Swifts' tuple and C++'s tuple

"Both have tuple, so why not compare and contrast them?" led to this write up.

Cutting right to the chase, here are the similarities and differences between swift and C++ tuple.

Basically both language tuples set out to achieve the same. To provide an anonymous structure like construct where zero or more heterogenous elements can be used without worrying about creating a class or structure. Used mainly with functions who have multiple elements to be returned.

You can read all about Swift tuple here and C++ tuple here  and lots of other online documents. So in this post I am not going to go into the syntactical differences. Rather, lets look at one single seemingly hidden usage difference keeping this blog post as crisp and clean as possible.

C++
In C++ some people thing using anonymous structs leads to long long hours of excruciating debugging, which could be reduced by  using clear, visible named structs.

The main irking factor regarding C++ tuple according to my humble opinion is the lack of programmer readable member names for each element.

For e.g If you have to access elements of a C++ tuple, you would have to do this:

#include

std::tuple GetCustomerInfo(unsigned long BillID)

{

   //retrieve bill details 

   return std::make_tuple(Name, Phone, Amount);

}

int main()

{

  auto cust = GetCustomerInfo(BillID); //assume BillID is valid

  std::cout << "Name:" << std::get<0>(cust) << endl; // usage of const numbers instead of proper member names is a well intentioned trap for longer crazier debugging hours. 

  std::cout << "Contact:'" << std::get<1>(cust) << endl;

  std::cout << "Amount:" << std::get<2>(cust) << endl;

}

Swift:
Now that C++ code is looked into, it should be relieving to know that swift eliminates that bothersome aspect by providing member names.

func GetCustomerInfo(BillID: UInt) -> (Name: String, Contact: String, BillAmount: Float)?{ //return optional tuple value

//retrieve values here

//if bill id is not found in the database return nil

return (Name, Contact, Amount);

}

//in another function

if let cust = GetCustomerInfo(BillID) { //if not nil, process value

print("Name: \(cust.Name) \n Contact: \(cust.Contact) \n Amount: \(cust.BillAmount)";

}