How do I make an enum Decodable in swift 4?

Solution 1:

It's pretty easy, just use String or Int raw values which are implicitly assigned.

enum PostType: Int, Codable {
    case image, blob
}

image is encoded to 0 and blob to 1

Or

enum PostType: String, Codable {
    case image, blob
}

image is encoded to "image" and blob to "blob"

This is a simple example how to use it:

enum PostType : Int, Codable {
    case count = 4
}

struct Post : Codable {
    var type : PostType
}

let jsonString = "{\"type\": 4}"

let jsonData = Data(jsonString.utf8)

do {
    let decoded = try JSONDecoder().decode(Post.self, from: jsonData)
    print("decoded:", decoded.type)
} catch {
    print(error)
}

Solution 2:

How to make enums with associated types conform to Codable

This answer is similar to @Howard Lovatt's but avoids creating a PostTypeCodableForm struct and instead uses the KeyedEncodingContainer type provided by Apple as a property on Encoder and Decoder, which reduces boilerplate.

enum PostType: Codable {
    case count(number: Int)
    case title(String)
}

extension PostType {

    private enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case count
        case title
    }

    enum PostTypeCodingError: Error {
        case decoding(String)
    }

    init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
        let values = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        if let value = try? values.decode(Int.self, forKey: .count) {
            self = .count(number: value)
            return
        }
        if let value = try? values.decode(String.self, forKey: .title) {
            self = .title(value)
            return
        }
        throw PostTypeCodingError.decoding("Whoops! \(dump(values))")
    }

    func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
        var container = encoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        switch self {
        case .count(let number):
            try container.encode(number, forKey: .count)
        case .title(let value):
            try container.encode(value, forKey: .title)
        }
    }
}

This code works for me on Xcode 9b3.

import Foundation // Needed for JSONEncoder/JSONDecoder

let encoder = JSONEncoder()
encoder.outputFormatting = .prettyPrinted
let decoder = JSONDecoder()

let count = PostType.count(number: 42)
let countData = try encoder.encode(count)
let countJSON = String.init(data: countData, encoding: .utf8)!
print(countJSON)
//    {
//      "count" : 42
//    }

let decodedCount = try decoder.decode(PostType.self, from: countData)

let title = PostType.title("Hello, World!")
let titleData = try encoder.encode(title)
let titleJSON = String.init(data: titleData, encoding: .utf8)!
print(titleJSON)
//    {
//        "title": "Hello, World!"
//    }
let decodedTitle = try decoder.decode(PostType.self, from: titleData)