⚠️ This list is no longer being updated. For my latest Swift tips, checkout the “Tips” section on Swift by Sundell.
Swift tips & tricks ⚡️
One of the things I really love about Swift is how I keep finding interesting ways to use it in various situations, and when I do - I usually share them on Twitter. Here’s a collection of all the tips & tricks that I’ve shared so far. Each entry has a link to the original tweet, if you want to respond with some feedback or question, which is always super welcome! 🚀
Also make sure to check out all of my other Swift content:
Table of contents
#102 Making async tests faster and more stable
#101 Adding support for Apple Pencil double-taps
#100 Combining values with functions
#99 Dependency injection using functions
#98 Using a custom exception handler
#97 Using type aliases to give semantic meaning to primitives
#96 Specializing protocols using constraints
#95 Unwrapping an optional or throwing an error
#94 Testing code that uses static APIs
#93 Matching multiple enum cases with associated values
#92 Multiline string literals
#91 Reducing sequences
#90 Avoiding manual Codable implementations
#89 Using feature flags instead of feature branches
#88 Lightweight data hierarchies using tuples
#87 The rule of threes
#86 Useful Codable extensions
#85 Using shared UserDefaults suites
#84 Custom UIView backing layers
#83 Auto-Equatable enums with associated values
#82 Defaults for associated types
#81 Creating a dedicated identifier type
#80 Assigning optional tuple members to variables
#79 Struct convenience initializers
#78 Usages of throwing functions
#77 Nested generic types
#76 Equatable & Hashable structures
#75 Conditional conformances
#74 Generic type aliases
#73 Parsing command line arguments using UserDefaults
#72 Using the & operator
#71 Capturing multiple values in mocks
#70 Reducing the need for mocks
#69 Using “then” as an external parameter label for closures
#68 Combining lazily evaluated sequences with the builder pattern
#67 Faster & more stable UI tests
#66 Accessing the clipboard from a Swift script
#65 Using tuples for view state
#64 Throwing tests and LocalizedError
#63 The difference between static and class properties
#62 Creating extensions with static factory methods
#61 Child view controller auto-resizing
#60 Using zip
#59 Defining custom option sets
#58 Using the where clause with associated types
#57 Using first class functions when iterating over a dictionary
#56 Calling instance methods as static functions
#55 Dropping suffixes from method names to support multiple arguments
#54 Constraining protocols to classes to ensure mutability
#53 String-based enums in string interpolation
#52 Expressively comparing a value with a list of candidates
#51 UIView bounds and transforms
#50 UIKit default arguments
#49 Avoiding Massive View Controllers
#48 Extending optionals
#47 Using where with for-loops
#46 Variable shadowing
#45 Using dot syntax for static properties and initializers
#44 Calling functions as closures with a tuple as parameters
#43 Enabling static dependency injection
#42 Type inference for lazy properties in Swift 4
#41 Converting Swift errors to NSError
#40 Making UIImage macOS compatible
#39 Internally mutable protocol-oriented APIs
#38 Switching on a set
#37 Adding the current locale to cache keys
#36 Setting up tests to avoid retain cycles with weak references
#35 Expressively matching a value against a list of candidates
#34 Organizing code using extensions
#33 Using map to transform an optional into a Result type
#32 Assigning to self in struct initializers
#31 Recursively calling closures as inline functions
#30 Passing self to required Objective-C dependencies
#29 Making weak or lazy properties readonly
#28 Defining static URLs using string literals
#27 Manipulating points, sizes and frames using math operators
#26 Using closure types in generic constraints
#25 Using associated enum values to avoid state-specific optionals
#24 Using enums for async result types
#23 Working on async code in a playground
#22 Overriding self with a weak reference
#21 Using DispatchWorkItem
#20 Combining a sequence of functions
#19 Chaining optionals with map() and flatMap()
#18 Using self-executing closures for lazy properties
#17 Speeding up Swift package tests
#16 Avoiding mocking UserDefaults
#15 Using variadic parameters
#14 Referring to enum cases with associated values as closures
#13 Using the === operator to compare objects by instance
#12 Calling initializers with dot syntax and passing them as closures
#11 Structuring UI tests as extensions on XCUIApplication
#10 Avoiding default cases in switch statements
#9 Using the guard statement in many different scopes
#8 Passing functions & operators as closures
#7 Using #function for UserDefaults key consistency
#6 Using a name already taken by the standard library
#5 Using Wrap to implement Equatable
#4 Using typealiases to reduce the length of method signatures
#3 Referencing either external or internal parameter name when writing docs
#2 Using auto closures
#1 Namespacing with nested types
🚀 Here are some quick tips to make async tests faster & more stable:
- 😴 Avoid sleep() - use expectations instead
- ⏱ Use generous timeouts to avoid flakiness on CI
- 🧐 Put all assertions at the end of each test, not inside closures
// BEFORE:
class MentionDetectorTests: XCTestCase {
func testDetectingMention() {
let detector = MentionDetector()
let string = "This test was written by @johnsundell."
