About Swift

NOTE

For prerelease documentation of a future update to the Swift language, see The Swift
Programming Language.
Swift is a new programming language for iOS and OS X apps that builds on the best of C and
Objective-C, without the constraints of C compatibility. Swift adopts safe programming patterns
and adds modern features to make programming easier, more flexible, and more fun. Swifts
clean slate, backed by the mature and much-loved Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, is an
opportunity to reimagine how software development works.
Swift has been years in the making. Apple laid the foundation for Swift by advancing our
existing compiler, debugger, and framework infrastructure. We simplified memory
management with Automatic Reference Counting (ARC). Our framework stack, built on the solid
base of Foundation and Cocoa, has been modernized and standardized throughout. Objective-C
itself has evolved to support blocks, collection literals, and modules, enabling framework
adoption of modern language technologies without disruption. Thanks to this groundwork, we
can now introduce a new language for the future of Apple software development.
Swift feels familiar to Objective-C developers. It adopts the readability of Objective-Cs named
parameters and the power of Objective-Cs dynamic object model. It provides seamless access
to existing Cocoa frameworks and mix-and-match interoperability with Objective-C code.
Building from this common ground, Swift introduces many new features and unifies the
procedural and object-oriented portions of the language.
Swift is friendly to new programmers. It is the first industrial-quality systems programming
language that is as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language. It supports playgrounds, an
innovative feature that allows programmers to experiment with Swift code and see the results
immediately, without the overhead of building and running an app.
Swift combines the best in modern language thinking with wisdom from the wider Apple
engineering culture. The compiler is optimized for performance, and the language is optimized
for development, without compromising on either. Its designed to scale from hello, world to
an entire operating system. All this makes Swift a sound future investment for developers and
for Apple.
Swift is a fantastic way to write iOS and OS X apps, and will continue to evolve with new
features and capabilities. Our goals for Swift are ambitious. We cant wait to see what you
create with it.

A Swift Tour
Tradition suggests that the first program in a new language should print the words Hello,
world! on the screen. In Swift, this can be done in a single line:

println("Hello, world!")
If you have written code in C or Objective-C, this syntax looks familiar to youin Swift, this line
of code is a complete program. You dont need to import a separate library for functionality like
input/output or string handling. Code written at global scope is used as the entry point for the
program, so you dont need a mainfunction. You also dont need to write semicolons at the end
of every statement.
This tour gives you enough information to start writing code in Swift by showing you how to
accomplish a variety of programming tasks. Dont worry if you dont understand something
everything introduced in this tour is explained in detail in the rest of this book.
NOTE
For the best experience, open this chapter as a playground in Xcode. Playgrounds allow you to
edit the code listings and see the result immediately.
Download Playground
Simple Values
Use let to make a constant and var to make a variable. The value of a constant doesnt need to
be known at compile time, but you must assign it a value exactly once. This means you can use
constants to name a value that you determine once but use in many places.

var myVariable = 42

myVariable = 50

let myConstant = 42
A constant or variable must have the same type as the value you want to assign to it. However,
you dont always have to write the type explicitly. Providing a value when you create a constant
or variable lets the compiler infer its type. In the example above, the compiler infers
that myVariable is an integer because its initial value is an integer.
If the initial value doesnt provide enough information (or if there is no initial value), specify the
type by writing it after the variable, separated by a colon.

let implicitInteger = 70

let implicitDouble = 70.0

let explicitDouble: Double = 70

EXPERIMENT

Create a constant with an explicit type of Float and a value of 4.

Values are never implicitly converted to another type. If you need to convert a value to a
different type, explicitly make an instance of the desired type.

let label = "The width is "

let width = 94

let widthLabel = label + String(width)

EXPERIMENT
Try removing the conversion to String from the last line. What error do you get?
Theres an even simpler way to include values in strings: Write the value in parentheses, and
write a backslash (\) before the parentheses. For example:

let apples = 3

let oranges = 5

let appleSummary = "I have \(apples) apples."

let fruitSummary = "I have \(apples + oranges) pieces of fruit."

EXPERIMENT
Use \() to include a floating-point calculation in a string and to include someones name in a
greeting.
Create arrays and dictionaries using brackets ([]), and access their elements by writing the index
or key in brackets.

var shoppingList = ["catfish", "water", "tulips", "blue paint"]

shoppingList[1] = "bottle of water"

var occupations = [

"Malcolm": "Captain",

"Kaylee": "Mechanic",

occupations["Jayne"] = "Public Relations"

To create an empty array or dictionary, use the initializer syntax.

let emptyArray = [String]()

let emptyDictionary = [String: Float]()

If type information can be inferred, you can write an empty array as [] and an empty dictionary
as [:]for example, when you set a new value for a variable or pass an argument to a function.

shoppingList = []

occupations = [:]

Control Flow
Use if and switch to make conditionals, and use for-in, for, while, and do-while to make loops.
Parentheses around the condition or loop variable are optional. Braces around the body are
required.

let individualScores = [75, 43, 103, 87, 12]

var teamScore = 0

for score in individualScores {

if score > 50 {

teamScore += 3

} else {

teamScore += 1

teamScore
NOTE
In the code above, teamScore is written on a line by itself. This is a simple way to see the value
of a variable inside a playground.
In an if statement, the conditional must be a Boolean expressionthis means that code such
as if score { ... } is an error, not an implicit comparison to zero.
You can use if and let together to work with values that might be missing. These values are
represented as optionals. An optional value either contains a value or contains nil to indicate
that the value is missing. Write a question mark (?) after the type of a value to mark the value
as optional.

var optionalString: String? = "Hello"

optionalString == nil

var optionalName: String? = "John Appleseed"

var greeting = "Hello!"

if let name = optionalName {

greeting = "Hello, \(name)"

}
EXPERIMENT
Change optionalName to nil. What greeting do you get? Add an else clause that sets a different
greeting ifoptionalName is nil.

If the optional value is nil, the conditional is false and the code in braces is skipped. Otherwise,
the optional value is unwrapped and assigned to the constant after let, which makes the
unwrapped value available inside the block of code.
Switches support any kind of data and a wide variety of comparison operationsthey arent
limited to integers and tests for equality.

let vegetable = "red pepper"

switch vegetable {

case "celery":

let vegetableComment = "Add some raisins and make ants on a log."

case "cucumber", "watercress":

let vegetableComment = "That would make a good tea sandwich."

case let x where x.hasSuffix("pepper"):

let vegetableComment = "Is it a spicy \(x)?"

default:

let vegetableComment = "Everything tastes good in soup."

}
EXPERIMENT
Try removing the default case. What error do you get?
Notice how let can be used in a pattern to assign the value that matched that part of a pattern
to a constant.
After executing the code inside the switch case that matched, the program exits from the
switch statement. Execution doesnt continue to the next case, so there is no need to explicitly
break out of the switch at the end of each cases code.
You use for-in to iterate over items in a dictionary by providing a pair of names to use for each
key-value pair. Dictionaries are an unordered collection, so their keys and values are iterated
over in an arbitrary order.

let interestingNumbers = [

"Prime": [2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13],

"Fibonacci": [1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8],

"Square": [1, 4, 9, 16, 25],

var largest = 0

for (kind, numbers) in interestingNumbers {

for number in numbers {

if number > largest {

largest = number

largest
EXPERIMENT
Add another variable to keep track of which kind of number was the largest, as well as what
that largest number was.
Use while to repeat a block of code until a condition changes. The condition of a loop can be at
the end instead, ensuring that the loop is run at least once.

var n = 2

while n < 100 {

n=n*2

var m = 2

do {

m=m*2

} while m < 100

m
You can keep an index in a loopeither by using ..< to make a range of indexes or by writing an
explicit initialization, condition, and increment. These two loops do the same thing:

var firstForLoop = 0

for i in 0..<4 {

firstForLoop += i

firstForLoop

var secondForLoop = 0

for var i = 0; i < 4; ++i {

secondForLoop += i

secondForLoop

Use ..< to make a range that omits its upper value, and use ... to make a range that includes
both values.
Functions and Closures
Use func to declare a function. Call a function by following its name with a list of arguments in
parentheses. Use -> to separate the parameter names and types from the functions return
type.

func greet(name: String, day: String) -> String {

return "Hello \(name), today is \(day)."

greet("Bob", "Tuesday")
EXPERIMENT
Remove the day parameter. Add a parameter to include todays lunch special in the greeting.
Use a tuple to make a compound valuefor example, to return multiple values from a function.
The elements of a tuple can be referred to either by name or by number.

func calculateStatistics(scores: [Int]) -> (min: Int, max: Int, sum: Int) {

var min = scores[0]

var max = scores[0]

var sum = 0

for score in scores {

if score > max {

max = score

} else if score < min {

min = score

sum += score

return (min, max, sum)

let statistics = calculateStatistics([5, 3, 100, 3, 9])

statistics.sum

statistics.2
Functions can also take a variable number of arguments, collecting them into an array.

func sumOf(numbers: Int...) -> Int {

var sum = 0

for number in numbers {

sum += number

return sum

sumOf()

sumOf(42, 597, 12)

EXPERIMENT
Write a function that calculates the average of its arguments.
Functions can be nested. Nested functions have access to variables that were declared in the
outer function. You can use nested functions to organize the code in a function that is long or
complex.

func returnFifteen() -> Int {

var y = 10

func add() {

y += 5

add()

return y

returnFifteen()
Functions are a first-class type. This means that a function can return another function as its
value.

func makeIncrementer() -> (Int -> Int) {

func addOne(number: Int) -> Int {

return 1 + number

return addOne

var increment = makeIncrementer()

increment(7)

A function can take another function as one of its arguments.

func hasAnyMatches(list: [Int], condition: Int -> Bool) -> Bool {

for item in list {

if condition(item) {

return true

return false

func lessThanTen(number: Int) -> Bool {

return number < 10

var numbers = [20, 19, 7, 12]

hasAnyMatches(numbers, lessThanTen)
Functions are actually a special case of closures: blocks of code that can be called later. The
code in a closure has access to things like variables and functions that were available in the
scope where the closure was created, even if the closure is in a different scope when it is
executedyou saw an example of this already with nested functions. You can write a closure
without a name by surrounding code with braces ({}). Use in to separate the arguments and
return type from the body.

numbers.map({

(number: Int) -> Int in

let result = 3 * number

return result

})
EXPERIMENT
Rewrite the closure to return zero for all odd numbers.
You have several options for writing closures more concisely. When a closures type is already
known, such as the callback for a delegate, you can omit the type of its parameters, its return
type, or both. Single statement closures implicitly return the value of their only statement.

let mappedNumbers = numbers.map({ number in 3 * number })

mappedNumbers
You can refer to parameters by number instead of by namethis approach is especially useful
in very short closures. A closure passed as the last argument to a function can appear
immediately after the parentheses.

let sortedNumbers = sorted(numbers) { $0 > $1 }

sortedNumbers
Objects and Classes
Use class followed by the classs name to create a class. A property declaration in a class is
written the same way as a constant or variable declaration, except that it is in the context of a
class. Likewise, method and function declarations are written the same way.

class Shape {

var numberOfSides = 0

func simpleDescription() -> String {

return "A shape with \(numberOfSides) sides."

