If Let Shorthand

ID

swift.if_let_shorthand

Severity

info

Remediation Complexity

medium

Remediation Risk

low

Remediation Effort

medium

Resource

Code Smell

Language

Swift

Tags

code-smell, redundant-code, swift-5-7

Description

Reports an if let x = x { …​ } binding whose initializer is a bare identifier identical to the bound name. Swift 5.7 introduced a shorthand that drops the redundant = x:

if let foo = foo { ... }                    // FLAW
if let x = x, let y = y { ... }             // FLAW (one per binding)

if let foo { ... }                          // OK — shorthand
if let foo = self.foo { ... }               // OK — member access
if let bar = bar?.advanced(by: 1) { ... }   // OK — chain
if let value = foo { ... }                  // OK — renamed binding

Rationale

When the initializer is a bare reference to the same name being unwrapped, the = name is pure noise. The shorthand form (if let name) reads cleaner and makes the intent — "shadow this optional with its unwrapped value" — explicit. This is the sibling rule of swift.guard_let_shorthand.

Remediation

Drop the redundant = name:

if let foo { ... }
if let x, let y { ... }

The rule does not fire when the initializer is anything richer than a bare identifier (member access, call, chain, prefix/postfix operator, literal, …).

References