detector.detectMentions(in: string) { mentions in
XCTAssertEqual(mentions, ["johnsundell"])
}
sleep(2)
}
}
// AFTER:
class MentionDetectorTests: XCTestCase {
func testDetectingMention() {
let detector = MentionDetector()
let string = "This test was written by @johnsundell."
var mentions: [String]?
let expectation = self.expectation(description: #function)
detector.detectMentions(in: string) {
mentions = $0
expectation.fulfill()
}
waitForExpectations(timeout: 10)
XCTAssertEqual(mentions, ["johnsundell"])
}
}
For more on async testing, check out “Unit testing asynchronous Swift code”.
✍️ Adding support for the new Apple Pencil double-tap feature is super easy! All you have to do is to create a UIPencilInteraction, add it to a view, and implement one delegate method. Hopefully all pencil-compatible apps will soon adopt this.
let interaction = UIPencilInteraction()
interaction.delegate = self
view.addInteraction(interaction)
extension ViewController: UIPencilInteractionDelegate {
func pencilInteractionDidTap(_ interaction: UIPencilInteraction) {
// Handle pencil double-tap
}
}
For more on using this and other iPad Pro features, check out “Building iPad Pro features in Swift”.
😎 Here’s a cool function that combines a value with a function to return a closure that captures that value, so that it can be called without any arguments. Super useful when working with closure-based APIs and we want to use some of our properties without having to capture self.
func combine<A, B>(_ value: A, with closure: @escaping (A) -> B) -> () -> B {
return { closure(value) }
}
// BEFORE:
class ProductViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
buyButton.handler = { [weak self] in
guard let self = self else {
return
}
self.productManager.startCheckout(for: self.product)
}
}
}
// AFTER:
class ProductViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
buyButton.handler = combine(product, with: productManager.startCheckout)
}
}
💉 When I’m only using a single function from a dependency, I love to inject that function as a closure, instead of having to create a protocol and inject the whole object. Makes dependency injection & testing super simple.
final class ArticleLoader {
typealias Networking = (Endpoint) -> Future<Data>
private let networking: Networking
init(networking: @escaping Networking = URLSession.shared.load) {
self.networking = networking
}
func loadLatest() -> Future<[Article]> {
return networking(.latestArticles).decode()
}
}
For more on this technique, check out “Simple Swift dependency injection with functions”.
💥 It’s cool that you can easily assign a closure as a custom NSException handler. This is super useful when building things in Playgrounds - since you can’t use breakpoints - so instead of just signal SIGABRT, you’ll get the full exception description if something goes wrong.
NSSetUncaughtExceptionHandler { exception in
print(exception)
}
❤️ I love that in Swift, we can use the type system to make our code so much more self-documenting - one way of doing so is to use type aliases to give the primitive types that we use a more semantic meaning.
extension List.Item {
// Using type aliases, we can give semantic meaning to the
// primitive types that we use, without having to introduce
// wrapper types.
typealias Index = Int
}
extension List {
enum Mutation {
// Our enum cases now become a lot more self-documenting,
// without having to add additional parameter labels to
// explain them.
case add(Item, Item.Index)
case update(Item, Item.Index)
case remove(Item.Index)
}
}
For more on self-documenting code, check out “Writing self-documenting Swift code”.
🤯 A little late night prototyping session reveals that protocol constraints can not only be applied to extensions - they can also be added to protocol definitions!
This is awesome, since it lets us easily define specialized protocols based on more generic ones.
protocol Component {
associatedtype Container
func add(to container: Container)
}
// Protocols that inherit from other protocols can include
// constraints to further specialize them.
protocol ViewComponent: Component where Container == UIView {
associatedtype View: UIView
var view: View { get }
}
extension ViewComponent {
func add(to container: UIView) {
container.addSubview(view)
}
}
For more on specializing protocols, check out “Specializing protocols in Swift”.
📦 Here’s a super handy extension on Swift’s Optional type, which gives us a really nice API for easily unwrapping an optional, or throwing an error in case the value turned out to be nil:
extension Optional {
func orThrow(_ errorExpression: @autoclosure () -> Error) throws -> Wrapped {
switch self {
case .some(let value):
return value
case .none:
throw errorExpression()
}
}
}
let file = try loadFile(at: path).orThrow(MissingFileError())
For more ways that optionals can be extended, check out “Extending optionals in Swift”.
👩🔬 Testing code that uses static APIs can be really tricky, but there’s a way that it can often be done - using Swift’s first class function capabilities!
Instead of accessing that static API directly, we can inject the function we want to use, which enables us to mock it!
// BEFORE
class FriendsLoader {
func loadFriends(then handler: @escaping (Result<[Friend]>) -> Void) {
Networking.loadData(from: .friends) { result in
...
