Opposite of __conversion in Swift to assign to a value of a different type

Question

Swift provides a special method called __conversion that allows you to implicitly convert your type to another type. I would like to be able to define a method that

Answer 1

Have you tried adding an extension to String?

extension String {
    func __conversion() -> MyClass {
        var myInstance = MyClass()
        myInstance.myString = self
        return myInstance
    }
}

It worked in an iOS playground in Xcode 6 Beta 4.

let anInstance: MyClass = "test"

---

To deal with generics:

class MyClass<T> {
    var myString = ""
    var myT : T?
}

extension String {
    func __conversion<T>() -> MyClass<T> {
        var myInstance = MyClass<T>()
        myInstance.myString = self
        return myInstance
    }
}

let anInstance: MyClass<Int> = "test"

---

BTW: I think the Apple approved answer is an init method.

let anInstance = MyClass(myString: "test")

Answer 2

It turns out that __conversion is a private method and will be removed by the end of the beta so this will definitely not be possible once Swift is released.