}
EXPERIMENT
Add a constant property with let, and add another method that takes an argument.
Create an instance of a class by putting parentheses after the class name. Use dot syntax to
access the properties and methods of the instance.

var shape = Shape()

shape.numberOfSides = 7

var shapeDescription = shape.simpleDescription()

This version of the Shape class is missing something important: an initializer to set up the class
when an instance is created. Use init to create one.

class NamedShape {

var numberOfSides: Int = 0

var name: String

init(name: String) {

self.name = name

func simpleDescription() -> String {

return "A shape with \(numberOfSides) sides."

Notice how self is used to distinguish the name property from the name argument to the
initializer. The arguments to the initializer are passed like a function call when you create an
instance of the class. Every property needs a value assignedeither in its declaration (as
with numberOfSides) or in the initializer (as withname).
Use deinit to create a deinitializer if you need to perform some cleanup before the object is
deallocated.
Subclasses include their superclass name after their class name, separated by a colon. There is
no requirement for classes to subclass any standard root class, so you can include or omit a
superclass as needed.
Methods on a subclass that override the superclasss implementation are marked
with overrideoverriding a method by accident, without override, is detected by the compiler
as an error. The compiler also detects methods with override that dont actually override any
method in the superclass.

class Square: NamedShape {

var sideLength: Double

init(sideLength: Double, name: String) {

self.sideLength = sideLength

super.init(name: name)

numberOfSides = 4

func area() -> Double {

return sideLength * sideLength

override func simpleDescription() -> String {

return "A square with sides of length \(sideLength)."

let test = Square(sideLength: 5.2, name: "my test square")

test.area()

test.simpleDescription()
EXPERIMENT

Make another subclass of NamedShape called Circle that takes a radius and a name as
arguments to its initializer. Implement an area and a simpleDescription method on
the Circle class.
In addition to simple properties that are stored, properties can have a getter and a setter.

class EquilateralTriangle: NamedShape {

var sideLength: Double = 0.0

init(sideLength: Double, name: String) {

self.sideLength = sideLength

super.init(name: name)

numberOfSides = 3

var perimeter: Double {

get {

return 3.0 * sideLength

set {

sideLength = newValue / 3.0

override func simpleDescription() -> String {

return "An equilateral triangle with sides of length \(sideLength)."

var triangle = EquilateralTriangle(sideLength: 3.1, name: "a triangle")

triangle.perimeter

triangle.perimeter = 9.9

triangle.sideLength
In the setter for perimeter, the new value has the implicit name newValue. You can provide an
explicit name in parentheses after set.
Notice that the initializer for the EquilateralTriangle class has three different steps:
1. Setting the value of properties that the subclass declares.
2. Calling the superclasss initializer.

3. Changing the value of properties defined by the superclass. Any additional setup work that
uses methods, getters, or setters can also be done at this point.
If you dont need to compute the property but still need to provide code that is run before and
after setting a new value, use willSet and didSet. For example, the class below ensures that the
side length of its triangle is always the same as the side length of its square.

class TriangleAndSquare {

var triangle: EquilateralTriangle {

willSet {

square.sideLength = newValue.sideLength

var square: Square {

willSet {

triangle.sideLength = newValue.sideLength

init(size: Double, name: String) {

square = Square(sideLength: size, name: name)

triangle = EquilateralTriangle(sideLength: size, name: name)

var triangleAndSquare = TriangleAndSquare(size: 10, name: "another test shape")

triangleAndSquare.square.sideLength

triangleAndSquare.triangle.sideLength

triangleAndSquare.square = Square(sideLength: 50, name: "larger square")

triangleAndSquare.triangle.sideLength
Methods on classes have one important difference from functions. Parameter names in
functions are used only within the function, but parameters names in methods are also used
when you call the method (except for the first parameter). By default, a method has the same
name for its parameters when you call it and within the method itself. You can specify a second
name, which is used inside the method.

class Counter {

var count: Int = 0

func incrementBy(amount: Int, numberOfTimes times: Int) {

count += amount * times

var counter = Counter()

counter.incrementBy(2, numberOfTimes: 7)
When working with optional values, you can write ? before operations like methods,
properties, and subscripting. If the value before the ? is nil, everything after the ? is ignored and
the value of the whole expression is nil. Otherwise, the optional value is unwrapped, and
everything after the ? acts on the unwrapped value. In both cases, the value of the whole
expression is an optional value.

let optionalSquare: Square? = Square(sideLength: 2.5, name: "optional square")

let sideLength = optionalSquare?.sideLength

Enumerations and Structures
Use enum to create an enumeration. Like classes and all other named types, enumerations can
have methods associated with them.

enum Rank: Int {

case Ace = 1

case Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten

case Jack, Queen, King

func simpleDescription() -> String {

switch self {

case .Ace:

return "ace"

case .Jack:

return "jack"

case .Queen:

return "queen"

case .King:

return "king"

default:

return String(self.toRaw())

let ace = Rank.Ace

let aceRawValue = ace.toRaw()

EXPERIMENT
Write a function that compares two Rank values by comparing their raw values.
In the example above, the raw value type of the enumeration is Int, so you only have to specify
the first raw value. The rest of the raw values are assigned in order. You can also use strings or
floating-point numbers as the raw type of an enumeration.
Use the toRaw and fromRaw functions to convert between the raw value and the enumeration
value.

if let convertedRank = Rank.fromRaw(3) {

let threeDescription = convertedRank.simpleDescription()

}
The member values of an enumeration are actual values, not just another way of writing their
raw values. In fact, in cases where there isnt a meaningful raw value, you dont have to provide
one.

enum Suit {

case Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs

func simpleDescription() -> String {

switch self {

case .Spades:

return "spades"

case .Hearts:

return "hearts"

case .Diamonds:

return "diamonds"

case .Clubs:

return "clubs"

let hearts = Suit.Hearts

let heartsDescription = hearts.simpleDescription()

EXPERIMENT
Add a color method to Suit that returns black for spades and clubs, and returns red for
hearts and diamonds.

Notice the two ways that the Hearts member of the enumeration is referred to above: When
assigning a value to the hearts constant, the enumeration member Suit.Hearts is referred to by
its full name because the constant doesnt have an explicit type specified. Inside the switch, the
enumeration is referred to by the abbreviated form .Hearts because the value of self is already
known to be a suit. You can use the abbreviated form anytime the values type is already
known.
Use struct to create a structure. Structures support many of the same behaviors as classes,
including methods and initializers. One of the most important differences between structures
and classes is that structures are always copied when they are passed around in your code, but
classes are passed by reference.

struct Card {

var rank: Rank

var suit: Suit

func simpleDescription() -> String {

return "The \(rank.simpleDescription()) of \(suit.simpleDescription())"

let threeOfSpades = Card(rank: .Three, suit: .Spades)

let threeOfSpadesDescription = threeOfSpades.simpleDescription()

EXPERIMENT
Add a method to Card that creates a full deck of cards, with one card of each combination of
rank and suit.
An instance of an enumeration member can have values associated with the instance. Instances
of the same enumeration member can have different values associated with them. You provide
the associated values when you create the instance. Associated values and raw values are
different: The raw value of an enumeration member is the same for all of its instances, and you
provide the raw value when you define the enumeration.
For example, consider the case of requesting the sunrise and sunset time from a server. The
server either responds with the information or it responds with some error information.

enum ServerResponse {

case Result(String, String)

case Error(String)

let success = ServerResponse.Result("6:00 am", "8:09 pm")

let failure = ServerResponse.Error("Out of cheese.")

switch success {

case let .Result(sunrise, sunset):

let serverResponse = "Sunrise is at \(sunrise) and sunset is at \(sunset)."

case let .Error(error):

let serverResponse = "Failure... \(error)"

}
EXPERIMENT
Add a third case to ServerResponse and to the switch.
Notice how the sunrise and sunset times are extracted from the ServerResponse value as part
of matching the value against the switch cases.
Protocols and Extensions
Use protocol to declare a protocol.

protocol ExampleProtocol {

var simpleDescription: String { get }

mutating func adjust()

}
Classes, enumerations, and structs can all adopt protocols.

class SimpleClass: ExampleProtocol {

var simpleDescription: String = "A very simple class."

var anotherProperty: Int = 69105

func adjust() {

simpleDescription += " Now 100% adjusted."

var a = SimpleClass()

a.adjust()

let aDescription = a.simpleDescription

struct SimpleStructure: ExampleProtocol {

var simpleDescription: String = "A simple structure"

mutating func adjust() {

simpleDescription += " (adjusted)"

var b = SimpleStructure()

b.adjust()

let bDescription = b.simpleDescription

EXPERIMENT
Write an enumeration that conforms to this protocol.
Notice the use of the mutating keyword in the declaration of SimpleStructure to mark a method
that modifies the structure. The declaration of SimpleClass doesnt need any of its methods
marked as mutating because methods on a class can always modify the class.
Use extension to add functionality to an existing type, such as new methods and computed
properties. You can use an extension to add protocol conformance to a type that is declared
elsewhere, or even to a type that you imported from a library or framework.

extension Int: ExampleProtocol {

var simpleDescription: String {

return "The number \(self)"

mutating func adjust() {

self += 42

7.simpleDescription
EXPERIMENT
Write an extension for the Double type that adds an absoluteValue property.
You can use a protocol name just like any other named typefor example, to create a
collection of objects that have different types but that all conform to a single protocol. When
you work with values whose type is a protocol type, methods outside the protocol definition
are not available.

let protocolValue: ExampleProtocol = a

protocolValue.simpleDescription

// protocolValue.anotherProperty // Uncomment to see the error

Even though the variable protocolValue has a runtime type of SimpleClass, the compiler treats
it as the given type of ExampleProtocol. This means that you cant accidentally access methods
or properties that the class implements in addition to its protocol conformance.

Generics
Write a name inside angle brackets to make a generic function or type.

func repeat<ItemType>(item: ItemType, times: Int) -> [ItemType] {

var result = [ItemType]()

for i in 0..<times {

result.append(item)

return result

repeat("knock", 4)
You can make generic forms of functions and methods, as well as classes, enumerations, and
structures.

// Reimplement the Swift standard library's optional type

enum OptionalValue<T> {

case None

case Some(T)

var possibleInteger: OptionalValue<Int> = .None

possibleInteger = .Some(100)
Use where after the type name to specify a list of requirementsfor example, to require the
type to implement a protocol, to require two types to be the same, or to require a class to have
a particular superclass.

func anyCommonElements <T, U where T: SequenceType, U: SequenceType,

T.Generator.Element: Equatable, T.Generator.Element == U.Generator.Element> (lhs: T, rhs: U)
-> Bool {

for lhsItem in lhs {

for rhsItem in rhs {

if lhsItem == rhsItem {

return true

return false

anyCommonElements([1, 2, 3], [3])

EXPERIMENT
Modify the anyCommonElements function to make a function that returns an array of the
elements that any two sequences have in common.
In the simple cases, you can omit where and simply write the protocol or class name after a
colon. Writing <T: Equatable> is the same as writing <T where T: Equatable>.