}
}
}
// AFTER
class FriendsLoader {
typealias Handler<T> = (Result<T>) -> Void
typealias DataLoadingFunction = (Endpoint, @escaping Handler<Data>) -> Void
func loadFriends(using dataLoading: DataLoadingFunction = Networking.loadData,
then handler: @escaping Handler<[Friend]>) {
dataLoading(.friends) { result in
...
}
}
}
// MOCKING IN TESTS
let dataLoading: FriendsLoader.DataLoadingFunction = { _, handler in
handler(.success(mockData))
}
friendsLoader.loadFriends(using: dataLoading) { result in
...
}
🐾 Swift’s pattern matching capabilities are so powerful! Two enum cases with associated values can even be matched and handled by the same switch case - which is super useful when handling state changes with similar data.
enum DownloadState {
case inProgress(progress: Double)
case paused(progress: Double)
case cancelled
case finished(Data)
}
func downloadStateDidChange(to state: DownloadState) {
switch state {
case .inProgress(let progress), .paused(let progress):
updateProgressView(with: progress)
case .cancelled:
showCancelledMessage()
case .finished(let data):
process(data)
}
}
🅰 One really nice benefit of Swift multiline string literals - even for single lines of text - is that they don’t require quotes to be escaped. Perfect when working with things like HTML, or creating a custom description for an object.
let html = highlighter.highlight("Array<String>")
XCTAssertEqual(html, """
<span class="type">Array</span><<span class="type">String</span>>
""")
💎 While it’s very common in functional programming, the reduce function might be a bit of a hidden gem in Swift. It provides a super useful way to transform a sequence into a single value.
extension Sequence where Element: Equatable {
func numberOfOccurrences(of target: Element) -> Int {
return reduce(0) { result, element in
guard element == target else {
return result
}
return result + 1
}
}
}
You can read more about transforming collections in “Transforming collections in Swift”.
📦 When I use Codable in Swift, I want to avoid manual implementations as much as possible, even when there’s a mismatch between my code structure and the JSON I’m decoding.
One way that can often be achieved is to use private data containers combined with computed properties.
struct User: Codable {
let name: String
let age: Int
var homeTown: String { return originPlace.name }
private let originPlace: Place
}
private extension User {
struct Place: Codable {
let name: String
}
}
extension User {
struct Container: Codable {
let user: User
}
}
🚢 Instead of using feature branches, I merge almost all of my code directly into master - and then I use feature flags to conditionally enable features when they’re ready. That way I can avoid merge conflicts and keep shipping!
extension ListViewController {
func addSearchIfNeeded() {
// Rather than having to keep maintaining a separate
// feature branch for a new feature, we can use a flag
// to conditionally turn it on.
guard FeatureFlags.searchEnabled else {
return
}
let resultsVC = SearchResultsViewController()
let searchVC = UISearchController(
searchResultsController: resultsVC
)
searchVC.searchResultsUpdater = resultsVC
navigationItem.searchController = searchVC
}
}
You can read more about feature flags in “Feature flags in Swift”.
💾 Here I’m using tuples to create a lightweight hierarchy for my data, giving me a nice structure without having to introduce any additional types.
struct CodeSegment {
var tokens: (
previous: String?,
current: String
)
var delimiters: (
previous: Character?
next: Character?
)
}
handle(segment.tokens.current)
You can read more about tuples in “Using tuples as lightweight types in Swift”
3️⃣ Whenever I have 3 properties or local variables that share the same prefix, I usually try to extract them into their own method or type. That way I can avoid massive types & methods, and also increase readability, without falling into a “premature optimization” trap.
Before
public func generate() throws {
let contentFolder = try folder.subfolder(named: "content")
let articleFolder = try contentFolder.subfolder(named: "posts")
let articleProcessor = ContentProcessor(folder: articleFolder)
let articles = try articleProcessor.process()
...
}
After
public func generate() throws {
let contentFolder = try folder.subfolder(named: "content")
let articles = try processArticles(in: contentFolder)
...
}
private func processArticles(in folder: Folder) throws -> [ContentItem] {
let folder = try folder.subfolder(named: "posts")
let processor = ContentProcessor(folder: folder)
return try processor.process()
}
👨🔧 Here’s two extensions that I always add to the Encodable & Decodable protocols, which for me really make the Codable API nicer to use. By using type inference for decoding, a lot of boilerplate can be removed when the compiler is already able to infer the resulting type.
extension Encodable {
func encoded() throws -> Data {
return try JSONEncoder().encode(self)
}
}
extension Data {
func decoded<T: Decodable>() throws -> T {
return try JSONDecoder().decode(T.self, from: self)
}
}
let data = try user.encoded()
// By using a generic type in the decoded() method, the
// compiler can often infer the type we want to decode
// from the current context.
try userDidLogin(data.decoded())
// And if not, we can always supply the type, still making
// the call site read very nicely.
