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I used the map function in Swift to iterate on a bunch of subviews and remove them from a superview.

self.buttons.map { $0.removeFromSuperview() }

When I upgraded from Swift 1.x to 2.0, Xcode gave a warning that the return value from map was unused. So I assigned it with let x = ... and I got another warning:

enter image description here

So I let Xcode fix the warning for me, and it gave me this:

_ = self.buttons.map { $0.removeFromSuperview() }

What is the significance of an underscore when not in the context of a method parameter? What does it mean?

I do know that when a method parameter is anonymous, the underscore takes their place. I'm talking about an underscore in the middle of a method. It's not part of a message.

HangarRash
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Moshe
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    This question answered here. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30876068/what-is-in-swift-telling-me And here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24437388/whats-the-underscore-representative-of-in-swift-references – Durul Dalkanat Nov 10 '15 at 01:26
  • Every single other question about the underscore in Swift discusses the case of a method name, where the underscore eliminates the need for internal and external parameter names. I'm seeing the underscore in the middle of a method. Contextually, a big difference. – Moshe Nov 10 '15 at 05:41
  • Possible duplicate of [What does the underscore mean in this case?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32656095/what-does-the-underscore-mean-in-this-case) – Eric Aya Nov 10 '15 at 08:52

3 Answers3

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An underscore denotes the fact that you need to set a variable, but you do not plan on using the variable in the future. Instead of giving it an elaborate name, an underscore will be more simple and less clutter, especially in the case that the variable name doesn't matter. (since you do not use it again.)

Acoop
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  • Python wouldn't care that you're not using a return value and just let you run the function without assigning it to a variable at all. – Adam Nelson Sep 13 '16 at 20:04
  • Am i understand correctly that this (assigning value from right side to underscore variable) done only to hide compilation warning? – Pasha Apr 07 '17 at 15:31
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A parameter whose local name is an underscore is ignored. The caller must supply an argument, but it has no name within the function body and cannot be referred to there. It is basically a parameter placeholder that you are not going to use for anything in the body.

Caleb Bach
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If I'm not mistaken this carried over from Objective-C. When you did not "use" your pointer at all in the app, you would get a warning. In Swift 2 I believe they tried to implement something similar.

Grimxn
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Antonio Lipiz
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