The Basics
On This Page
Swift is a new programming language for iOS and OS X app development. Nonetheless, many
parts of Swift will be familiar from your experience of developing in C and Objective-C.
Swift provides its own versions of all fundamental C and Objective-C types, including Int for
integers, Doubleand Float for floating-point values, Bool for Boolean values, and String for
textual data. Swift also provides powerful versions of the two primary collection
types, Array and Dictionary, as described in Collection Types.
Like C, Swift uses variables to store and refer to values by an identifying name. Swift also makes
extensive use of variables whose values cannot be changed. These are known as constants, and
are much more powerful than constants in C. Constants are used throughout Swift to make
code safer and clearer in intent when you work with values that do not need to change.
In addition to familiar types, Swift introduces advanced types not found in Objective-C, such as
tuples. Tuples enable you to create and pass around groupings of values. You can use a tuple to
return multiple values from a function as a single compound value.
Swift also introduces optional types, which handle the absence of a value. Optionals say either
there is a value, and it equals x or there isnt a value at all. Optionals are similar to
using nil with pointers in Objective-C, but they work for any type, not just classes. Optionals are
safer and more expressive than nilpointers in Objective-C and are at the heart of many of
Swifts most powerful features.
Optionals are an example of the fact that Swift is a type safe language. Swift helps you to be
clear about the types of values your code can work with. If part of your code expects a String,
type safety prevents you from passing it an Int by mistake. This restriction enables you to catch
and fix errors as early as possible in the development process.
Constants and Variables
Constants and variables associate a name (such
as maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts or welcomeMessage) with a value of a particular type

(such as the number 10 or the string "Hello"). The value of a constant cannot be changed once
it is set, whereas a variable can be set to a different value in the future.
Declaring Constants and Variables
Constants and variables must be declared before they are used. You declare constants with
the let keyword and variables with the var keyword. Heres an example of how constants and
variables can be used to track the number of login attempts a user has made:

let maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts = 10

var currentLoginAttempt = 0
This code can be read as:
Declare a new constant called maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts, and give it a value of 10.
Then, declare a new variable called currentLoginAttempt, and give it an initial value of 0.
In this example, the maximum number of allowed login attempts is declared as a constant,
because the maximum value never changes. The current login attempt counter is declared as a
variable, because this value must be incremented after each failed login attempt.
You can declare multiple constants or multiple variables on a single line, separated by commas:

var x = 0.0, y = 0.0, z = 0.0

NOTE
If a stored value in your code is not going to change, always declare it as a constant with
the let keyword. Use variables only for storing values that need to be able to change.
Type Annotations
You can provide a type annotation when you declare a constant or variable, to be clear about
the kind of values the constant or variable can store. Write a type annotation by placing a colon
after the constant or variable name, followed by a space, followed by the name of the type to
use.
This example provides a type annotation for a variable called welcomeMessage, to indicate that
the variable can store String values:

var welcomeMessage: String

The colon in the declaration means of type, so the code above can be read as:
Declare a variable called welcomeMessage that is of type String.
The phrase of type String means can store any String value. Think of it as meaning the type
of thing (or the kind of thing) that can be stored.
The welcomeMessage variable can now be set to any string value without error:

welcomeMessage = "Hello"
You can define multiple related variables of the same type on a single line, separated by
commas, with a single type annotation after the final variable name:

var red, green, blue: Double

NOTE
It is rare that you need to write type annotations in practice. If you provide an initial value for a
constant or variable at the point that it is defined, Swift can almost always infer the type to be
used for that constant or variable, as described in Type Safety and Type Inference. In
the welcomeMessage example above, no initial value is provided, and so the type of
the welcomeMessage variable is specified with a type annotation rather than being inferred
from an initial value.
Naming Constants and Variables
Constant and variable names can contain almost any character, including Unicode characters:

let = 3.14159

let = ""

let = "dogcow"
Constant and variable names cannot contain whitespace characters, mathematical symbols,
arrows, private-use (or invalid) Unicode code points, or line- and box-drawing characters. Nor
can they begin with a number, although numbers may be included elsewhere within the name.
Once youve declared a constant or variable of a certain type, you cant redeclare it again with
the same name, or change it to store values of a different type. Nor can you change a constant
into a variable or a variable into a constant.
NOTE
If you need to give a constant or variable the same name as a reserved Swift keyword, surround
the keyword with back ticks (`) when using it as a name. However, avoid using keywords as
names unless you have absolutely no choice.
You can change the value of an existing variable to another value of a compatible type. In this
example, the value of friendlyWelcome is changed from "Hello!" to "Bonjour!":

var friendlyWelcome = "Hello!"

friendlyWelcome = "Bonjour!"

// friendlyWelcome is now "Bonjour!"

Unlike a variable, the value of a constant cannot be changed once it is set. Attempting to do so
is reported as an error when your code is compiled:

let languageName = "Swift"

languageName = "Swift++"

// this is a compile-time error - languageName cannot be changed

Printing Constants and Variables
You can print the current value of a constant or variable with the println function:

println(friendlyWelcome)

// prints "Bonjour!"
println is a global function that prints a value, followed by a line break, to an appropriate
output. In Xcode, for example, println prints its output in Xcodes console pane. (A second
function, print, performs the same task without appending a line break to the end of the value
to be printed.)
The println function prints any String value you pass to it:

println("This is a string")

// prints "This is a string"

The println function can print more complex logging messages, in a similar manner to
Cocoas NSLog function. These messages can include the current values of constants and
variables.
Swift uses string interpolation to include the name of a constant or variable as a placeholder in
a longer string, and to prompt Swift to replace it with the current value of that constant or
variable. Wrap the name in parentheses and escape it with a backslash before the opening
parenthesis:

println("The current value of friendlyWelcome is \(friendlyWelcome)")

// prints "The current value of friendlyWelcome is Bonjour!"

NOTE
All options you can use with string interpolation are described in String Interpolation.
Comments
Use comments to include non-executable text in your code, as a note or reminder to yourself.
Comments are ignored by the Swift compiler when your code is compiled.
Comments in Swift are very similar to comments in C. Single-line comments begin with two
forward-slashes (//):

// this is a comment
Multiline comments start with a forward-slash followed by an asterisk (/*) and end with an
asterisk followed by a forward-slash (*/):

/* this is also a comment,

but written over multiple lines */

Unlike multiline comments in C, multiline comments in Swift can be nested inside other
multiline comments. You write nested comments by starting a multiline comment block and
then starting a second multiline comment within the first block. The second block is then
closed, followed by the first block:

/* this is the start of the first multiline comment

/* this is the second, nested multiline comment */

this is the end of the first multiline comment */

Nested multiline comments enable you to comment out large blocks of code quickly and easily,
even if the code already contains multiline comments.
Semicolons
Unlike many other languages, Swift does not require you to write a semicolon (;) after each
statement in your code, although you can do so if you wish. Semicolons are required, however,
if you want to write multiple separate statements on a single line:

let cat = ""; println(cat)

// prints ""
Integers
Integers are whole numbers with no fractional component, such as 42 and -23. Integers are
either signed(positive, zero, or negative) or unsigned (positive or zero).
Swift provides signed and unsigned integers in 8, 16, 32, and 64 bit forms. These integers follow
a naming convention similar to C, in that an 8-bit unsigned integer is of type UInt8, and a 32-bit
signed integer is of typeInt32. Like all types in Swift, these integer types have capitalized names.
Integer Bounds
You can access the minimum and maximum values of each integer type with
its min and max properties:

let minValue = UInt8.min // minValue is equal to 0, and is of type UInt8

let maxValue = UInt8.max // maxValue is equal to 255, and is of type UInt8

The values of these properties are of the appropriate-sized number type (such as UInt8 in the
example above) and can therefore be used in expressions alongside other values of the same
type.
Int
In most cases, you dont need to pick a specific size of integer to use in your code. Swift
provides an additional integer type, Int, which has the same size as the current platforms
native word size:
On a 32-bit platform, Int is the same size as Int32.
On a 64-bit platform, Int is the same size as Int64.
Unless you need to work with a specific size of integer, always use Int for integer values in your
code. This aids code consistency and interoperability. Even on 32-bit platforms, Int can store
any value between-2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647, and is large enough for many integer
ranges.
UInt
Swift also provides an unsigned integer type, UInt, which has the same size as the current
platforms native word size:

On a 32-bit platform, UInt is the same size as UInt32.

On a 64-bit platform, UInt is the same size as UInt64.
NOTE
Use UInt only when you specifically need an unsigned integer type with the same size as the
platforms native word size. If this is not the case, Int is preferred, even when the values to be
stored are known to be non-negative. A consistent use of Int for integer values aids code
interoperability, avoids the need to convert between different number types, and matches
integer type inference, as described in Type Safety and Type Inference.
Floating-Point Numbers
Floating-point numbers are numbers with a fractional component, such as 3.14159, 0.1, and 273.15.
Floating-point types can represent a much wider range of values than integer types, and can
store numbers that are much larger or smaller than can be stored in an Int. Swift provides two
signed floating-point number types:
Double represents a 64-bit floating-point number. Use it when floating-point values must be
very large or particularly precise.
Float represents a 32-bit floating-point number. Use it when floating-point values do not
require 64-bit precision.
NOTE
Double has a precision of at least 15 decimal digits, whereas the precision of Float can be as
little as 6 decimal digits. The appropriate floating-point type to use depends on the nature and
range of values you need to work with in your code.
Type Safety and Type Inference
Swift is a type safe language. A type safe language encourages you to be clear about the types
of values your code can work with. If part of your code expects a String, you cant pass it
an Int by mistake.
Because Swift is type safe, it performs type checks when compiling your code and flags any
mismatched types as errors. This enables you to catch and fix errors as early as possible in the
development process.
Type-checking helps you avoid errors when youre working with different types of values.
However, this doesnt mean that you have to specify the type of every constant and variable
that you declare. If you dont specify the type of value you need, Swift uses type inference to
work out the appropriate type. Type inference enables a compiler to deduce the type of a
particular expression automatically when it compiles your code, simply by examining the values
you provide.
Because of type inference, Swift requires far fewer type declarations than languages such as C
or Objective-C. Constants and variables are still explicitly typed, but much of the work of
specifying their type is done for you.

