Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
104 lines (81 loc) · 3.09 KB

Any_or_AnyObject_in_Swift.md

File metadata and controls

104 lines (81 loc) · 3.09 KB
created author version license(s) copyright
2024-11-30 22:13:34 -0800
Cong Le
1.0
MIT, CC BY 4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Cong Le. All Rights Reserved.

Any or AnyObject in Swift

This content is dual-licensed under your choice of the following licenses:

  1. MIT License: For the code implementations in Swift, Mermaid and any other programming languages provided in this document.
  2. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0): For all other content, including the text, explanations, and the Mermaid diagrams and illustrations.

Below is a set of Mermaid diagrams to visually explain Any and AnyObject in Swift.

Diagram 1: Type Hierarchy

This diagram illustrates the relationship between Any, AnyObject, concrete types (like Person, Animal, Int, String, Bool), and bridged Objective-C types (like NSNumber and NSString).

classDiagram
    Any <|-- AnyObject
    AnyObject <|-- Person
    AnyObject <|-- Animal
		AnyObject <|-- NSNumber : Bridged from Int
    AnyObject <|-- NSString : Bridged from String
    Any <|-- Int
    Any <|-- String
    Any <|-- Bool
    Person : +String name
    Animal : +String name
    class Person{
        +init(name: String)
    }
    class Animal{
       +init(name: String)
    }
Loading

Diagram 2: Array Storage

This diagram shows how different types can be stored in arrays of Any and AnyObject, highlighting the bridging behavior.

graph LR
    A[Array of Any] --> B{1}
    A --> C{"2"}
    A --> D[true]
    B --> B1(Int)
    C --> C1(String)
    D --> D1(Bool)

    E[Array of AnyObject] --> F[Person Instance]
    E --> G[Animal Instance]
		E --> H["1 as AnyObject"]
		H --> H1(NSNumber)
    F --> F1(Person Class)
    G --> G1(Animal Class)
Loading

Diagram 3: Type Casting and Identification

This diagram demonstrates how to use is to check types within an Any array and the bridging that occurs when value types are cast to AnyObject.

graph TD
    A[Element in Any Array] --> B{Is String?};
    B -- Yes --> C[String];
    B -- No --> D{Is Int?};
    D -- Yes --> E[Int];
    D -- No --> F{Is Bool?};
    F -- Yes --> G[Bool];
		F -- No --> H{Other Type};

		I[Element in AnyObject Array] --> J{Is Int?}
		J -- Yes --> K[Int]
		J-- No --> L{"Type(of: obj) = NSNumber"}
		L --> M[NSNumber - Bridged]
Loading

Diagram 4: Bridging in Detail

This diagram specifically focuses on the bridging process from Swift value types to Objective-C reference types.

graph LR
    A[Swift Int] -- Cast to AnyObject --> B{Bridging}
    B --> C[Objective-C NSNumber]
    D[Swift String] -- Cast to AnyObject --> E{Bridging}
    E --> F[Objective-C NSString]
Loading

Licenses: