Block / method / function comparison in Swift

Playground.swift

import Foundation

// Some interesting observations on block comparing. Apparently swift nor objective c don't allow comparing closures
// due to the complexity of the process and because of compiler optimisations… bla bla. But it seems to be possible
// to do this using conventions blocks, aka the objective c ones that can be cast as objects. The interesting part 
// is how swift freely casts SwfBlock to ObjBlock, yet in reality two casted SwfBlock blocks will always be different
// values, while ObjBlocks won't. When we cast ObjBlock to SwfBlock, the same thing happens to them, they become two
// different values. So, in order to preserve the reference, this sort of casting should be avoided.

typealias SwfBlock = () -> ()
typealias ObjBlock = @convention(block) () -> ()

func testSwfBlock(a: SwfBlock, _ b: SwfBlock) -> String {
    let objA = unsafeBitCast(a as ObjBlock, AnyObject.self)
    let objB = unsafeBitCast(b as ObjBlock, AnyObject.self)
    return "a is ObjBlock: \(a is ObjBlock), b is ObjBlock: \(b is ObjBlock), objA === objB: \(objA === objB)"
}

func testObjBlock(a: ObjBlock, _ b: ObjBlock) -> String {
    let objA = unsafeBitCast(a, AnyObject.self)
    let objB = unsafeBitCast(b, AnyObject.self)
    return "a is ObjBlock: \(a is ObjBlock), b is ObjBlock: \(b is ObjBlock), objA === objB: \(objA === objB)"
}

func testAnyBlock(a: Any?, _ b: Any?) -> String {
    if !(a is ObjBlock) || !(b is ObjBlock) {
        return "a nor b are ObjBlock, they are not equal"
    }
    let objA = unsafeBitCast(a as! ObjBlock, AnyObject.self)
    let objB = unsafeBitCast(b as! ObjBlock, AnyObject.self)
    return "a is ObjBlock: \(a is ObjBlock), b is ObjBlock: \(b is ObjBlock), objA === objB: \(objA === objB)"
}

class Foo
{
    lazy var swfBlock: ObjBlock = self.swf
    func swf() { print("swf") }
    @objc func obj() { print("obj") }
}

let swfBlock: SwfBlock = { print("swf") }
let objBlock: ObjBlock = { print("obj") }
let foo: Foo = Foo()

print(testSwfBlock(swfBlock, swfBlock)) // a is ObjBlock: false, b is ObjBlock: false, objA === objB: false
print(testSwfBlock(objBlock, objBlock)) // a is ObjBlock: false, b is ObjBlock: false, objA === objB: false

print(testObjBlock(swfBlock, swfBlock)) // a is ObjBlock: true, b is ObjBlock: true, objA === objB: false
print(testObjBlock(objBlock, objBlock)) // a is ObjBlock: true, b is ObjBlock: true, objA === objB: true

print(testAnyBlock(swfBlock, swfBlock)) // a nor b are ObjBlock, they are not equal
print(testAnyBlock(objBlock, objBlock)) //a is ObjBlock: true, b is ObjBlock: true, objA === objB: true

print(testObjBlock(foo.swf, foo.swf)) // a is ObjBlock: true, b is ObjBlock: true, objA === objB: false
print(testSwfBlock(foo.obj, foo.obj)) // a is ObjBlock: false, b is ObjBlock: false, objA === objB: false
print(testAnyBlock(foo.swf, foo.swf)) // a nor b are ObjBlock, they are not equal
print(testAnyBlock(foo.swfBlock, foo.swfBlock)) // a is ObjBlock: true, b is ObjBlock: true, objA === objB: true