This topic came up at work last week, with lots of different opinions on how to deal with optionals, so I was happy to see a clear opinion here.

👉 The Danger of Playing it Safe

For any non-programmers reading this, a force-unwrap means that if your app comes across a value that just simply doesn’t exist at all ☁, then let the app crash right then and there 💥.

This article distinguishes between development, where it’s okay (and in sometimes encouraged) to crash, and production, where it’s never okay. I like the case here for avoiding poisoned app states that can occur with nil values. Just die already, already! 🤷🏻‍♂️ This article basically says that some development crashes are good because they expose problems, and to take a more aggressive approach with force unwrapping.

So be assertive with forced unwrapping. If there is no case where the optional should ever be nil, force unwrap

I think I’ll start taking more chances with force unwrapping and point to this article next time it comes up in a code review. 😉

Via iOS Dev Weekly.