let otherUser = try data.decoded() as User
📦 UserDefaults is a lot more powerful than what it first might seem like. Not only can it store more complex values (like dates & dictionaries) and parse command line arguments - it also enables easy sharing of settings & lightweight data between apps in the same App Group.
let sharedDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "my-app-group")!
let useDarkMode = sharedDefaults.bool(forKey: "dark-mode")
// This value is put into the shared suite.
sharedDefaults.set(true, forKey: "dark-mode")
// If you want to treat the shared settings as read-only (and add
// local overrides on top of them), you can simply add the shared
// suite to the standard UserDefaults.
let combinedDefaults = UserDefaults.standard
combinedDefaults.addSuite(named: "my-app-group")
// This value is a local override, not added to the shared suite.
combinedDefaults.set(true, forKey: "app-specific-override")
🎨 By overriding layerClass you can tell UIKit what CALayer class to use for a UIView’s backing layer. That way you can reduce the amount of layers, and don’t have to do any manual layout.
final class GradientView: UIView {
override class var layerClass: AnyClass { return CAGradientLayer.self }
var colors: (start: UIColor, end: UIColor)? {
didSet { updateLayer() }
}
private func updateLayer() {
let layer = self.layer as! CAGradientLayer
layer.colors = colors.map { [$0.start.cgColor, $0.end.cgColor] }
}
}
✅ That the compiler now automatically synthesizes Equatable conformances is such a huge upgrade for Swift! And the cool thing is that it works for all kinds of types - even for enums with associated values! Especially useful when using enums for verification in unit tests.
struct Article: Equatable {
let title: String
let text: String
}
struct User: Equatable {
let name: String
let age: Int
}
extension Navigator {
enum Destination: Equatable {
case profile(User)
case article(Article)
}
}
func testNavigatingToArticle() {
let article = Article(title: "Title", text: "Text")
controller.select(article)
XCTAssertEqual(navigator.destinations, [.article(article)])
}
🤝 Associated types can have defaults in Swift - which is super useful for types that are not easily inferred (for example when they’re not used for a specific instance method or property).
protocol Identifiable {
associatedtype RawIdentifier: Codable = String
var id: Identifier<Self> { get }
}
struct User: Identifiable {
let id: Identifier<User>
let name: String
}
struct Group: Identifiable {
typealias RawIdentifier = Int
let id: Identifier<Group>
let name: String
}
🆔 If you want to avoid using plain strings as identifiers (which can increase both type safety & readability), it’s really easy to create a custom Identifier type that feels just like a native Swift type, thanks to protocols!
More on this topic in “Type-safe identifiers in Swift”.
struct Identifier: Hashable {
let string: String
}
extension Identifier: ExpressibleByStringLiteral {
init(stringLiteral value: String) {
string = value
}
}
extension Identifier: CustomStringConvertible {
var description: String {
return string
}
}
extension Identifier: Codable {
init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
let container = try decoder.singleValueContainer()
string = try container.decode(String.self)
}
func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
var container = encoder.singleValueContainer()
try container.encode(string)
}
}
struct Article: Codable {
let id: Identifier
let title: String
}
let article = Article(id: "my-article", title: "Hello world!")
🙌 A really cool thing about using tuples to model the internal state of a Swift type, is that you can unwrap an optional tuple’s members directly into local variables.
Very useful in order to group multiple optional values together for easy unwrapping & handling.
class ImageTransformer {
private var queue = [(image: UIImage, transform: Transform)]()
private func processNext() {
// When unwrapping an optional tuple, you can assign the members
// directly to local variables.
guard let (image, transform) = queue.first else {
return
}
let context = Context()
context.draw(image)
context.apply(transform)
...
}
}
❤️ I love to structure my code using extensions in Swift. One big benefit of doing so when it comes to struct initializers, is that defining a convenience initializer doesn’t remove the default one the compiler generates - best of both worlds!
struct Article {
let date: Date
var title: String
var text: String
var comments: [Comment]
}
extension Article {
init(title: String, text: String) {
self.init(date: Date(), title: title, text: text, comments: [])
}
}
let articleA = Article(title: "Best Cupcake Recipe", text: "...")
let articleB = Article(
date: Date(),
title: "Best Cupcake Recipe",
text: "...",
comments: [
Comment(user: currentUser, text: "Yep, can confirm!")
]
)
🏈 A big benefit of using throwing functions for synchronous Swift APIs is that the caller can decide whether they want to treat the return value as optional (try?) or required (try).
func loadFile(named name: String) throws -> File {
guard let url = urlForFile(named: name) else {
throw File.Error.missing
}
do {
let data = try Data(contentsOf: url)
return File(url: url, data: data)
} catch {
throw File.Error.invalidData(error)
}
}
let requiredFile = try loadFile(named: "AppConfig.json")
let optionalFile = try? loadFile(named: "UserSettings.json")
🐝 Types that are nested in generics automatically inherit their parent’s generic types - which is super useful when defining accessory types (for things like states or outcomes).
struct Task<Input, Output> {
typealias Closure = (Input) throws -> Output
let closure: Closure
}
extension Task {
enum Result {
case success(Output)
case failure(Error)
}
}
🤖 Now that the Swift compiler automatically synthesizes Equatable & Hashable conformances for value types, it’s easier than ever to setup model structures with nested types that are all Equatable/Hashable!
typealias Value = Hashable & Codable
struct User: Value {
var name: String
var age: Int
var lastLoginDate: Date?
var settings: Settings
}
extension User {
struct Settings: Value {
var itemsPerPage: Int
var theme: Theme
}
}
extension User.Settings {
enum Theme: String, Value {
case light
case dark
}
}
You can read more about using nested types in Swift here.
🎉 Swift 4.1 is here! One of the key features it brings is conditional conformances, which lets you have a type only conform to a protocol under certain constraints.
protocol UnboxTransformable {
associatedtype RawValue
static func transform(_ value: RawValue) throws -> Self?
}
extension Array: UnboxTransformable where Element: UnboxTransformable {
typealias RawValue = [Element.RawValue]
static func transform(_ value: RawValue) throws -> [Element]? {
return try value.compactMap(Element.transform)
}
}
I also have an article with lots of more info on conditional conformances here. Paul Hudson also has a great overview of all Swift 4.1 features here.
🕵️♀️ A cool thing about Swift type aliases is that they can be generic! Combine that with tuples and you can easily define simple generic types.
typealias Pair<T> = (T, T)
extension Game {
func calculateScore(for players: Pair<Player>) -> Int {
...
}
}
You can read more about using tuples as lightweight types here.
☑️ A really cool “hidden” feature of UserDefaults is that it contains any arguments that were passed to the app at launch!
Super useful both in Swift command line tools & scripts, but also to temporarily override a value when debugging iOS apps.
let defaults = UserDefaults.standard
let query = defaults.string(forKey: "query")
let resultCount = defaults.integer(forKey: "results")
👏 Swift’s & operator is awesome! Not only can you use it to compose protocols, you can compose other types too! Very useful if you want to hide concrete types & implementation details.
protocol LoadableFromURL {
func load(from url: URL)
}
class ContentViewController: UIViewController, LoadableFromURL {
func load(from url: URL) {
...
}
}
class ViewControllerFactory {
func makeContentViewController() -> UIViewController & LoadableFromURL {
return ContentViewController()
}
}
🤗 When capturing values in mocks, using an array (instead of just a single value) makes it easy to verify that only a certain number of values were passed.
Perfect for protecting against “over-calling” something.
class UserManagerTests: XCTestCase {
func testObserversCalledWhenUserFirstLogsIn() {
let manager = UserManager()
let observer = ObserverMock()
manager.addObserver(observer)
// First login, observers should be notified
let user = User(id: 123, name: "John")
manager.userDidLogin(user)
XCTAssertEqual(observer.users, [user])
// If the same user logs in again, observers shouldn't be notified
manager.userDidLogin(user)
XCTAssertEqual(observer.users, [user])
}
}
private extension UserManagerTests {
class ObserverMock: UserManagerObserver {
private(set) var users = [User]()
func userDidChange(to user: User) {
users.append(user)
}
}
}
👋 When writing tests, you don’t always need to create mocks - you can create stubs using real instances of things like errors, URLs & UserDefaults.
Here’s how to do that for some common tasks/object types in Swift:
// Create errors using NSError (#function can be used to reference the name of the test)
let error = NSError(domain: #function, code: 1, userInfo: nil)
// Create non-optional URLs using file paths
let url = URL(fileURLWithPath: "Some/URL")
// Reference the test bundle using Bundle(for:)
let bundle = Bundle(for: type(of: self))
// Create an explicit UserDefaults object (instead of having to use a mock)
let userDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: #function)
// Create queues to control/await concurrent operations
let queue = DispatchQueue(label: #function)
For when you actually do need mocking, check out “Mocking in Swift”.
⏱ I’ve started using “then” as an external parameter label for completion handlers. Makes the call site read really nicely (Because I do ❤️ conversational API design) regardless of whether trailing closure syntax is used or not.
protocol DataLoader {
// Adding type aliases to protocols can be a great way to
// reduce verbosity for parameter types.
typealias Handler = (Result<Data>) -> Void
associatedtype Endpoint
func loadData(from endpoint: Endpoint, then handler: @escaping Handler)
}
loader.loadData(from: .messages) { result in
...
}
loader.loadData(from: .messages, then: { result in
...
})
😴 Combining lazily evaluated sequences with builder pattern-like properties can lead to some pretty sweet APIs for configurable sequences in Swift.
Also useful for queries & other things you “build up” and then execute.
