Adding default values to subscript arguments in Swift 5.2

The ability to define custom subscripts in Swift is really powerful. It allows us to write very natural and concise code. Consider the following example of a Grid with a custom subscript:

struct Grid {
  let items : [[GridItem]]

  subscript(x x: Int, y y: Int) -> GridItem? {
    guard !items.isEmpty, (items.startIndex...items.index(before: items.endIndex)).contains(x)
      else { return nil }

    let row = items[x]

    guard !row.isEmpty, (row.startIndex...row.index(before: row.endIndex)).contains(y)
      else { return nil }

    return row[y]
  }
}

Note that subscripts don't use labels by default. To make a subscript use labels, you need to manually declare the subscript label twice like I did in the code above (x x: Int and y y: Int). A subscript like the above would be used as follows:

let item = grid[x: 10, y: 2]

This example works fine in Swift 5.1 and earlier versions in Swift. New in Swift 5.2 is the ability to provide default values for subscript arguments:

struct Grid {
  let items : [[GridItem]]

  subscript(x x: Int = 0, y y: Int = 0) -> GridItem? {
    guard !items.isEmpty, (items.startIndex...items.index(before: items.endIndex)).contains(x)
      else { return nil }

    let row = items[x]

    guard !row.isEmpty, (row.startIndex...row.index(before: row.endIndex)).contains(y)
      else { return nil }

    return row[y]
  }
}

This code is almost the same as the first example, except the subscript now has default arguments. This means that you can use the subscript as follows:

let item = grid[y: 2]

This will automatically call the subscript with a default value of 0 for the x argument.

The fact that it wasn't possible to define default subscript arguments in Swift before was kind of a surprise for me to be honest, but I'm really happy that we have the possibility now. I think it will allow many people to write better subscripts for their objects.