Sometimes you need one of these, one of those, or nothing... this is an example of that case.

ObjectOrText.swift

enum ObjectOrString {
    case Object(NSObject)
    case Text(String)
    case Empty
    
    func object() -> NSObject? {
        switch self {
            case let .Object(obj): return obj
            default: return nil
        }
    }
    
    func text() -> String? {
        switch self {
            case let .Text(text): return text
            default: return nil
        }
    }
}


let one = ObjectOrString.Object(NSObject())
let two = ObjectOrString.Text("yeah there")

let mixedArray : [ObjectOrString] = [one, two, ObjectOrString.Empty]

for thing in mixedArray {
    if let obj = thing.object() {
        println("Yes it's an object \(obj.hash)")
    } else if let text = thing.text() {
        println("Yes it's a string \(text)")
    } else {
        println("it's blank")
    }
}