// Extension adding builder pattern-like properties that return
// a new sequence value with the given configuration applied
extension FileSequence {
var recursive: FileSequence {
var sequence = self
sequence.isRecursive = true
return sequence
}
var includingHidden: FileSequence {
var sequence = self
sequence.includeHidden = true
return sequence
}
}
// BEFORE
let files = folder.makeFileSequence(recursive: true, includeHidden: true)
// AFTER
let files = folder.files.recursive.includingHidden
Want an intro to lazy sequences? Check out “Swift sequences: The art of being lazy”.
My top 3 tips for faster & more stable UI tests:
📱 Reset the app’s state at the beginning of every test.
🆔 Use accessibility identifiers instead of UI strings.
⏱ Use expectations instead of waiting time.
func testOpeningArticle() {
// Launch the app with an argument that tells it to reset its state
let app = XCUIApplication()
app.launchArguments.append("--uitesting")
app.launch()
// Check that the app is displaying an activity indicator
let activityIndicator = app.activityIndicator.element
XCTAssertTrue(activityIndicator.exists)
// Wait for the loading indicator to disappear = content is ready
expectation(for: NSPredicate(format: "exists == 0"),
evaluatedWith: activityIndicator)
// Use a generous timeout in case the network is slow
waitForExpectations(timeout: 10)
// Tap the cell for the first article
app.tables.cells["Article.0"].tap()
// Assert that a label with the accessibility identifier "Article.Title" exists
let label = app.staticTexts["Article.Title"]
XCTAssertTrue(label.exists)
}
📋 It’s super easy to access the contents of the clipboard from a Swift script. A big benefit of Swift scripting is being able to use Cocoa’s powerful APIs for Mac apps.
import Cocoa
let clipboard = NSPasteboard.general.string(forType: .string)
🎯 Using Swift tuples for view state can be a super nice way to group multiple properties together and render them reactively using the layout system.
By using a tuple we don’t have to either introduce a new type or make our view model-aware.
class TextView: UIView {
var state: (title: String?, text: String?) {
// By telling UIKit that our view needs layout and binding our
// state in layoutSubviews, we can react to state changes without
// doing unnecessary layout work.
didSet { setNeedsLayout() }
}
private let titleLabel = UILabel()
private let textLabel = UILabel()
override func layoutSubviews() {
super.layoutSubviews()
titleLabel.text = state.title
textLabel.text = state.text
...
}
}
⚾️ Swift tests can throw, which is super useful in order to avoid complicated logic or force unwrapping. By making errors conform to LocalizedError, you can also get a nice error message in Xcode if there’s a failure.
class ImageCacheTests: XCTestCase {
func testCachingAndLoadingImage() throws {
let bundle = Bundle(for: type(of: self))
let cache = ImageCache(bundle: bundle)
// Bonus tip: You can easily load images from your test
// bundle using this UIImage initializer
let image = try require(UIImage(named: "sample", in: bundle, compatibleWith: nil))
try cache.cache(image, forKey: "key")
let cachedImage = try cache.image(forKey: "key")
XCTAssertEqual(image, cachedImage)
}
}
enum ImageCacheError {
case emptyKey
case dataConversionFailed
}
// When using throwing tests, making your errors conform to
// LocalizedError will render a much nicer error message in
// Xcode (per default only the error code is shown).
extension ImageCacheError: LocalizedError {
var errorDescription: String? {
switch self {
case .emptyKey:
return "An empty key was given"
case .dataConversionFailed:
return "Failed to convert the given image to Data"
}
}
}
For more information, and the implementation of the require method used above, check out “Avoiding force unwrapping in Swift unit tests”.
✍️ Unlike static properties, class properties can be overridden by subclasses (however, they can’t be stored, only computed).
class TableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
class var preferredHeight: CGFloat { return 60 }
}
class TallTableViewCell: TableViewCell {
override class var preferredHeight: CGFloat { return 100 }
}
👨🎨 Creating extensions with static factory methods can be a great alternative to subclassing in Swift, especially for things like setting up UIViews, CALayers or other kinds of styling.
It also lets you remove a lot of styling & setup from your view controllers.
extension UILabel {
static func makeForTitle() -> UILabel {
let label = UILabel()
label.font = .boldSystemFont(ofSize: 24)
label.textColor = .darkGray
label.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = true
label.minimumScaleFactor = 0.75
return label
}
static func makeForText() -> UILabel {
let label = UILabel()
label.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 16)
label.textColor = .black
label.numberOfLines = 0
return label
}
}
class ArticleViewController: UIViewController {
lazy var titleLabel = UILabel.makeForTitle()
lazy var textLabel = UILabel.makeForText()
}
🧒 An awesome thing about child view controllers is that they’re automatically resized to match their parent, making them a super nice solution for things like loading & error views.
class ListViewController: UIViewController {
func loadItems() {
let loadingViewController = LoadingViewController()
add(loadingViewController)
dataLoader.loadItems { [weak self] result in
loadingViewController.remove()
self?.handle(result)
}
}
}
For more about child view controller (including the add and remove methods used above), check out “Using child view controllers as plugins in Swift”.
