Swift is a clean and concise language that is also growing fast and gaining popularity. Initially developed only for native iOS development, programmers also use Swift to write safe, concise, and easy-to-use code for operating systems like Windows and Linux.
Apple created Swift, an open-source programming language, as a replacement for all languages based on C, including Objective C, C++, and C. The language was created in 2014 and released to the public as an open-source project in 2015 on Swift.org.
In its short time as a programming language, Swift has climbed to the 20th most commonly used programming language worldwide and the 14th most popular language with programmers.
Programming in Swift is safe, fast, and relatively easy to use compared to older, more established languages like Objective-C. Other reasons to learn to program in Swift are the intuitive nature of the language and the tight-knit community built around the language. Learning programming in Swift is more accessible than with other languages, and you’ll find more tools for learning the language.
Features of Swift
Generally, Swift is known for being both safe and intuitive but can at times be restrictive for some programmers. Consider these top features to help you with the Swift programming language.
Automatic Reference Counting (ARC)
Determines which instances are no longer in use and automatically gets rid of them.
Closures unified with function pointers
Function pointers contain the address of a specific function and point to code vs. data. When using a function pointer, you signify a particular behavior by calling the function instead of writing code. Closures contain these function pointers. Swift’s nested functions mean that closures are unified with function pointers and can therefore take values from the functions enclosed within the closure.
Tuples and multiple return values
In Swift, you can return multiple values from a function as opposed to only one value. Other C languages allow you to return multiple values using pointers, structures, or arrays. But Swift allows you to return multiple values from functions using tuples, returned as a single entity from a function. Tuples are unchangeable or fixed sets of elements arranged in an ordered sequence.
Generics
Generics help find errors in code by enabling types to be used as parameters. Generics in Swift allows users to write functions and types that are reusable and can work with any type in relation to the requirements you define.
Fast and concise iteration over a range or collection
Swift provides a simple way to loop over all elements in an array. An array is a collection of similar elements grouped together for easier referencing and indexing. Since Swift already knows what kind of data your array holds, it can quickly and efficiently run blocks of code by assigning every element in an array a constant that you name.
Structs that support methods, extensions, and protocols
You’ll find that when creating, naming, and using structs within Swift, you have the ability to add additional functionality using extensions, including the option to extend types even if you lack access to the original code source.
Functional programming patterns
This function takes in an array and repeatedly computes a value, creating a pattern that will be returned to the code which called for that action.
Powerful error handling built-in
Error handling is when you determine what happens when an error occurs, for example when someone inputs a wrong password to a login. There are four ways to handle errors in Swift: throwing, catching, propagating, and manipulating recoverable errors at runtime.
Advanced control flow with do, guard, defer, and repeat keywords
To control the flow of how a program runs, Swift uses control flow statements. There are a few different types of control flow statements which include control transfer statements, loop statements, and branch statements. You can access more advanced control flow features with Swift’s do statement to introduce scope, guard to manage errors, defer statement to run clean up actions, and repeat to allow for a block of code to run more than once, dependent upon conditions.
Advantages of Swift programming
Swift is designed to be a safe, easy-to-use alternative to the more well-established Objective-C. As a result, there are many advantages to programming in Swift:
Safety
Specifically designed to be safer than C-based languages, Swift eliminates entire classes of unsafe code as a preventative measure and allows for “cleaner” code with fewer runtime crashes.
With Swift, variables are initialized before use, arrays and integers are checked for overflow, and memory is automatically managed. Developers can also easily see any code errors, reducing the time spent on debugging and removing the risk of low-quality code.
Speed
Apple claims that search algorithms complete up to 2.6 times faster than Objective-C and up to 8.4 times faster than Python 2.7 [3]. Swift uses LLVM as its compiler framework, which translates the assembly language to the machine code and optimizes it.
This means you use less code than you would with Objective-C, making development faster. Using Swift on both the back and front end of an app, for example, allows for extensive code sharing and reuse, speeding up the development process and reducing development efforts.
Cross-Platform
Use open-source Swift across major platforms like Windows and Linux. This makes the language particularly ideal for mobile developers. While Swift runs across other platforms, keep in mind you’ll need cross-platform programs like Sublime Text or Atom.
Intuitive
Swift is a programming language built to be incredibly user-friendly. From concise syntax to inferred type, code is made simpler.
Accessible
Swift is a widely available, free programming language. As an open-source language, you’ll find third-party tools, help when you need it, and a knowledgeable community of like-minded users to help you learn Swift.
Happy Coding 🙂