Type inference is particularly useful when you declare a constant or variable with an initial
value. This is often done by assigning a literal value (or literal) to the constant or variable at the
point that you declare it. (A literal value is a value that appears directly in your source code,
such as 42 and 3.14159 in the examples below.)
For example, if you assign a literal value of 42 to a new constant without saying what type it is,
Swift infers that you want the constant to be an Int, because you have initialized it with a
number that looks like an integer:

let meaningOfLife = 42

// meaningOfLife is inferred to be of type Int

Likewise, if you dont specify a type for a floating-point literal, Swift infers that you want to
create a Double:

let pi = 3.14159

// pi is inferred to be of type Double

Swift always chooses Double (rather than Float) when inferring the type of floating-point
numbers.
If you combine integer and floating-point literals in an expression, a type of Double will be
inferred from the context:

let anotherPi = 3 + 0.14159

// anotherPi is also inferred to be of type Double

The literal value of 3 has no explicit type in and of itself, and so an appropriate output type
of Double is inferred from the presence of a floating-point literal as part of the addition.
Numeric Literals
Integer literals can be written as:

A decimal number, with no prefix

A binary number, with a 0b prefix
An octal number, with a 0o prefix
A hexadecimal number, with a 0x prefix
All of these integer literals have a decimal value of 17:

let decimalInteger = 17

let binaryInteger = 0b10001 // 17 in binary notation

let octalInteger = 0o21 // 17 in octal notation

let hexadecimalInteger = 0x11 // 17 in hexadecimal notation

Floating-point literals can be decimal (with no prefix), or hexadecimal (with a 0x prefix). They
must always have a number (or hexadecimal number) on both sides of the decimal point. They
can also have an optionalexponent, indicated by an uppercase or lowercase e for decimal floats,
or an uppercase or lowercase p for hexadecimal floats.
For decimal numbers with an exponent of exp, the base number is multiplied by 10exp:
2
1.25e2 means 1.25 10 , or 125.0.

1.25e-2 means 1.25 10-2, or 0.0125.

For hexadecimal numbers with an exponent of exp, the base number is multiplied by 2exp:
2
0xFp2 means 15 2 , or 60.0.
-2
0xFp-2 means 15 2 , or 3.75.
All of these floating-point literals have a decimal value of 12.1875:

let decimalDouble = 12.1875

let exponentDouble = 1.21875e1

let hexadecimalDouble = 0xC.3p0

Numeric literals can contain extra formatting to make them easier to read. Both integers and
floats can be padded with extra zeroes and can contain underscores to help with readability.
Neither type of formatting affects the underlying value of the literal:

let paddedDouble = 000123.456

let oneMillion = 1_000_000

let justOverOneMillion = 1_000_000.000_000_1

Numeric Type Conversion
Use the Int type for all general-purpose integer constants and variables in your code, even if
they are known to be non-negative. Using the default integer type in everyday situations means
that integer constants and variables are immediately interoperable in your code and will match
the inferred type for integer literal values.
Use other integer types only when they are specifically needed for the task at hand, because of
explicitly-sized data from an external source, or for performance, memory usage, or other
necessary optimization. Using explicitly-sized types in these situations helps to catch any
accidental value overflows and implicitly documents the nature of the data being used.
Integer Conversion
The range of numbers that can be stored in an integer constant or variable is different for each
numeric type. An Int8 constant or variable can store numbers between -128 and 127, whereas
a UInt8 constant or variable can store numbers between 0 and 255. A number that will not fit
into a constant or variable of a sized integer type is reported as an error when your code is
compiled:

let cannotBeNegative: UInt8 = -1

// UInt8 cannot store negative numbers, and so this will report an error

let tooBig: Int8 = Int8.max + 1

// Int8 cannot store a number larger than its maximum value,

// and so this will also report an error

Because each numeric type can store a different range of values, you must opt in to numeric
type conversion on a case-by-case basis. This opt-in approach prevents hidden conversion
errors and helps make type conversion intentions explicit in your code.
To convert one specific number type to another, you initialize a new number of the desired
type with the existing value. In the example below, the constant twoThousand is of type UInt16,
whereas the constant one is of type UInt8. They cannot be added together directly, because
they are not of the same type. Instead, this example calls UInt16(one) to create a
new UInt16 initialized with the value of one, and uses this value in place of the original:

let twoThousand: UInt16 = 2_000

let one: UInt8 = 1

let twoThousandAndOne = twoThousand + UInt16(one)

Because both sides of the addition are now of type UInt16, the addition is allowed. The output
constant (twoThousandAndOne) is inferred to be of type UInt16, because it is the sum of
two UInt16 values.
SomeType(ofInitialValue) is the default way to call the initializer of a Swift type and pass in an
initial value. Behind the scenes, UInt16 has an initializer that accepts a UInt8 value, and so this
initializer is used to make a new UInt16 from an existing UInt8. You cant pass in any type here,
howeverit has to be a type for whichUInt16 provides an initializer. Extending existing types to
provide initializers that accept new types (including your own type definitions) is covered
in Extensions.
Integer and Floating-Point Conversion
Conversions between integer and floating-point numeric types must be made explicit:

let three = 3

let pointOneFourOneFiveNine = 0.14159

let pi = Double(three) + pointOneFourOneFiveNine

// pi equals 3.14159, and is inferred to be of type Double

Here, the value of the constant three is used to create a new value of type Double, so that both
sides of the addition are of the same type. Without this conversion in place, the addition would
not be allowed.
Floating-point to integer conversion must also be made explicit. An integer type can be
initialized with a Doubleor Float value:

let integerPi = Int(pi)

// integerPi equals 3, and is inferred to be of type Int

Floating-point values are always truncated when used to initialize a new integer value in this
way. This means that 4.75 becomes 4, and -3.9 becomes -3.
NOTE

The rules for combining numeric constants and variables are different from the rules for
numeric literals. The literal value 3 can be added directly to the literal value 0.14159, because
number literals do not have an explicit type in and of themselves. Their type is inferred only at
the point that they are evaluated by the compiler.
Type Aliases
Type aliases define an alternative name for an existing type. You define type aliases with
the typealiaskeyword.
Type aliases are useful when you want to refer to an existing type by a name that is
contextually more appropriate, such as when working with data of a specific size from an
external source:

typealias AudioSample = UInt16

Once you define a type alias, you can use the alias anywhere you might use the original name:

var maxAmplitudeFound = AudioSample.min

// maxAmplitudeFound is now 0
Here, AudioSample is defined as an alias for UInt16. Because it is an alias, the call
to AudioSample.min actually calls UInt16.min, which provides an initial value of 0 for
the maxAmplitudeFound variable.
Booleans
Swift has a basic Boolean type, called Bool. Boolean values are referred to as logical, because
they can only ever be true or false. Swift provides two Boolean constant values, true and false:

let orangesAreOrange = true

let turnipsAreDelicious = false

The types of orangesAreOrange and turnipsAreDelicious have been inferred as Bool from the
fact that they were initialized with Boolean literal values. As with Int and Double above, you
dont need to declare constants or variables as Bool if you set them to true or false as soon as
you create them. Type inference helps make Swift code more concise and readable when it
initializes constants or variables with other values whose type is already known.
Boolean values are particularly useful when you work with conditional statements such as
the if statement:

if turnipsAreDelicious {

println("Mmm, tasty turnips!")

} else {

println("Eww, turnips are horrible.")

// prints "Eww, turnips are horrible."

Conditional statements such as the if statement are covered in more detail in Control Flow.

Swifts type safety prevents non-Boolean values from being substituted for Bool. The following
example reports a compile-time error:

let i = 1

if i {

// this example will not compile, and will report an error

}
However, the alternative example below is valid:

let i = 1

if i == 1 {

// this example will compile successfully

}
The result of the i == 1 comparison is of type Bool, and so this second example passes the typecheck. Comparisons like i == 1 are discussed in Basic Operators.
As with other examples of type safety in Swift, this approach avoids accidental errors and
ensures that the intention of a particular section of code is always clear.
Tuples
Tuples group multiple values into a single compound value. The values within a tuple can be of
any type and do not have to be of the same type as each other.
In this example, (404, "Not Found") is a tuple that describes an HTTP status code. An HTTP
status code is a special value returned by a web server whenever you request a web page. A
status code of 404 Not Found is returned if you request a webpage that doesnt exist.

let http404Error = (404, "Not Found")

// http404Error is of type (Int, String), and equals (404, "Not Found")

The (404, "Not Found") tuple groups together an Int and a String to give the HTTP status code
two separate values: a number and a human-readable description. It can be described as a
tuple of type (Int, String).
You can create tuples from any permutation of types, and they can contain as many different
types as you like. Theres nothing stopping you from having a tuple of type (Int, Int, Int),
or (String, Bool), or indeed any other permutation you require.
You can decompose a tuples contents into separate constants or variables, which you then
access as usual:

let (statusCode, statusMessage) = http404Error

println("The status code is \(statusCode)")

// prints "The status code is 404"

println("The status message is \(statusMessage)")

// prints "The status message is Not Found"

If you only need some of the tuples values, ignore parts of the tuple with an underscore (_)
when you decompose the tuple:

let (justTheStatusCode, _) = http404Error

println("The status code is \(justTheStatusCode)")

// prints "The status code is 404"

Alternatively, access the individual element values in a tuple using index numbers starting at
zero:

println("The status code is \(http404Error.0)")

// prints "The status code is 404"

println("The status message is \(http404Error.1)")

// prints "The status message is Not Found"

You can name the individual elements in a tuple when the tuple is defined:

let http200Status = (statusCode: 200, description: "OK")

If you name the elements in a tuple, you can use the element names to access the values of
those elements:

println("The status code is \(http200Status.statusCode)")

// prints "The status code is 200"

println("The status message is \(http200Status.description)")

// prints "The status message is OK"

Tuples are particularly useful as the return values of functions. A function that tries to retrieve a
web page might return the (Int, String) tuple type to describe the success or failure of the page
retrieval. By returning a tuple with two distinct values, each of a different type, the function
provides more useful information about its outcome than if it could only return a single value of
a single type. For more information, see Functions with Multiple Return Values.
NOTE
Tuples are useful for temporary groups of related values. They are not suited to the creation of
complex data structures. If your data structure is likely to persist beyond a temporary scope,
model it as a class or structure, rather than as a tuple. For more information, see Classes and
Structures.
Optionals
You use optionals in situations where a value may be absent. An optional says:
There is a value, and it equals x
or
There isnt a value at all
NOTE

The concept of optionals doesnt exist in C or Objective-C. The nearest thing in Objective-C is
the ability to return nil from a method that would otherwise return an object, with nil meaning
the absence of a valid object. However, this only works for objectsit doesnt work for
structures, basic C types, or enumeration values. For these types, Objective-C methods typically
return a special value (such as NSNotFound) to indicate the absence of a value. This approach
assumes that the methods caller knows there is a special value to test against and remembers
to check for it. Swifts optionals let you indicate the absence of a value for any type at all,
without the need for special constants.
Heres an example of how optionals can be used to cope with the absence of a value.
Swifts String type has a method called toInt, which tries to convert a String value into
an Int value. However, not every string can be converted into an integer. The string "123" can
be converted into the numeric value 123, but the string"hello, world" does not have an obvious
numeric value to convert to.
The example below uses the toInt method to try to convert a String into an Int:

let possibleNumber = "123"

let convertedNumber = possibleNumber.toInt()

// convertedNumber is inferred to be of type "Int?", or "optional Int"

Because the toInt method might fail, it returns an optional Int, rather than an Int. An
optional Int is written asInt?, not Int. The question mark indicates that the value it contains is
optional, meaning that it might containsome Int value, or it might contain no value at all. (It
cant contain anything else, such as a Bool value or aString value. Its either an Int, or its
nothing at all.)
nil
You set an optional variable to a valueless state by assigning it the special value nil:

var serverResponseCode: Int? = 404

// serverResponseCode contains an actual Int value of 404

serverResponseCode = nil

// serverResponseCode now contains no value

NOTE
nil cannot be used with nonoptional constants and variables. If a constant or variable in your
code needs to work with the absence of a value under certain conditions, always declare it as
an optional value of the appropriate type.
If you define an optional constant or variable without providing a default value, the constant or
variable is automatically set to nil for you:

var surveyAnswer: String?