🤐 Using the zip function in Swift you can easily combine two sequences. Super useful when using two sequences to do some work, since zip takes care of all the bounds-checking.
func render(titles: [String]) {
for (label, text) in zip(titleLabels, titles) {
print(text)
label.text = text
}
}
🎛 The awesome thing about option sets in Swift is that they can automatically either be passed as a single member or as a set. Even cooler is that you can easily define your own option sets as well, perfect for options and other non-exclusive values.
// Option sets are awesome, because you can easily pass them
// both using dot syntax and array literal syntax, like when
// using the UIView animation API:
UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.3,
delay: 0,
options: .allowUserInteraction,
animations: animations)
UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.3,
delay: 0,
options: [.allowUserInteraction, .layoutSubviews],
animations: animations)
// The cool thing is that you can easily define your own option
// sets as well, by defining a struct that has an Int rawValue,
// that will be used as a bit mask.
extension Cache {
struct Options: OptionSet {
static let saveToDisk = Options(rawValue: 1)
static let clearOnMemoryWarning = Options(rawValue: 1 << 1)
static let clearDaily = Options(rawValue: 1 << 2)
let rawValue: Int
}
}
// We can now use Cache.Options just like UIViewAnimationOptions:
Cache(options: .saveToDisk)
Cache(options: [.saveToDisk, .clearDaily])
🙌 Using the where clause when designing protocol-oriented APIs in Swift can let your implementations (or others’ if it’s open source) have a lot more freedom, especially when it comes to collections.
See “Using generic type constraints in Swift 4” for more info.
public protocol PathFinderMap {
associatedtype Node
// Using the 'where' clause for associated types, we can
// ensure that a type meets certain requirements (in this
// case that it's a sequence with Node elements).
associatedtype NodeSequence: Sequence where NodeSequence.Element == Node
// Instead of using a concrete type (like [Node]) here, we
// give implementors of this protocol more freedom while
// still meeting our requirements. For example, one
// implementation might use Set<Node>.
func neighbors(of node: Node) -> NodeSequence
}
👨🍳 Combine first class functions in Swift with the fact that Dictionary elements are (Key, Value) tuples and you can build yourself some pretty awesome functional chains when iterating over a Dictionary.
func makeActor(at coordinate: Coordinate, for building: Building) -> Actor {
let actor = Actor()
actor.position = coordinate.point
actor.animation = building.animation
return actor
}
func render(_ buildings: [Coordinate : Building]) {
buildings.map(makeActor).forEach(add)
}
😎 In Swift, you can call any instance method as a static function and it will return a closure representing that method. This is how running tests using SPM on Linux works.
More about this topic in my blog post “First class functions in Swift”.
// This produces a '() -> Void' closure which is a reference to the
// given view's 'removeFromSuperview' method.
let closure = UIView.removeFromSuperview(view)
// We can now call it just like we would any other closure, and it
// will run 'view.removeFromSuperview()'
closure()
// This is how running tests using the Swift Package Manager on Linux
// works, you return your test functions as closures:
extension UserManagerTests {
static var allTests = [
("testLoggingIn", testLoggingIn),
("testLoggingOut", testLoggingOut),
("testUserPermissions", testUserPermissions)
]
}
👏 One really nice benefit of dropping suffixes from method names (and just using verbs, when possible) is that it becomes super easy to support both single and multiple arguments, and it works really well semantically.
extension UIView {
func add(_ subviews: UIView...) {
subviews.forEach(addSubview)
}
}
view.add(button)
view.add(label)
// By dropping the "Subview" suffix from the method name, both
// single and multiple arguments work really well semantically.
view.add(button, label)
👽 Using the AnyObject (or class) constraint on protocols is not only useful when defining delegates (or other weak references), but also when you always want instances to be mutable without copying.
// By constraining a protocol with 'AnyObject' it can only be adopted
// by classes, which means all instances will always be mutable, and
// that it's the original instance (not a copy) that will be mutated.
protocol DataContainer: AnyObject {
var data: Data? { get set }
}
class UserSettingsManager {
private var settings: Settings
private let dataContainer: DataContainer
// Since DataContainer is a protocol, we an easily mock it in
// tests if we use dependency injection
init(settings: Settings, dataContainer: DataContainer) {
self.settings = settings
self.dataContainer = dataContainer
}
func saveSettings() throws {
let data = try settings.serialize()
// We can now assign properties on an instance of our protocol
// because the compiler knows it's always going to be a class
dataContainer.data = data
}
}
🍣 Even if you define a custom raw value for a string-based enum in Swift, the full case name will be used in string interpolation.
Super useful when using separate raw values for JSON, while still wanting to use the full case name in other contexts.
extension Building {
// This enum has custom raw values that are used when decoding
// a value, for example from JSON.
enum Kind: String {
case castle = "C"
case town = "T"
case barracks = "B"
case goldMine = "G"
case camp = "CA"
case blacksmith = "BL"
}
var animation: Animation {
return Animation(
// When used in string interpolation, the full case name is still used.
