Want to ignore return values? Use @discardableresult !!!

Sakshi
1 min readJan 14, 2024

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In Swift, the @discardableResult attribute is used to indicate that it's acceptable to ignore the return value of a function. By applying @discardableResult to a function that returns a value, you're letting the compiler know that it's intentional if the return value is not used, and it won't generate a warning for unused results.

Here’s an example:

class MyClass {
@discardableResult
func doSomething() -> Int {
// Perform some operation
return 42
}
}

let myObject = MyClass()
myObject.doSomething() // No warning about ignoring the return value

In this example, the doSomething function returns an integer, but with @discardableResult, you can call the function without assigning its result to a variable or using it in any way, and the compiler won't generate a warning.

PS: It’s important to use @discardableResult with caution and only in cases where intentionally ignoring the return value makes sense. It's typically applied to functions that have a meaningful return value but where that return value might not be needed in all situations.

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