Using ?? within a class initializer under some circumstances leads to an ambiguous compiler error message. I encountered this problem when I was writing a class like this:

class MyClass {
    private var fname: String?
    private var lname: String
    private var displayName: String
    
    init(firstName: String?, lastName: String) {
        self.fname = firstName
        self.lname = lastName
        displayName = self.fname ?? self.lname // Compiler-Error: 'self' captured by a closure before all members were initialized
    }
}

The compiler error message looks odd. There isn’t any closure there! Rewriting that problematic line in another way without using ?? operator, for example:

displayName = self.fname != nil ? self.fname! : self.lname

resolves the issue. Also, replacing self.lname with anything that is not a property of self, resolves the issue too. So, apparently, the issue has something do to with self and ?? operator.

After looking at the implementation of nil-coalescing operator in Optional.swift, you will know why this is so:

public func ?? <T>(optional: T?, defaultValue: @autoclosure () throws -> T?)
    rethrows -> T? {
  switch optional {
  case .some(let value):
    return value
  case .none:
    return try defaultValue()
  }
}

The second parameter of this operator is a @autoclosure. It means it is a closure even though we don’t want :) So this is how the compiler sees that line:

displayName = self.fname ?? (){ self.lname }

Because the value of displayName is not known unless the expression at the right-hand side of = is evaluated and the expressed doesn’t get evaluated unless the right-hand side of ?? (the auto-closure) is executed. But this closure captures self. So we are capturing self while self is not fully initialized. Now we can understand what the error message means:

'self' captured by a closure before all members were initialized