// surveyAnswer is automatically set to nil

NOTE

Swifts nil is not the same as nil in Objective-C. In Objective-C, nil is a pointer to a nonexistent
object. In Swift, nil is not a pointerit is the absence of a value of a certain type. Optionals
of any type can be set tonil, not just object types.
If Statements and Forced Unwrapping
You can use an if statement to find out whether an optional contains a value by comparing the
optional against nil. You perform this comparison with the equal to operator (==) or the not
equal to operator (!=).
If an optional has a value, it is considered to be not equal to nil:

if convertedNumber != nil {

println("convertedNumber contains some integer value.")

// prints "convertedNumber contains some integer value."

Once youre sure that the optional does contain a value, you can access its underlying value by
adding an exclamation mark (!) to the end of the optionals name. The exclamation mark
effectively says, I know that this optional definitely has a value; please use it. This is known
as forced unwrapping of the optionals value:

if convertedNumber != nil {

println("convertedNumber has an integer value of \(convertedNumber!).")

// prints "convertedNumber has an integer value of 123."

For more on the if statement, see Control Flow.
NOTE
Trying to use ! to access a non-existent optional value triggers a runtime error. Always make
sure that an optional contains a non-nil value before using ! to force-unwrap its value.
Optional Binding
You use optional binding to find out whether an optional contains a value, and if so, to make
that value available as a temporary constant or variable. Optional binding can be used
with if and while statements to check for a value inside an optional, and to extract that value
into a constant or variable, as part of a single action. if and while statements are described in
more detail in Control Flow.
Write optional bindings for the if statement as follows:

if let constantName = someOptional {

statements
}
You can rewrite the possibleNumber example from the Optionals section to use optional
binding rather than forced unwrapping:

if let actualNumber = possibleNumber.toInt() {

println("\(possibleNumber) has an integer value of \(actualNumber)")

} else {

println("\(possibleNumber) could not be converted to an integer")

// prints "123 has an integer value of 123"

This code can be read as:
If the optional Int returned by possibleNumber.toInt contains a value, set a new constant
called actualNumberto the value contained in the optional.
If the conversion is successful, the actualNumber constant becomes available for use within the
first branch of the if statement. It has already been initialized with the value
contained within the optional, and so there is no need to use the ! suffix to access its value. In
this example, actualNumber is simply used to print the result of the conversion.
You can use both constants and variables with optional binding. If you wanted to manipulate
the value ofactualNumber within the first branch of the if statement, you could write if var
actualNumber instead, and the value contained within the optional would be made available as
a variable rather than a constant.
Implicitly Unwrapped Optionals
As described above, optionals indicate that a constant or variable is allowed to have no value.
Optionals can be checked with an if statement to see if a value exists, and can be conditionally
unwrapped with optional binding to access the optionals value if it does exist.
Sometimes it is clear from a programs structure that an optional will always have a value, after
that value is first set. In these cases, it is useful to remove the need to check and unwrap the
optionals value every time it is accessed, because it can be safely assumed to have a value all
of the time.
These kinds of optionals are defined as implicitly unwrapped optionals. You write an implicitly
unwrapped optional by placing an exclamation mark (String!) rather than a question mark
(String?) after the type that you want to make optional.
Implicitly unwrapped optionals are useful when an optionals value is confirmed to exist
immediately after the optional is first defined and can definitely be assumed to exist at every
point thereafter. The primary use of implicitly unwrapped optionals in Swift is during class
initialization, as described in Unowned References and Implicitly Unwrapped Optional
Properties.
An implicitly unwrapped optional is a normal optional behind the scenes, but can also be used
like a nonoptional value, without the need to unwrap the optional value each time it is
accessed. The following example shows the difference in behavior between an optional string
and an implicitly unwrapped optional string when accessing their wrapped value as an
explicit String:

let possibleString: String? = "An optional string."

let forcedString: String = possibleString! // requires an exclamation mark

let assumedString: String! = "An implicitly unwrapped optional string."

let implicitString: String = assumedString // no need for an exclamation mark

You can think of an implicitly unwrapped optional as giving permission for the optional to be
unwrapped automatically whenever it is used. Rather than placing an exclamation mark after
the optionals name each time you use it, you place an exclamation mark after the optionals
type when you declare it.
NOTE
If you try to access an implicitly unwrapped optional when it does not contain a value, you will
trigger a runtime error. The result is exactly the same as if you place an exclamation mark after
a normal optional that does not contain a value.
You can still treat an implicitly unwrapped optional like a normal optional, to check if it contains
a value:

if assumedString != nil {

println(assumedString)

// prints "An implicitly unwrapped optional string."

You can also use an implicitly unwrapped optional with optional binding, to check and unwrap
its value in a single statement:

if let definiteString = assumedString {

println(definiteString)

// prints "An implicitly unwrapped optional string."

NOTE
Do not use an implicitly unwrapped optional when there is a possibility of a variable
becoming nil at a later point. Always use a normal optional type if you need to check for
a nil value during the lifetime of a variable.
Assertions
Optionals enable you to check for values that may or may not exist, and to write code that
copes gracefully with the absence of a value. In some cases, however, it is simply not possible
for your code to continue execution if a value does not exist, or if a provided value does not
satisfy certain conditions. In these situations, you can trigger an assertion in your code to end
code execution and to provide an opportunity to debug the cause of the absent or invalid value.

Debugging with Assertions

An assertion is a runtime check that a logical condition definitely evaluates to true. Literally put,
an assertion asserts that a condition is true. You use an assertion to make sure that an
essential condition is satisfied before executing any further code. If the condition evaluates
to true, code execution continues as usual; if the condition evaluates to false, code execution
ends, and your app is terminated.
If your code triggers an assertion while running in a debug environment, such as when you build
and run an app in Xcode, you can see exactly where the invalid state occurred and query the
state of your app at the time that the assertion was triggered. An assertion also lets you provide
a suitable debug message as to the nature of the assert.
You write an assertion by calling the global assert function. You pass the assert function an
expression that evaluates to true or false and a message that should be displayed if the result of
the condition is false:

let age = -3

assert(age >= 0, "A person's age cannot be less than zero")

// this causes the assertion to trigger, because age is not >= 0

In this example, code execution will continue only if age >= 0 evaluates to true, that is, if the
value of age is non-negative. If the value of age is negative, as in the code above, then age >=
0 evaluates to false, and the assertion is triggered, terminating the application.
The assertion message can be omitted if desired, as in the following example:

assert(age >= 0)
When to Use Assertions
Use an assertion whenever a condition has the potential to be false, but must definitely be true
in order for your code to continue execution. Suitable scenarios for an assertion check include:
An integer subscript index is passed to a custom subscript implementation, but the
subscript index value could be too low or too high.
A value is passed to a function, but an invalid value means that the function cannot fulfill its
task.
An optional value is currently nil, but a non-nil value is essential for subsequent code to
execute successfully.
See also Subscripts and Functions.
NOTE
Assertions cause your app to terminate and are not a substitute for designing your code in such
a way that invalid conditions are unlikely to arise. Nonetheless, in situations where invalid
conditions are possible, an assertion is an effective way to ensure that such conditions are
highlighted and noticed during development, before your app is published.

Basic Operators
On This Page
An operator is a special symbol or phrase that you use to check, change, or combine values. For
example, the addition operator (+) adds two numbers together (as in let i = 1 + 2). More
complex examples include the logical AND operator && (as in if enteredDoorCode &&
passedRetinaScan) and the increment operator ++i, which is a shortcut to increase the value
of i by 1.
Swift supports most standard C operators and improves several capabilities to eliminate
common coding errors. The assignment operator (=) does not return a value, to prevent it from
being mistakenly used when the equal to operator (==) is intended. Arithmetic operators (+, , *, /, % and so forth) detect and disallow value overflow, to avoid unexpected results when
working with numbers that become larger or smaller than the allowed value range of the type
that stores them. You can opt in to value overflow behavior by using Swifts overflow operators,
as described in Overflow Operators.
Unlike C, Swift lets you perform remainder (%) calculations on floating-point numbers. Swift
also provides two range operators (a..<b and a...b) not found in C, as a shortcut for expressing a
range of values.
This chapter describes the common operators in Swift. Advanced Operators covers Swifts
advanced operators, and describes how to define your own custom operators and implement
the standard operators for your own custom types.
Terminology
Operators are unary, binary, or ternary:

Unary operators operate on a single target (such as -a). Unary prefix operators appear
immediately before their target (such as !b), and unary postfix operators appear
immediately after their target (such as i++).
Binary operators operate on two targets (such as 2 + 3) and are infix because they appear in
between their two targets.
Ternary operators operate on three targets. Like C, Swift has only one ternary operator, the
ternary conditional operator (a ? b : c).
The values that operators affect are operands. In the expression 1 + 2, the + symbol is a binary
operator and its two operands are the values 1 and 2.
Assignment Operator
The assignment operator (a = b) initializes or updates the value of a with the value of b:

let b = 10

var a = 5

a=b

// a is now equal to 10

If the right side of the assignment is a tuple with multiple values, its elements can be
decomposed into multiple constants or variables at once:

let (x, y) = (1, 2)

// x is equal to 1, and y is equal to 2

Unlike the assignment operator in C and Objective-C, the assignment operator in Swift does not
itself return a value. The following statement is not valid:

if x = y {

// this is not valid, because x = y does not return a value

}
This feature prevents the assignment operator (=) from being used by accident when the equal
to operator (==) is actually intended. By making if x = y invalid, Swift helps you to avoid these
kinds of errors in your code.
Arithmetic Operators
Swift supports the four standard arithmetic operators for all number types:
Addition (+)
Subtraction (-)
Multiplication (*)
Division (/)

1 + 2 // equals 3

5 - 3 // equals 2

2 * 3 // equals 6

10.0 / 2.5 // equals 4.0

Unlike the arithmetic operators in C and Objective-C, the Swift arithmetic operators do not
allow values to overflow by default. You can opt in to value overflow behavior by using Swifts
overflow operators (such as a &+ b). See Overflow Operators.
The addition operator is also supported for String concatenation:

"hello, " + "world" // equals "hello, world"

Two Character values, or one Character value and one String value, can be added together to
make a newString value:

let dog: Character = ""

let cow: Character = ""

let dogCow = dog + cow

// dogCow is equal to ""

See also Concatenating Strings and Characters.

