Swift3 - Binary operator '==' cannot be applied to operands of type 'AnyObject?' and 'FileAttributeType'

Question

I am trying to check FileAttributeType. Here is my logic to compare:-

let attributes = try fileManager.attributesOfItem(atPath: "/Users/AUSER/Desktop/Downloads")
            print(attributes)

            if (attributes[FileAttributeKey.type] as AnyObject? == FileAttributeType.typeSymbolicLink ){
                print("YESSS \(attributes[FileAttributeKey.type])")
            }

Error-> Binary operator '==' cannot be applied to operands of type 'AnyObject?' and 'FileAttributeType'

Answer 1

The (big) mistake is that you cast a very specific type

static let type: FileAttributeKey

The corresponding value is an String object

to a very unspecific type AnyObject. AnyObject cannot be compared.

---

Cast the type to String and compare with the rawValue of the FileAttributeType

if attributes[FileAttributeKey.type] as? String == FileAttributeType.typeSymbolicLink.rawValue {

Side note: It's highly recommended to use always URLs rather than string paths and get the file attributes directly from the URL

let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/Users/AUSER/Desktop/Downloads")
if let resourceValues = try? url.resourceValues(forKeys: [.fileResourceTypeKey]),
    resourceValues.fileResourceType! == .symbolicLink {
    print("YESSS \(resourceValues.fileResourceType!.rawValue)")
}