Recap

Lets have another look at the explanation we gave at the beginning and see if it became clearer now.

Enums declare types with finite sets of possible states and accompanying values. With nesting, methods, associated values, and pattern matching, however, enums can define any hierarchically organized data.

The definition is a lot clearer now. Indeed, if we add associated values and nesting, an enum case is like a closed, simplified struct. The advantage over structs being the ability to encode categorization and hierachy:

// Struct Example

struct Point { let x: Int, y: Int }

struct Rect { let x: Int, y: Int, width: Int, height: Int }



// Enum Example

enum GeometricEntity {

    case point(x: Int, y: Int)

    case rect(x: Int, y: Int, width: Int, height: Int)

}

The addition of methods and static methods allow us to attach functionality to an enum without having to resort to free functions

// C-Like example

enum Trade {

    case buy

    case sell

}

func order(trade: Trade)



// Swift Enum example

enum Trade {

    case buy

    case sell

    func order() {}

}