-typed parameters.

Also, as Spencer Hall points out, {} isn't a dictionary literal in Swift. The empty dictionary is written:

[:] 

As of XCode 6 Beta 2, this solution allows you to create constraints with the visual format:

var viewBindingsDict: NSMutableDictionary = NSMutableDictionary() viewBindingsDict.setValue(fooView, forKey: "fooView") viewBindingsDict.setValue(barView, forKey: "barView") self.view.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-[fooView]-[barView]-|", options: nil, metrics: nil, views: viewBindingsDict))