Stack implementation using Swift

I would like to request some code review and feedback on a stack implementation using Swift.

Disclaimer: I might have not used protocols, optional unwrapping and error and nil check correctly (still trying to figure out the essence of protocols - but that's the drill I'm going through now).

```
import Foundation

/ Node conformance /
protocol NodeProtocol {

typealias IDType;
typealias IDNode;
func insertNode(element : IDType, nextNode : IDNode?);
}

/ Stack's conformance prototol /
protocol StackProtocol {

typealias IDType;
/ Function to push element on stack /
func push(element : IDType);
}

class IDNode : NodeProtocol
{
var element: IDType?;
var nextNode: IDNode?;

/ Sets the element and updates next pointer /
func insertNode(element: IDType, nextNode: IDNode?) {

self.element = element;
self.nextNode = nextNode;
}
}

class IDStack : StackProtocol
{
private var stackHead: IDNode?;

init() {

/ Constructor to initialize the stack /
stackHead = IDNode();
}

func push(element: IDType) {

/* If stackHead is empty - just create a new stack
* Ideally the constructor should have taken care of this.
* but in our case - because of optional. stackHead can be NULL.
* So we don't want to take any chance while pushing element to stack.
*/
if(stackHead == nil) {
stackHead = IDNode();
}

/* if stack's first element is empty - Insert as the first element
* At this point stack is guaranteed not NULL. Right?
* What if memory allocation fails from above?
*/
if(stackHead!.element == nil) {
stackHead!.insertNode(element, nextNode: nil);
}else {
/ create a new node and insert the new element at top /
var nodeToPushInStack: IDNode! = IDNode();
/* I'm assuming memory allocation always passes from above.
*

Let's start with some general remarks:

-
Swift does not require semicolons after statements (but they are allowed). From what I have seen since Swift was introduced last year,
most people do not write semicolons in Swift.

-
Classes are reference types, and the properties of an instance of a class
can be modified even if the instance is declares as a constant with let.
Therefore you can replace var by let at many places in your code,
e.g.

let nodeToPushInStack: IDNode! = IDNode()

-
Often an explicit type annotation is not necessary because the compiler
can infer the type of an expression automatically. E.g. the above statement can be shortened to

let nodeToPushInStack = IDNode()

Now the "major" points. To simplify things, I'll consider the
implementation without protocols first, so in the first part
of this answer I'll ignore your protocol definitions and assume that
the classes are defined as

class IDNode { ... }
class IDStack { ... }

First the IDNode class: You have defined element as a variable
and optional, but actually node elements are cannot be nil and
are never mutated once a node has been been pushed on the stack.

You probably did that because you create "empty" nodes first and then
call the insertNode() method to set the element and next pointer.
Another reason is that you use nodes "without an element", but I'll come
back to that later.

I would suggest to make element a constant and non-optional
and replace the insertNode() method by an init method:

class IDNode 
{
    let element: IDType
    let nextNode: IDNode?

    init(element : IDType, before: IDNode?) {
        self.element = element
        self.nextNode = before
    }
}

Which leads us to the IDStack class: The push and pop methods are
a bit too complicated. The reason is that you use a single node
with element == nil for an empty stack, a single node with
element != nil for a stack with a single element, and then
a linked list of nodes for two or more elements.

It becomes much simpler if you use a linked list with one node for each element in each case, and stackHead points to the front node,
or is nil for an empty stack. Then you don't need an init() method
because the optional property

private var stackHead: IDNode?

is automatically initialized to nil, and pushing an element
simplifies to

func push(element: IDType) {
    let newNode = IDNode(element: element, before: stackHead)
    stackHead = newNode
}

Popping an element becomes simpler as well. Note that the preferred
way to check an optional (here: stackHead) for nil is optional
binding:

func popElement() -> IDType? {
    if let firstNode = stackHead {
        let element = firstNode.element
        stackHead = firstNode.nextNode
        return element
    } else {
        return nil
    }
}

Remark: Your comment

/* Stack is empty / not initialized */

is misleading: Variables cannot be uninitialized in Swift. This is
ensured by the compiler and one of the major design goals in Swift.

Finally your getLength() method: Using Double as return type seems
quite strange to me, Int would be appropriate. And I would use
a computed property count instead, similar to the count property
of Swift's sequence types.

Modifying self.stackHead inside the method temporarily is a bad idea
and I can see no reason to do so. Use a local variable instead which
traverses through the linked list, and again use optional binding
to check if you have hit the end of the list:

var count : Int {
    var numItems = 0
    var currentNode = self.stackHead
    while let node = currentNode {
        numItems++
        currentNode = node.nextNode
    }
    return numItems;
}

Back to the protocols: Defining a protocol for "Stack" makes only sense
if it contains all required methods:

protocol StackProtocol {

    typealias IDType
    func push(element : IDType)
    func popElement() -> IDType?
    var count : Int { get }
}

Then you can create an instance of IDStack and pass it to a function
that expects a StackProtocol. Simple example:

func test(stack : S) {
    stack.push("foo")
    stack.push("bar")
    stack.push("baz")
    print(stack.count)

    while let element = stack.popElement() {
        print(element)
    }
}

test(IDStack())

Of course you can also define protocols for both the node and the
stack type. Now the node protocol should contain all required
properties and methods:

protocol NodeProtocol {
    typealias IDType
    var element : IDType { get }
    var nextNode : Self? { get }
    init(element : IDType, before: Self?)
}

and a concrete implementation would be

final class IDNode : NodeProtocol
{
    let element: IDType
    let nextNode: IDNode?

    init(element : IDType, before: IDNode?) {
        self.element = element
        self.nextNode = before
    }
}

(Please don't ask me why the final is necessary here

StackExchange Code Review Q#97600, answer score: 28