// For 'castle' this will be 'buildings/castle'.
name: "buildings/\(kind)",
frameCount: frameCount,
frameDuration: frameDuration
)
}
}
👨🔬 Continuing to experiment with expressive ways of comparing a value with a list of candidates in Swift. Adding an extension on Equatable is probably my favorite approach so far.
extension Equatable {
func isAny(of candidates: Self...) -> Bool {
return candidates.contains(self)
}
}
let isHorizontal = direction.isAny(of: .left, .right)
See tip #35 for my previous experiment.
📐 A really interesting side-effect of a UIView’s bounds being its rect within its own coordinate system is that transforms don’t affect it at all. That’s why it’s usually a better fit than frame when doing layout calculations of subviews.
let view = UIView()
view.frame.size = CGSize(width: 100, height: 100)
view.transform = CGAffineTransform(scaleX: 2, y: 2)
print(view.frame) // (-50.0, -50.0, 200.0, 200.0)
print(view.bounds) // (0.0, 0.0, 100.0, 100.0)
👏 It’s awesome that many UIKit APIs with completion handlers and other optional parameters import into Swift with default arguments (even though they are written in Objective-C). Getting rid of all those nil arguments is so nice!
// BEFORE: All parameters are specified, just like in Objective-C
viewController.present(modalViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)
modalViewController.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
viewController.transition(from: loadingViewController,
to: contentViewController,
duration: 0.3,
options: [],
animations: animations,
completion: nil)
// AFTER: Since many UIKit APIs with completion handlers and other
// optional parameters import into Swift with default arguments,
// we can make our calls shorter
viewController.present(modalViewController, animated: true)
modalViewController.dismiss(animated: true)
viewController.transition(from: loadingViewController,
to: contentViewController,
duration: 0.3,
animations: animations)
✂️ Avoiding Massive View Controllers is all about finding the right levels of abstraction and splitting things up.
My personal rule of thumb is that as soon as I have 3 methods or properties that have the same prefix, I break them out into their own type.
// BEFORE
class LoginViewController: UIViewController {
private lazy var signUpLabel = UILabel()
private lazy var signUpImageView = UIImageView()
private lazy var signUpButton = UIButton()
}
// AFTER
class LoginViewController: UIViewController {
private lazy var signUpView = SignUpView()
}
class SignUpView: UIView {
private lazy var label = UILabel()
private lazy var imageView = UIImageView()
private lazy var button = UIButton()
}
❤️ I love the fact that optionals are enums in Swift - it makes it so easy to extend them with convenience APIs for certain types. Especially useful when doing things like data validation on optional values.
func validateTextFields() -> Bool {
guard !usernameTextField.text.isNilOrEmpty else {
return false
}
...
return true
}
// Since all optionals are actual enum values in Swift, we can easily
// extend them for certain types, to add our own convenience APIs
extension Optional where Wrapped == String {
var isNilOrEmpty: Bool {
switch self {
case let string?:
return string.isEmpty
case nil:
return true
}
}
}
// Since strings are now Collections in Swift 4, you can even
// add this property to all optional collections:
extension Optional where Wrapped: Collection {
var isNilOrEmpty: Bool {
switch self {
case let collection?:
return collection.isEmpty
case nil:
return true
}
}
}
🗺 Using the where keyword can be a super nice way to quickly apply a filter in a for-loop in Swift. You can of course use map, filter and forEach, or guard, but for simple loops I think this is very expressive and nice.
func archiveMarkedPosts() {
for post in posts where post.isMarked {
archive(post)
}
}
func healAllies() {
for player in players where player.isAllied(to: currentPlayer) {
player.heal()
}
}
👻 Variable shadowing can be super useful in Swift, especially when you want to create a local copy of a parameter value in order to use it as state within a closure.
init(repeatMode: RepeatMode, closure: @escaping () -> UpdateOutcome) {
// Shadow the argument with a local, mutable copy
var repeatMode = repeatMode
self.closure = {
// With shadowing, there's no risk of accidentially
// referring to the immutable version
switch repeatMode {
case .forever:
break
case .times(let count):
guard count > 0 else {
return .finished
}
// We can now capture the mutable version and use
// it for state in a closure
repeatMode = .times(count - 1)
}
return closure()
}
}
✒️ Dot syntax is one of my favorite features of Swift. What’s really cool is that it’s not only for enums, any static method or property can be used with dot syntax - even initializers! Perfect for convenience APIs and default parameters.
public enum RepeatMode {
case times(Int)
case forever
}
public extension RepeatMode {
static var never: RepeatMode {
return .times(0)
}
static var once: RepeatMode {
return .times(1)
}
}
view.perform(animation, repeated: .once)
// To make default parameters more compact, you can eve</node></data></player></t></group></user></self></t:></string></data></t></t></data></a>
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