Custom class clusters in Swift

Question

This is a relatively common design pattern:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/17015041/743957

It allows you to return a subclass from your init calls.

Answer 1

The "swifty" way of creating class clusters would actually be to expose a protocol instead of a base class.

Apparently the compiler forbids static functions on protocols or protocol extensions.

Until e.g. https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/pull/247 (factory initializers) is accepted and implemented, the only way I could find to do this is the following:

import Foundation

protocol Building {
    func numberOfFloors() -> Int
}

func createBuilding(numberOfFloors numFloors: Int) -> Building? {
    switch numFloors {
    case 1...4:
        return SmallBuilding(numberOfFloors: numFloors)
    case 5...20:
        return BigBuilding(numberOfFloors: numFloors)
    case 21...200:
        return SkyScraper(numberOfFloors: numFloors)
    default:
        return nil
    }
}

private class BaseBuilding: Building {
    let numFloors: Int

    init(numberOfFloors:Int) {
        self.numFloors = numberOfFloors
    }

    func numberOfFloors() -> Int {
        return self.numFloors
    }
}

private class SmallBuilding: BaseBuilding {
}

private class BigBuilding: BaseBuilding {
}

private class SkyScraper: BaseBuilding {
}

.

// this sadly does not work as static functions are not allowed on protocols.
//let skyscraper = Building.create(numberOfFloors: 200)
//let bigBuilding = Building.create(numberOfFloors: 15)
//let smallBuilding = Building.create(numberOfFloors: 2)

// Workaround:
let skyscraper = createBuilding(numberOfFloors: 200)
let bigBuilding = createBuilding(numberOfFloors: 15)
let smallBuilding = createBuilding(numberOfFloors: 2)