Remainder Operator
The remainder operator (a % b) works out how many multiples of b will fit inside a and returns
the value that is left over (known as the remainder).
NOTE
The remainder operator (%) is also known as a modulo operator in other languages. However,
its behavior in Swift for negative numbers means that it is, strictly speaking, a remainder rather
than a modulo operation.
Heres how the remainder operator works. To calculate 9 % 4, you first work out how many 4s
will fit inside 9:

You can fit two 4s inside 9, and the remainder is 1 (shown in orange).
In Swift, this would be written as:

9 % 4 // equals 1
To determine the answer for a % b, the % operator calculates the following equation and
returns remainder as its output:
a = (b some multiplier) + remainder
where some multiplier is the largest number of multiples of b that will fit inside a.
Inserting 9 and 4 into this equation yields:
9 = (4 2) + 1
The same method is applied when calculating the remainder for a negative value of a:

-9 % 4 // equals -1
Inserting -9 and 4 into the equation yields:
-9 = (4 -2) + -1
giving a remainder value of -1.
The sign of b is ignored for negative values of b. This means that a % b and a % -b always give
the same answer.
Floating-Point Remainder Calculations
Unlike the remainder operator in C and Objective-C, Swifts remainder operator can also
operate on floating-point numbers:

8 % 2.5 // equals 0.5

In this example, 8 divided by 2.5 equals 3, with a remainder of 0.5, so the remainder operator
returns a Doublevalue of 0.5.

Increment and Decrement Operators

Like C, Swift provides an increment operator (++) and a decrement operator (--) as a shortcut to
increase or decrease the value of a numeric variable by 1. You can use these operators with
variables of any integer or floating-point type.

var i = 0

++i // i now equals 1

Each time you call ++i, the value of i is increased by 1. Essentially, ++i is shorthand for saying i = i
+ 1. Likewise, --i can be used as shorthand for i = i - 1.
The ++ and -- symbols can be used as prefix operators or as postfix operators. ++i and i++ are
both valid ways to increase the value of i by 1. Similarly, --i and i-- are both valid ways to
decrease the value of i by 1.
Note that these operators modify i and also return a value. If you only want to increment or
decrement the value stored in i, you can ignore the returned value. However, if you do use the
returned value, it will be different based on whether you used the prefix or postfix version of
the operator, according to the following rules:
If the operator is written before the variable, it increments the variable before returning its
value.
If the operator is written after the variable, it increments the variable after returning its
value.
For example:

var a = 0

let b = ++a

// a and b are now both equal to 1

let c = a++

// a is now equal to 2, but c has been set to the pre-increment value of 1

In the example above, let b = ++a increments a before returning its value. This is why
both a and b are equal to to the new value of 1.
However, let c = a++ increments a after returning its value. This means that c gets the old value
of 1, and a is then updated to equal 2.
Unless you need the specific behavior of i++, it is recommended that you use ++i and --i in all
cases, because they have the typical expected behavior of modifying i and returning the result.
Unary Minus Operator
The sign of a numeric value can be toggled using a prefixed -, known as the unary minus
operator:

let three = 3

let minusThree = -three // minusThree equals -3

let plusThree = -minusThree // plusThree equals 3, or "minus minus three"

The unary minus operator (-) is prepended directly before the value it operates on, without any
white space.
Unary Plus Operator
The unary plus operator (+) simply returns the value it operates on, without any change:

let minusSix = -6

let alsoMinusSix = +minusSix // alsoMinusSix equals -6

Although the unary plus operator doesnt actually do anything, you can use it to provide
symmetry in your code for positive numbers when also using the unary minus operator for
negative numbers.
Compound Assignment Operators
Like C, Swift provides compound assignment operators that combine assignment (=) with
another operation. One example is the addition assignment operator (+=):

var a = 1

a += 2

// a is now equal to 3
The expression a += 2 is shorthand for a = a + 2. Effectively, the addition and the assignment are
combined into one operator that performs both tasks at the same time.
NOTE
The compound assignment operators do not return a value. You cannot write let b = a += 2, for
example. This behavior is different from the increment and decrement operators mentioned
above.
A complete list of compound assignment operators can be found in Expressions.
Comparison Operators
Swift supports all standard C comparison operators:
Equal to (a == b)
Not equal to (a != b)
Greater than (a > b)
Less than (a < b)
Greater than or equal to (a >= b)
Less than or equal to (a <= b)
NOTE
Swift also provides two identity operators (=== and !==), which you use to test whether two
object references both refer to the same object instance. For more information, see Classes and
Structures.
Each of the comparison operators returns a Bool value to indicate whether or not the
statement is true:

1 == 1 // true, because 1 is equal to 1

2 != 1 // true, because 2 is not equal to 1

2 > 1 // true, because 2 is greater than 1

1 < 2 // true, because 1 is less than 2

1 >= 1 // true, because 1 is greater than or equal to 1

2 <= 1 // false, because 2 is not less than or equal to 1

Comparison operators are often used in conditional statements, such as the if statement:

let name = "world"

if name == "world" {

println("hello, world")

} else {

println("I'm sorry \(name), but I don't recognize you")

// prints "hello, world", because name is indeed equal to "world"

For more on the if statement, see Control Flow.
Ternary Conditional Operator
The ternary conditional operator is a special operator with three parts, which takes the
form question ? answer1 : answer2. It is a shortcut for evaluating one of two expressions based
on whether question is true or false. If question is true, it evaluates answer1 and returns its
value; otherwise, it evaluates answer2 and returns its value.
The ternary conditional operator is shorthand for the code below:

if question {

answer1

} else {

answer2

}
Heres an example, which calculates the height for a table row. The row height should be 50
points taller than the content height if the row has a header, and 20 points taller if the row
doesnt have a header:

let contentHeight = 40

let hasHeader = true

let rowHeight = contentHeight + (hasHeader ? 50 : 20)

// rowHeight is equal to 90
The preceding example is shorthand for the code below:

let contentHeight = 40

let hasHeader = true

var rowHeight = contentHeight

if hasHeader {

rowHeight = rowHeight + 50

} else {

rowHeight = rowHeight + 20

// rowHeight is equal to 90
The first examples use of the ternary conditional operator means that rowHeight can be set to
the correct value on a single line of code. This is more concise than the second example, and
removes the need forrowHeight to be a variable, because its value does not need to be
modified within an if statement.
The ternary conditional operator provides an efficient shorthand for deciding which of two
expressions to consider. Use the ternary conditional operator with care, however. Its
conciseness can lead to hard-to-read code if overused. Avoid combining multiple instances of
the ternary conditional operator into one compound statement.
Nil Coalescing Operator
The nil coalescing operator (a ?? b) unwraps an optional a if it contains a value, or returns a
default value b if ais nil. The expression a is always of an optional type. The expression b must
match the type that is stored inside a.
The nil coalescing operator is shorthand for the code below:

a != nil ? a! : b
The code above uses the ternary conditional operator and forced unwrapping (a!) to access the
value wrapped inside a when a is not nil, and to return b otherwise. The nil coalescing operator
provides a more elegant way to encapsulate this conditional checking and unwrapping in a
concise and readable form.
NOTE
If the value of a is non-nil, the value of b is not evaluated. This is known as short-circuit
evaluation.
The example below uses the nil coalescing operator to choose between a default color name
and an optional user-defined color name:

let defaultColorName = "red"

var userDefinedColorName: String? // defaults to nil

var colorNameToUse = userDefinedColorName ?? defaultColorName

// userDefinedColorName is nil, so colorNameToUse is set to the default of "red"

The userDefinedColorName variable is defined as an optional String, with a default value of nil.
BecauseuserDefinedColorName is of an optional type, you can use the nil coalescing operator
to consider its value. In the example above, the operator is used to determine an initial value
for a String variable calledcolorNameToUse. Because userDefinedColorName is nil, the
expression userDefinedColorName ?? defaultColorName returns the value
of defaultColorName, or "red".
If you assign a non-nil value to userDefinedColorName and perform the nil coalescing operator
check again, the value wrapped inside userDefinedColorName is used instead of the default:

userDefinedColorName = "green"

colorNameToUse = userDefinedColorName ?? defaultColorName

// userDefinedColorName is not nil, so colorNameToUse is set to "green"

Range Operators
Swift includes two range operators, which are shortcuts for expressing a range of values.
Closed Range Operator
The closed range operator (a...b) defines a range that runs from a to b, and includes the
values a and b. The value of a must not be greater than b.
The closed range operator is useful when iterating over a range in which you want all of the
values to be used, such as with a for-in loop:

for index in 1...5 {

println("\(index) times 5 is \(index * 5)")

// 1 times 5 is 5

// 2 times 5 is 10

// 3 times 5 is 15

// 4 times 5 is 20

// 5 times 5 is 25
For more on for-in loops, see Control Flow.
Half-Open Range Operator
The half-open range operator (a..<b) defines a range that runs from a to b, but does not
include b. It is said to be half-open because it contains its first value, but not its final value. As
with the closed range operator, the value of a must not be greater than b.
Half-open ranges are particularly useful when you work with zero-based lists such as arrays,
where it is useful to count up to (but not including) the length of the list:

let names = ["Anna", "Alex", "Brian", "Jack"]

let count = names.count

for i in 0..<count {

println("Person \(i + 1) is called \(names[i])")

// Person 1 is called Anna

// Person 2 is called Alex

// Person 3 is called Brian

// Person 4 is called Jack

Note that the array contains four items, but 0..<count only counts as far as 3 (the index of the
last item in the array), because it is a half-open range. For more on arrays, see Arrays.
Logical Operators
Logical operators modify or combine the Boolean logic values true and false. Swift supports the
three standard logical operators found in C-based languages:
Logical NOT (!a)
Logical AND (a && b)
Logical OR (a || b)
Logical NOT Operator
The logical NOT operator (!a) inverts a Boolean value so that true becomes false,
and false becomes true.
The logical NOT operator is a prefix operator, and appears immediately before the value it
operates on, without any white space. It can be read as not a, as seen in the following
example:

let allowedEntry = false

if !allowedEntry {

println("ACCESS DENIED")

// prints "ACCESS DENIED"

The phrase if !allowedEntry can be read as if not allowed entry. The subsequent line is only
executed if not allowed entry is true; that is, if allowedEntry is false.
As in this example, careful choice of Boolean constant and variable names can help to keep
code readable and concise, while avoiding double negatives or confusing logic statements.
Logical AND Operator
The logical AND operator (a && b) creates logical expressions where both values must
be true for the overall expression to also be true.

