Swift

MainActor is a new attribute introduced in Swift 5.5 as a global actor providing an executor that performs its tasks on the main thread. When building apps, it's essential to perform UI updating tasks on the main thread, which can sometimes be challenging when using several background threads. Using the ...

Security-scoped bookmarks allow you to store access to a given user-selected URL. They are commonly used on macOS to store access information for a user-selected directory. Restoring the security-scoped bookmark data allows you to regain access to a folder previously selected by the user. I've been using this technique for ...

JSON parsing in Swift is a common thing to do. Almost every app decodes JSON to show data in a visualized way. Parsing JSON is definitely one of the basics you should learn as an iOS developer. Decoding JSON in Swift is quite easy and does not require any external ...

Typed throws are new since Xcode 16 and allow you to define the type of error a method throws. Instead of handling any error, you can handle exact cases and benefit from compiling time checks for newly added instances. They were introduced and designed in Swift Evolution proposal SE-413. I ...

Async await is part of the new structured concurrency changes that arrived in Swift 5.5 during WWDC 2021. Concurrency in Swift means allowing multiple pieces of code to run at the same time. This is a very simplified description, but it should give you an idea already how important concurrency ...

Swift Package Manager (SPM) is Apple's answer for managing dependencies. We're all familiar with tools like CocoaPods and Carthage, but we'll likely all use Swift Package Manager soon instead of those. If you're deciding which package manager to use, it's recommended to start using SPM today. By switching to the ...

Using ChatGPT for Swift code generation can drastically increase your productivity. While I'm uncertain whether AI will take over our jobs as developers, I'm certain developers without knowledge of using AI to their advantage will become much slower in writing code. Today, we will look at a few of my ...

The repository design pattern allows you to create an accessible data layer that's easy to mock for tests. By using common design patterns, you'll be able to create a consistent project structure, separate concerns, and increase the chances for the project to be easier to understand by outside contributors. One ...

Optionals are in the core of Swift and have existed since the first version of Swift. An optional value allows us to write clean code while at the same time taking care of possible nil values. If you're new to Swift, you should get used to the syntax of adding ...

Extensions in Swift allow you to extend an existing class, struct, enumeration, or protocol with new functionality. Whether it's a custom type defined by you or a current type inside of a framework, extensions can create custom accessors and enhance the types you work with. So-called retroactive modeling allows you ...

The Swift Programming Language constantly evolves, and most of its changes result from public proposals inside the Swift Evolution repository. The proposals can tell you what changes are coming up next, which is excellent if you want to stay updated with the latest developments. Swift Evolution Proposals can also help ...

User Defaults are the go-to solution for Swift applications to store preferences that persist across launches of your app. It's a key-value store backed by a property list (plist) file. Due to this type of backing store, you need to be aware of the supported storage types. There are a ...