0011-replace-typealias-associated.md

Replace typealias keyword with associatedtype for associated type declarations

• Proposal: SE-0011
• Author(s): Loïc Lecrenier
• Status: Accepted for Swift 2.2 (Bug)
• Review Manager: Doug Gregor

Introduction

The typealias keyword is currently used to declare two kinds of types:

1. Type Aliases (alternative name for an existing type)
2. Associated Types (placeholder name to type used as part of a protocol)

These two kinds of declarations are different and should use distinct keywords. This would emphasize the difference between them and reduce some of the confusion surrounding the use of associated types.

The proposed new keyword is associatedtype.

Motivation

Re-using typealias for associated type declarations is confusing in many ways.

1. It is not obvious that typealias in protocols means something else than in other places.
2. It hides the existence of associated types to beginners, which allows them to write code they misunderstand.
3. It is not clear that concrete type aliases are forbidden inside protocols.

In particular, 2 + 3 leads to programmers writing

protocol Prot {
    typealias Container : SequenceType
    typealias Element = Container.Generator.Element
}

without realizing that Element is a new associated type with a default value of Container.Generator.Element instead of a type alias to Container.Generator.Element.

However, this code

protocol Prot {
    typealias Container : SequenceType
}
extension Prot {
    typealias Element = Container.Generator.Element
}

declares Element as a type alias to Container.Generator.Element.

These subtleties of the language currently require careful consideration to understand.

Proposed solution

For declaring associated types, replace the typealias keyword with associatedtype.

This solves the issues mentioned above:

1. typealias can now only be used for type aliases declaration.
2. Beginners are now forced to learn about associated types when creating protocols.
3. An error message can now be displayed when someone tries to create a type alias inside a protocol.

This eliminates the confusion showed in the previous code snippets.

protocol Prot {
    associatedtype Container : SequenceType
    typealias Element = Container.Generator.Element // error: cannot declare type alias inside protocol, use protocol extension instead
}

protocol Prot {
    associatedtype Container : SequenceType
}
extension Prot {
    typealias Element = Container.Generator.Element
}

Alternative keywords considered: type, associated, requiredtype, placeholdertype, …

Proposed Approach

For declaring associated types, I suggest adding associatedtype and deprecating typealias in Swift 2.2, and removing typealias entirely in Swift 3.

Impact on existing code

As it simply replaces one keyword for another, the transition to associatedtype could be easily automated without any risk of breaking existing code.

Mailing List

• Original
• Alternative Keywords