If either value is false, the overall expression will also be false. In fact, if the first value is false,
the second value wont even be evaluated, because it cant possibly make the overall
expression equate to true. This is known as short-circuit evaluation.
This example considers two Bool values and only allows access if both values are true:

let enteredDoorCode = true

let passedRetinaScan = false

if enteredDoorCode && passedRetinaScan {

println("Welcome!")

} else {

println("ACCESS DENIED")

// prints "ACCESS DENIED"

Logical OR Operator
The logical OR operator (a || b) is an infix operator made from two adjacent pipe characters.
You use it to create logical expressions in which only one of the two values has to be true for
the overall expression to betrue.
Like the Logical AND operator above, the Logical OR operator uses short-circuit evaluation to
consider its expressions. If the left side of a Logical OR expression is true, the right side is not
evaluated, because it cannot change the outcome of the overall expression.
In the example below, the first Bool value (hasDoorKey) is false, but the second value
(knowsOverridePassword) is true. Because one value is true, the overall expression also
evaluates to true, and access is allowed:

let hasDoorKey = false

let knowsOverridePassword = true

if hasDoorKey || knowsOverridePassword {

println("Welcome!")

} else {

println("ACCESS DENIED")

// prints "Welcome!"
Combining Logical Operators
You can combine multiple logical operators to create longer compound expressions:

if enteredDoorCode && passedRetinaScan || hasDoorKey || knowsOverridePassword {

println("Welcome!")

} else {

println("ACCESS DENIED")

// prints "Welcome!"
This example uses multiple && and || operators to create a longer compound expression.
However, the && and|| operators still operate on only two values, so this is actually three
smaller expressions chained together. The example can be read as:
If weve entered the correct door code and passed the retina scan, or if we have a valid door
key, or if we know the emergency override password, then allow access.
Based on the values of enteredDoorCode, passedRetinaScan, and hasDoorKey, the first two
mini-expressions arefalse. However, the emergency override password is known, so the overall
compound expression still evaluates to true.
Explicit Parentheses
It is sometimes useful to include parentheses when they are not strictly needed, to make the
intention of a complex expression easier to read. In the door access example above, it is useful
to add parentheses around the first part of the compound expression to make its intent explicit:

if (enteredDoorCode && passedRetinaScan) || hasDoorKey || knowsOverridePassword {

println("Welcome!")

} else {

println("ACCESS DENIED")

// prints "Welcome!"
The parentheses make it clear that the first two values are considered as part of a separate
possible state in the overall logic. The output of the compound expression doesnt change, but
the overall intention is clearer to the reader. Readability is always preferred over brevity; use
parentheses where they help to make your intentions clear.
The Basics
Strings and Characters
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2014-09-17

Strings and Characters

On This Page

A string is an ordered collection of characters, such as "hello,

world" or "albatross". Swift strings are represented by
the String type, which in turn represents a collection of values
of Character type.
Swifts String and Character types provide a fast, Unicodecompliant way to work with text in your code. The syntax for string
creation and manipulation is lightweight and readable, with a string
literal syntax that is similar to C. String concatenation is as simple
as adding together two strings with the + operator, and string
mutability is managed by choosing between a constant or a variable,
just like any other value in Swift.
Despite this simplicity of syntax, Swifts String type is a fast,
modern string implementation. Every string is composed of
encoding-independent Unicode characters, and provides support for
accessing those characters in various Unicode representations.
You can also use strings to insert constants, variables, literals, and
expressions into longer strings, in a process known as string
interpolation. This makes it easy to create custom string values for
display, storage, and printing.
NOTE

Swifts String type is bridged seamlessly to Foundations NSString class. If

you are working with the Foundation framework in Cocoa or Cocoa Touch, the
entire NSString API is available to call on any Stringvalue you create, in
addition to the String features described in this chapter. You can also use
a Stringvalue with any API that requires an NSString instance.
For more information about using String with Foundation and Cocoa, see Using
Swift with Cocoa and Objective-C.

String Literals
You can include predefined String values within your code as string
literals. A string literal is a fixed sequence of textual characters
surrounded by a pair of double quotes ("").
Use a string literal as an initial value for a constant or variable:
let someString = "Some string literal value"

Note that Swift infers a type of String for

the someString constant, because it is initialized with a string
literal value.
NOTE

For information about using special characters in string literals, see Special Unicode
Characters in String Literals.

Initializing an Empty String

To create an empty String value as the starting point for building a
longer string, either assign an empty string literal to a variable, or
initialize a new String instance with initializer syntax:
var emptyString = "" // empty string literal
var anotherEmptyString = String() // initializer syntax
// these two strings are both empty, and are equivalent to each other

Find out whether a String value is empty by checking its

Boolean isEmpty property:
if emptyString.isEmpty {
println("Nothing to see here")
}
// prints "Nothing to see here"

String Mutability
You indicate whether a particular String can be modified (or mutated)
by assigning it to a variable (in which case it can be modified), or to
a constant (in which case it cannot be modified):
var variableString = "Horse"
variableString += " and carriage"
// variableString is now "Horse and carriage"

let constantString = "Highlander"

constantString += " and another Highlander"
// this reports a compile-time error - a constant string cannot be modified
NOTE

This approach is different from string mutation in Objective-C and Cocoa,

where you choose between two classes (NSString and NSMutableString) to
indicate whether a string can be mutated.

Strings Are Value Types

Swifts String type is a value type. If you create a new String value,
that String value is copied when it is passed to a function or method,
or when it is assigned to a constant or variable. In each case, a new
copy of the existing String value is created, and the new copy is
passed or assigned, not the original version. Value types are
described in Structures and Enumerations Are Value Types.
NOTE

This behavior differs from that of NSString in Cocoa. When you create
an NSString instance in Cocoa, and pass it to a function or method or assign it
to a variable, you are always passing or assigning a reference to the same
single NSString. No copying of the string takes place, unless you specifically
request it.
Swifts copy-by-default String behavior ensures that when a
function or method passes you a String value, it is clear that you
own that exact String value, regardless of where it came from. You

can be confident that the string you are passed will not be modified
unless you modify it yourself.
Behind the scenes, Swifts compiler optimizes string usage so that
actual copying takes place only when absolutely necessary. This
means you always get great performance when working with strings
as value types.

Working with Characters

Swifts String type represents a collection of Character values in
a specified order. You can access the individual Character values
in a string by iterating over that string with a for-in loop:
for character in "Dog!" {
println(character)
}
// D
// o
// g
// !
//

The for-in loop is described in For Loops.

Alternatively, create a stand-alone Character constant or variable
from a single-character string literal by providing a Character type
annotation:
let yenSign: Character = ""

Concatenating Strings and Characters

String values can be added together (or concatenated) with the addition
operator (+) to create a new Stringvalue:
let string1 = "hello"
let string2 = " there"
var welcome = string1 + string2

 // welcome now equals "hello there"

You can also append a String value to an existing String variable

with the addition assignment operator (+=):
var instruction = "look over"
instruction += string2
// instruction now equals "look over there"

You can append a Character value to a String variable with

the String types append method:
let exclamationMark: Character = "!"
welcome.append(exclamationMark)
// welcome now equals "hello there!"
NOTE

You cant append a String or Character to an existing Character variable,

because a Character value must contain a single character only.

String Interpolation
is a way to construct a new String value from a mix of
constants, variables, literals, and expressions by including their
values inside a string literal. Each item that you insert into the string
literal is wrapped in a pair of parentheses, prefixed by a backslash:
String interpolation

let multiplier = 3
let message = "\(multiplier) times 2.5 is \(Double(multiplier) * 2.5)"
// message is "3 times 2.5 is 7.5"

In the example above, the value of multiplier is inserted into a

string literal as \(multiplier). This placeholder is replaced with
the actual value of multiplier when the string interpolation is
evaluated to create an actual string.
The value of multiplier is also part of a larger expression later in
the string. This expression calculates the value
of Double(multiplier) * 2.5 and inserts the result (7.5) into
the string. In this case, the expression is written
as \(Double(multiplier) * 2.5) when it is included inside the
string literal.

NOTE

The expressions you write inside parentheses within an interpolated string

cannot contain an unescaped double quote (") or backslash (\), and cannot
contain a carriage return or line feed.

Unicode
is an international standard for encoding, representing, and
processing text in different writing systems. It enables you to
represent almost any character from any language in a standardized
form, and to read and write those characters to and from an external
source such as a text file or web page.
Swifts Stringand Character types are fully Unicode-compliant,
as described in this section.
Unicode

Unicode Scalars
Behind the scenes, Swifts native String type is built from Unicode
scalar values. A Unicode scalar is a unique 21-bit number for a
character or modifier, such as U+0061 for LATIN SMALL LETTER
A ("a"), or U+1F425 for FRONT-FACING BABY CHICK ("").
NOTE

A Unicode scalar is any Unicode code point in the

range U+0000 to U+D7FF inclusive or U+E000 to U+10FFFFinclusive. Unicode
scalars do not include the Unicode surrogate pair code points, which are the code
points in the range U+D800 to U+DFFF inclusive.

Note that not all 21-bit Unicode scalars are assigned to a character
some scalars are reserved for future assignment. Scalars that have
been assigned to a character typically also have a name, such
as LATIN SMALL LETTER A and FRONT-FACING BABY CHICK in
the examples above.

Special Unicode Characters in String Literals

String literals can include the following special Unicode characters:

The escaped special characters \0 (null character), \\ (backslash), \t (horizontal tab), \n (line
feed), \r(carriage return), \" (double quote) and \' (single quote)
An arbitrary Unicode scalar, written as \u{n}, where n is between one and eight hexadecimal digits

The code below shows four examples of these special characters.

