Shorthand Dot Syntax In Swift

Oct 26, 2025

About

Just dumping some code from a short study done on shorthand dot syntax in Swift. I tried three different ways:

Stored type properties on the method parameter type (struct)
Stored type properties on the extension of the method parameter type (struct)
Stored type properties and cases on the method parameter type (enum)

Code

import SwiftUI

// example 1

extension String {
    static let helloworld: String = "helloworld"
}

struct Foobar {
    func run(helloworld: String) {
        print(helloworld)
    }
}

// example 2

struct Helloworld {
    let text: String

    static let french: Helloworld = Helloworld(text: "bonjour!")
    static let english: Helloworld = Helloworld(text: "Hello, World!")
}

struct Foobaz {
    func run(helloworld: Helloworld) {
        print(helloworld.text)
    }
}

// example 3

enum Bye {
    case french(String)
    case english(String)
    case other(String)
    static let mandarin: Bye = Bye.other("再见")
    static let spanish: String = "adios!"
}

struct Qux {
    func run(bye: Bye) {

    }
}

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Image(systemName: "globe")
                .imageScale(.large)
                .foregroundStyle(.tint)
            Text("Hello, world!")
        }
        .padding()
        .onAppear {
            // XXX: You can choose stored type properties on an extension.
            let foobar = Foobar()
            foobar.run(helloworld: .helloworld)

            // XXX: You can choose stored type properties.
            let foobaz = Foobaz()
            foobaz.run(helloworld: .english)

            // XXX: You can choose both case and stored type properties.
            let qux = Qux()
            qux.run(bye: .french("adieu."))
            qux.run(bye: .mandarin)
            // qux.run(bye: .spanish) // XXX: won't compile because it resolves to a string, but auto-completion offers it.
        }
    }
}