Associated Types and Self

Another vector which can introduce associated types into your codebase is the usage of Self:

protocol Example {

   /// Indirect Associated Type

   var builder: Self { get }

   /// Indirect Associated Type

   func makeSomething(with example: Self)

}

var myExamples: [Example] = []

As you can see in the example above, using Self as a method parameter or using Self as a property type automatically introduces an associated type (like we saw with Equatable, earlier).

The most helpful note here is that once you use a method instead of a property in order to return something of type Self you will not opt in to an associated type:

protocol Example {

   /// No Indirect Associated Type

   func builder() -> Self

}

var myExamples: [Example] = []

This example works fine. No indirect associated type is introduced.