How to make extension for multiple classes Swift

Question

I have an extension:

extension UILabel {
    func animateHidden(flag: Bool) {
        self.hidden = flag
    }
}

I need to make the same one for UIImageView but I don't want to copy that whole code. Is it possible to make an extension for multiple classes?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You could make a protocol and extend it.

Something like:

protocol Animations {
    func animateHidden(flag: Bool)
}

extension Animations {
    func animateHidden(flag: Bool) {
        // some code
    }
}

extension UILabel: Animations {}

extension UIImageView: Animations {}

Your method will be available for the extended classes:

let l = UILabel()
l.animateHidden(false)

let i = UIImageView()
i.animateHidden(false)

In a comment, you've asked: "in this case how to call self for UILabel and UIImageView in animateHidden function?". You do that by constraining the extension.

Example with a where clause:

extension Animations where Self: UIView {
    func animateHidden(flag: Bool) {
        self.hidden = flag
    }
}

Thanks to @Knight0fDragon for his excellent comment about the where clause.