.

The Basics
Work with common kinds of data and write basic syntax.

https://docs.swift.org/swift-book/documentation/the-swift-
programming-language/thebasics/

The Basics
Work with common kinds of data and write basic
syntax.

Swift provides many fundamental data types,

including Int for integers, Double for floating-point
values, Bool for Boolean values, and String for
text. Swift also provides powerful versions of the
three primary collection types, Array, Set,
and Dictionary, as described in Collection Types.
Swift uses variables to store and refer to values by
an identifying name. Swift also makes extensive use
of variables whose values can’t be changed. These
are known as constants, and are used throughout
Swift to make code safer and clearer in intent when
you work with values that don’t need to change.
In addition to familiar types, Swift introduces
advanced types 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.
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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 isn’t a
value at all”.
Swift is a type-safe language, which means the
language helps you to be clear about the types of
values your code can work with. If part of your code
requires a String, type safety prevents you from
passing it an Int by mistake. Likewise, type safety
prevents you from accidentally passing an
optional String to a piece of code that requires a
non-optional String. Type safety helps you 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 welcomeMessag
e) with a value of a particular type (such as the
number 10 or the string "Hello"). The value of
a constant can’t be changed once it’s 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’re used. You declare constants with
the let keyword and variables with
the var keyword. Here’s an example of how
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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.
If a stored value in your code won’t change, always
declare it as a constant with the let keyword. Use
variables only for storing values that change.
When you declare a constant or a variable, you can
give it a value as part of that declaration, like the
examples above. Alternatively, you can assign its
initial value later in the program, as long as it’s
guaranteed to have a value before the first time you
read from it.
var environment = "development"
let maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts: Int
// maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts has no value yet.

if environment == "development" {
maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts = 100
} else {
maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts = 10
}
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// Now maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts has a value, and can be read.

In this example, the maximum number of login

attempts is constant, and its value depends on the
environment. In the development environment, it has
a value of 100; in any other environment, its value is
10. Both branches of the if statement
initialize maximumNumberOfLoginAttempts with some
value, guaranteeing that the constant always gets a
value. For information about how Swift checks your
code when you set an initial value this way,
see Constant Declaration.
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

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’s of
type String.”
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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’s 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’s 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 π = 3.14159
let 你好 = "你好世界"
let 🐶🐮 = "dogcow"

Constant and variable names can’t contain

whitespace characters, mathematical symbols,
arrows, private-use Unicode scalar values, or line-
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and box-drawing characters. Nor can they begin with

a number, although numbers may be included
elsewhere within the name.
Once you’ve declared a constant or variable of a
certain type, you can’t declare 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 backticks (`) 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 can’t be

changed after it’s 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 print(_:separator:terminator:) function:
print(friendlyWelcome)
// Prints "Bonjour!"
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The print(_:separator:terminator:) function is a

global function that prints one or more values to an
appropriate output. In Xcode, for example,
the print(_:separator:terminator:) function prints
its output in Xcode’s “console” pane.
The separator and terminator parameter have
default values, so you can omit them when you call
this function. By default, the function terminates the
line it prints by adding a line break. To print a value
without a line break after it, pass an empty string as
the terminator — for example, print(someValue,
terminator: ""). For information about parameters
with default values, see Default Parameter Values.
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:
print("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 nonexecutable text in your
code, as a note or reminder to yourself. Comments
are ignored by the Swift compiler when your code is
compiled.
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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 is 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 doesn’t require
you to write a semicolon (;) after each statement in
your code, although you can do so if you wish.
However, semicolons are required if you want to
write multiple separate statements on a single line:
let cat = "🐱"; print(cat)
// Prints "🐱"

Integers
Integers are whole numbers with no fractional
component, such as 42 and -23. Integers are
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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 type Int32. 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 don’t 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 platform’s 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 platform’s
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
platform’s native word size. If this isn’t the
case, Int is preferred, even when the values to be
stored are known to be nonnegative. 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.
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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.

 Float represents a 32-bit floating-point number.

