What are optionals in Swift and why are they important?

beginner

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Optionals represent a value that might be present or absent (nil). They provide null safety and prevent runtime crashes from accessing nil values.

var name: String? = "John"
name = nil  // Valid

var age: Int = 25
age = nil   // ❌ Compile error - Int cannot be nil

Optionals are important because they:

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