Variable name conflicts with function name leads to “Variable used within its own initial value”

Question

Having this function

private func date(from string: String) {
    // Do thing with string
}

when calling it with

let date = date(from: "11:30")

it produces the following error

Variable used within its own initial value

obviously changing the code to

let anythingButDate = date(from: "11:30")

will make the error go away but I am trying to understand why there is a conflict between variable name and method name in the first place.

UPDATE :

To be more precise - I understand that the compiler is having issues with giving the variable and the function the same name but I am curious why can't it distinguish that one is a variable name and the other is a function name.

Answer 1

There is no big distinction between functions and variables because even a variable can hold a function or closure. What you have is a conflict of identifiers.

You can use

date = self.date(...)

to make the intent clear.

Answer 2

Your function is called date , even though it has a parameter it will conflict if you´re trying to call a variable the same name in this case date . What happens is that the compiler tries to use the declared constant date to assign its own initial value.

When you use anythingButDate then it´s fine because your function is not called that and you don´t have any other function called anythingButDate .

let date = date(from: "11:30") // will not work
let datex = date(from: "11:30") // will work
let anythingButDate = date(from: "11:30") // will work