The wiseWords constant contains two escaped double quote
characters. The dollarSign, blackHeart,
and sparklingHeart constants demonstrate the Unicode scalar
format:
let wiseWords = "\"Imagination is more important than knowledge\" - Einstein"
// "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
let dollarSign = "\u{24}" // $, Unicode scalar U+0024
let blackHeart = "\u{2665}" // , Unicode scalar U+2665
let sparklingHeart = "\u{1F496}" // , Unicode scalar U+1F496

Extended Grapheme Clusters

Every instance of Swifts Character type represents a single extended
grapheme cluster. An extended grapheme cluster is a sequence of one or
more Unicode scalars that (when combined) produce a single
human-readable character.
Heres an example. The letter can be represented as the single
Unicode scalar (LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE,
or U+00E9). However, the same letter can also be represented as
a pair of scalarsa standard letter e(LATIN SMALL LETTER E,
or U+0065), followed by the COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT scalar
(U+0301). The COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT scalar is graphically
applied to the scalar that precedes it, turning an e into an when it
is rendered by a Unicode-aware text-rendering system.
In both cases, the letter is represented as a single
Swift Character value that represents an extended grapheme
cluster. In the first case, the cluster contains a single scalar; in the
second case, it is a cluster of two scalars:
let eAcute: Character = "\u{E9}" //
let combinedEAcute: Character = "\u{65}\u{301}"

Extended grapheme clusters are a flexible way to represent many

complex script characters as a singleCharacter value. For example,
Hangul syllables from the Korean alphabet can be represented as
either a precomposed or decomposed sequence. Both of these
representations qualify as a single Character value in Swift:
let precomposed: Character = "\u{D55C}" //
let decomposed: Character = "\u{1112}\u{1161}\u{11AB}" // , ,
// precomposed is , decomposed is

Extended grapheme clusters enable scalars for enclosing marks

(such as COMBINING ENCLOSING CIRCLE, orU+20DD) to enclose
other Unicode scalars as part of a single Character value:
let enclosedEAcute: Character = "\u{E9}\u{20DD}"
// enclosedEAcute is

Unicode scalars for regional indicator symbols can be combined in

pairs to make a single Character value, such as this combination
of REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER U (U+1F1FA)
and REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER S (U+1F1F8):
let regionalIndicatorForUS: Character = "\u{1F1FA}\u{1F1F8}"
// regionalIndicatorForUS is

Counting Characters
To retrieve a count of the Character values in a string, call the
global countElements function and pass in a string as the
functions sole parameter:
let unusualMenagerie = "Koala , Snail , Penguin , Dromedary "
println("unusualMenagerie has \(countElements(unusualMenagerie)) characters")
// prints "unusualMenagerie has 40 characters"

Note that Swifts use of extended grapheme clusters

for Character values means that string concatenation and
modification may not always affect a strings character count.

For example, if you initialize a new string with the four-character

word cafe, and then append a COMBINING ACUTE
ACCENT (U+0301) to the end of the string, the resulting string will
still have a character count of 4, with a fourth character of , not e:
var word = "cafe"
println("the number of characters in \(word) is \(countElements(word))")
// prints "the number of characters in cafe is 4"

word += "\u{301}" // COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT, U+0301

println("the number of characters in \(word) is \(countElements(word))")

is 4"
NOTE

Extended grapheme clusters can be composed of one or more Unicode scalars.

This means that different characters, and different representations of the same
character, can require different amounts of memory to store. Because of this,
characters in Swift do not each take up the same amount of memory within a
strings representation. As a result, the number of characters in a string cannot
be calculated without iterating through the string to determine its extended
grapheme cluster boundaries. If you are working with particularly long string
values, be aware that the countElements function must iterate over the
Unicode scalars in the entire string in order to calculate an accurate character
count for that string.
Note also that the character count returned by countElements is not always
the same as the length property of an NSString that contains the same
characters. The length of an NSString is based on the number of 16-bit code
units within the strings UTF-16 representation and not the number of Unicode
extended grapheme clusters within the string. To reflect this fact,
the length property from NSString is called utf16Count when it is accessed
on a Swift String value.

Comparing Strings
Swift provides three ways to compare textual values: string and
character equality, prefix equality, and suffix equality.

String and Character Equality

String and character equality is checked with the equal to operator
(==) and the not equal to operator (!=), as described in Comparison
Operators:
let quotation = "We're a lot alike, you and I."
let sameQuotation = "We're a lot alike, you and I."
if quotation == sameQuotation {
println("These two strings are considered equal")
}
// prints "These two strings are considered equal"

Two String values (or two Character values) are considered

equal if their extended grapheme clusters arecanonically equivalent.
Extended grapheme clusters are canonically equivalent if they have
the same linguistic meaning and appearance, even if they are
composed from different Unicode scalars behind the scenes.
For example, LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE (U+00E9) is
canonically equivalent to LATIN SMALL LETTER E(U+0065)
followed by COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT (U+0301). Both of these
extended grapheme clusters are valid ways to represent the
character , and so they are considered to be canonically equivalent:
// "Voulez-vous un caf?" using LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
let eAcuteQuestion = "Voulez-vous un caf\u{E9}?"

using LATIN SMALL LETTER E and COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT

let combinedEAcuteQuestion = "Voulez-vous un caf\u{65}\u{301}?"

if eAcuteQuestion == combinedEAcuteQuestion {
println("These two strings are considered equal")
}
// prints "These two strings are considered equal"

Conversely, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A (U+0041, or "A"), as used

in English, is not equivalent to CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER

A (U+0410, or ), as used in Russian. The characters are visually

similar, but do not have the same linguistic meaning:

let latinCapitalLetterA: Character = "\u{41}"

let cyrillicCapitalLetterA: Character = "\u{0410}"

if latinCapitalLetterA != cyrillicCapitalLetterA {
println("These two characters are not equivalent")
}
// prints "These two characters are not equivalent"
NOTE

String and character comparisons in Swift are not locale-sensitive.

Prefix and Suffix Equality

To check whether a string has a particular string prefix or suffix, call
the strings hasPrefix and hasSuffixmethods, both of which take
a single argument of type String and return a Boolean value.
The examples below consider an array of strings representing the
scene locations from the first two acts of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet:
let romeoAndJuliet = [
"Act 1 Scene 1: Verona, A public place",
"Act 1 Scene 2: Capulet's mansion",
"Act 1 Scene 3: A room in Capulet's mansion",
"Act 1 Scene 4: A street outside Capulet's mansion",
"Act 1 Scene 5: The Great Hall in Capulet's mansion",
"Act 2 Scene 1: Outside Capulet's mansion",
"Act 2 Scene 2: Capulet's orchard",
"Act 2 Scene 3: Outside Friar Lawrence's cell",
"Act 2 Scene 4: A street in Verona",
"Act 2 Scene 5: Capulet's mansion",
"Act 2 Scene 6: Friar Lawrence's cell"
]

You can use the hasPrefix method with

the romeoAndJuliet array to count the number of scenes in Act 1
of the play:
var act1SceneCount = 0
for scene in romeoAndJuliet {
if scene.hasPrefix("Act 1 ") {
++act1SceneCount
}
}
println("There are \(act1SceneCount) scenes in Act 1")
// prints "There are 5 scenes in Act 1"

Similarly, use the hasSuffix method to count the number of scenes

that take place in or around Capulets mansion and Friar Lawrences
cell:
var mansionCount = 0
var cellCount = 0
for scene in romeoAndJuliet {
if scene.hasSuffix("Capulet's mansion") {
++mansionCount
} else if scene.hasSuffix("Friar Lawrence's cell") {
++cellCount
}
}
println("\(mansionCount) mansion scenes; \(cellCount) cell scenes")
// prints "6 mansion scenes; 2 cell scenes"
NOTE

The hasPrefix and hasSuffix methods perform a character-by-character

canonical equivalence comparison between the extended grapheme clusters in
each string, as described in String and Character Equality.

Unicode Representations of Strings

When a Unicode string is written to a text file or some other storage,
the Unicode scalars in that string are encoded in one of several

Unicode-defined encoding forms. Each form encodes the string in small

chunks known as code units. These include the UTF-8 encoding form
(which encodes a string as 8-bit code units), the UTF-16 encoding
form (which encodes a string as 16-bit code units), and the UTF-32
encoding form (which encodes a string as 32-bit code units).
Swift provides several different ways to access Unicode
representations of strings. You can iterate over the string with a forin statement, to access its individual Character values as Unicode
extended grapheme clusters. This process is described in Working with
Characters.
Alternatively, access a String value in one of three other Unicodecompliant representations:

A collection of UTF-8 code units (accessed with the strings utf8 property)
A collection of UTF-16 code units (accessed with the strings utf16 property)
A collection of 21-bit Unicode scalar values, equivalent to the strings UTF-32 encoding form (accessed
with the strings unicodeScalars property)

Each example below shows a different representation of the

following string, which is made up of the
characters D, o, g, (DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK, or Unicode
scalar U+203C), and the character (DOG FACE, or Unicode
scalar U+1F436):
let dogString =

D g"

UTF-8 Representation
You can access a UTF-8 representation of a String by iterating
over its utf8 property. This property is of typeString.UTF8View,
which is a collection of unsigned 8-bit (UInt8) values, one for each
byte in the strings UTF-8 representation:
for codeUnit in dogString.utf8 {
print("\(codeUnit) ")
}
print("\n")
// 68 111 103 226 128 188 240 159 144 182

In the example above, the first three decimal codeUnit values

(68, 111, 103) represent the characters D, o, and g, whose UTF-8
representation is the same as their ASCII representation. The next
three decimal codeUnitvalues (226, 128, 188) are a three-byte
UTF-8 representation of the DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK character.
The last four codeUnit values (240, 159, 144, 182) are a four-byte
UTF-8 representation of the DOG FACE character.

UTF-16 Representation
You can access a UTF-16 representation of a String by iterating
over its utf16 property. This property is of
type String.UTF16View, which is a collection of unsigned 16-bit
(UInt16) values, one for each 16-bit code unit in the strings UTF16 representation:
for codeUnit in dogString.utf16 {
print("\(codeUnit) ")
}
print("\n")
// 68 111 103 8252 55357 56374

Again, the first three codeUnit values (68, 111, 103) represent the
characters D, o, and g, whose UTF-16 code units have the same
values as in the strings UTF-8 representation (because these
Unicode scalars represent ASCII characters).
The fourth codeUnit value (8252) is a decimal equivalent of the
hexadecimal value 203C, which represents the Unicode
scalar U+203C for the DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK character. This
character can be represented as a single code unit in UTF-16.
The fifth and sixth codeUnit values (55357 and 56374) are a UTF16 surrogate pair representation of the DOG FACE character. These
values are a high-surrogate value of U+D83D (decimal value 55357)
and a low-surrogate value of U+DC36 (decimal value 56374).

Unicode Scalar Representation

You can access a Unicode scalar representation of a String value
by iterating over its unicodeScalarsproperty. This property is of
type UnicodeScalarView, which is a collection of values of
type UnicodeScalar.
Each UnicodeScalar has a value property that returns the scalars
21-bit value, represented within a UInt32value:
for scalar in dogString.unicodeScalars {
print("\(scalar.value) ")
}
print("\n")
// 68 111 103 8252 128054

The value properties for the first three UnicodeScalar values

(68, 111, 103) once again represent the charactersD, o, and g.
The fourth codeUnit value (8252) is again a decimal equivalent of
the hexadecimal value 203C, which represents the Unicode
scalar U+203C for the DOUBLE EXCLAMATION MARK character.
The value property of the fifth and final UnicodeScalar, 128054,
is a decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal value1F436, which
represents the Unicode scalar U+1F436 for the DOG FACE character.
As an alternative to querying their value properties,
each UnicodeScalar value can also be used to construct a
new String value, such as with string interpolation:
for scalar in dogString.unicodeScalars {
println("\(scalar) ")
}
// D
// o
// g
//
//

Basic Operators

Collection Types
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