Well sure, except if the array is optional (and I agree it's code smell, but that's what you get when you use other peoples' libraries, I guess) that statement

Well sure, except if the array is optional (and I agree it's code smell, but that's what you get when you use other peoples' libraries, I guess) that statement doesn't unwrap the array for me to use; I'll either need to do it manually on a second line (waste of effort) or every time I try accessing that variable. If I access it a lot, this is inefficient duplication. Plus, I don't like abusing the nil coalescing operator. Once you're abusing anything, you're adding signal to noise and making the intent of a statement less clear than necessarily, I feel. +1 for isEmpty, though. According to the docs, count iterates over collections that don't conform to RandomAccessCollection, so best to avoid unnecessary overhead by adopting good practice! Thanks for that.