Chapter 21. Generics
When we introduced optionals and collection types earlier in this book, we briefly showed you the “long-form” syntax for each type, like:
Optional<String>Array<String>Dictionary<String>Set<String>
Most of these types have a preferred shorthand syntax, like String? or [String], and we did not really discuss the angle bracket syntax except to show you that it exists.
We also told you that, for example, Array<String> is not the same type as Array<Int>.
And that is true – but the Swift standard library only defines one Array.
So what is the deal with the Array<String> type and others like it? You are ready to find out.
Optional and the collection types like Array are what we call generic types, because they are designed to ...
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