The point of optionals is that they leak, and leak visibly. You cannot use an optional where a non-optional is expected, whereas in C nothing will stop you from

The point of optionals is that they leak, and leak visibly. You cannot use an optional where a non-optional is expected, whereas in C nothing will stop you from writing `x->y` when x is, or might be, NULL. Thus the optional (and non-optional) types turn null pointer errors into compiler errors. If you wish to reduce "leakiness", you can dispatch on the null-ness of the variable; Swift lets you write `if let x = x { /* x is non-optional in here * / }`, which binds a non-optional value inside the braces, and `guard let x = x else { return } /* x is non-optional now * /` which binds a non-optional value after the braces. So as soon as you consume an optional value, you are free to "un-leak" it and extract its value (if it has one) immediately.