Last time we revisited a topic that we know and love: algebraic data types. We explored how in the Swift type system Swift, multiplication manifests itself in product types, like structs and tuples, and addition manifests itself in sum types, like enums. We saw that, just like in algebra, addition and multiplication, and structs and enums are just two sides of the same coin: no one is more important than the other. And we saw that many of the things we love about structs do in fact have a corresponding feature on enums, and vice versa.

However, we also saw that product types definitely see some favoritism over enums in the language design. We saw this especially in how Swift gives us anonymous structs in the form of tuples, but there is no corresponding anonymous enum type. We theorized how it might look and we may even have it in the language some day because it’d be a really nice tool to have.

Now anonymous sum types isn’t something we can fix ourselves, but there are other examples of struct favoritism that we can correct by bringing enums up to the same level.