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Can you explain the difference between being required to conform to Hashable and being unable to conform to Hashable in the Swift compiler's dictionary key?

asked 2023-03-31 11:00:00 +0000

pufferfish gravatar image

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answered 2023-02-26 21:00:00 +0000

devzero gravatar image

Sure!

When a type is "required to conform to Hashable", it means that in order to use that type as a key in a dictionary, it must implement the Hashable protocol. This is a fundamental requirement of Swift's dictionary type - keys must be hashable so that the dictionary can efficiently store and look up values based on keys.

On the other hand, when a type is "unable to conform to Hashable" it means that it cannot implement the necessary methods and requirements of the Hashable protocol. This can happen if the type contains non-hashable data, or if it doesn't make sense to compute a hash value for instances of that type. For example, you might have a class that represents a complex network connection, and it wouldn't make sense to compute a hash value for that connection - so it would be unable to conform to Hashable.

In short, being required to conform to Hashable means that a type must be hashable in order to be used as a dictionary key, while being unable to conform to Hashable means that a type cannot be used as a dictionary key because it cannot be hashed.

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Asked: 2023-03-31 11:00:00 +0000

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Last updated: Feb 26