title: Swift: generate an array of (Swift) characters
body: <p>Simple question - hopefully, I am trying to generate a simple array of characters, something in the vein of:</p>
  
  <pre><code>// trying to do something like this (pseudo code):
  let letters:[Character] = map(0..&lt;26) { i in 'a' + i }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and have tried the following to no avail</p>
  
  <pre><code>let a = Character("a")
  let z = Character("z")
  let r:Range&lt;Character&gt; = a..&lt;z
  let letters:[Character] = map(a..&lt;z) { i in i }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I realize that Swift uses Unicode, what is the correct way to do something like this?</p>
  
  <p>(Note, this is not a question about interop with legacy Obj-C char, strictly in Swift for testing etc).</p>