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. In situations where
either type would be appropriate, Double is
preferred.
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
requires a String, you can’t 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 you’re
working with different types of values. However, this
doesn’t mean that you have to specify the type of
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every constant and variable that you declare. If you

don’t 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 don’t 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
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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. Decimal
floats can also have an optional exponent, indicated
by an uppercase or lowercase e; hexadecimal floats
must have an exponent, indicated by an uppercase
or lowercase p.
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For decimal numbers with an exponent of x, the

base number is multiplied by 10ˣ:
 1.25e2 means 1.25 x 10², or 125.0.

 1.25e-2 means 1.25 x 10⁻², or 0.0125.

For hexadecimal numbers with an exponent of x, the

base number is multiplied by 2ˣ:
 0xFp2 means 15 x 2², or 60.0.

 0xFp-2 means 15 x 2⁻², 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 zeros 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’re
known to be nonnegative. 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’re
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 won’t 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 can't store negative numbers, and so this will report an error
let tooBig: Int8 = Int8.max + 1
// Int8 can't 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 can’t be
added together directly, because they’re 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’s 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 can’t pass in any type here, however — it has
to be a type for which UInt16 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 Double or 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
don’t have an explicit type in and of themselves.
Their type is inferred only at the point that they’re
evaluated by the compiler.
Type Aliases
Type aliases define an alternative name for an
existing type. You define type aliases with
the typealias keyword.
Type aliases are useful when you want to refer to an
existing type by a name that’s 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’s 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 hav
e been inferred as Bool from the fact that they were
initialized with Boolean literal values. As
with Int and Double above, you don’t 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 {
print("Mmm, tasty turnips!")
} else {
print("Eww, turnips are horrible.")
}
.

// Prints "Eww, turnips are horrible."

Conditional statements such as the if statement

are covered in more detail in Control Flow.
Swift’s 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 type-check.
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 don’t 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
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of 404 Not Found is returned if you request a

webpage that doesn’t 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. There’s 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 tuple’s contents into
separate constants or variables, which you then
access as usual:
let (statusCode, statusMessage) = http404Error
print("The status code is \(statusCode)")
// Prints "The status code is 404"
print("The status message is \(statusMessage)")
// Prints "The status message is Not Found"

If you only need some of the tuple’s values, ignore

parts of the tuple with an underscore (_) when you
decompose the tuple:
let (justTheStatusCode, _) = http404Error
print("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:
print("The status code is \(http404Error.0)")
// Prints "The status code is 404"
print("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:
print("The status code is \(http200Status.statusCode)")
// Prints "The status code is 200"
print("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 simple groups of related values.
They’re not suited to the creation of complex data
structures. If your data structure is likely to be more
complex, model it as a class or structure, rather than
as a tuple. For more information, see Structures and
Classes.
Optionals
You use optionals in situations where a value may
be absent. An optional represents two possibilities:
Either there is a value of a specified type, and you
can unwrap the optional to access that value, or
there isn’t a value at all.
.

As an example of a value that might be missing,

Swift’s Int type has an initializer that tries to
convert a String value into an Int value. However,
only some strings can be converted into integers.
The string "123" can be converted into the numeric
value 123, but the string "hello, world" doesn’t
have a corresponding numeric value. The example
below uses the initializer to try to convert
a String into an Int:
let possibleNumber = "123"
let convertedNumber = Int(possibleNumber)
// The type of convertedNumber is "optional Int"

Because the initializer in the code above might fail,

it returns an optional Int, rather than an Int.
To write an optional type, you write a question mark
(?) after the name of the type that the optional
contains — for example, the type of an
optional Int is Int?. An optional Int always
contains either some Int value or no value at all. It
can’t contain anything else, like
a Bool or String value.

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

If you define an optional variable without providing a

default value, the variable is automatically set
to nil:
var surveyAnswer: String?
// surveyAnswer is automatically set to nil
.

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’s considered as “not
equal to” nil:
let possibleNumber = "123"
let convertedNumber = Int(possibleNumber)

if convertedNumber != nil {
print("convertedNumber contains some integer value.")
}
// Prints "convertedNumber contains some integer value."

You can’t use nil with non-optional constants or

variables. If a constant or variable in your code
needs to work with the absence of a value under
certain conditions, declare it as an optional value of
the appropriate type. A constant or variable that’s
declared as a non-optional value is guaranteed to
never contain a nil value. If you try to
assign nil to a non-optional value, you’ll get a
compile-time error.
This separation of optional and non-optional values
lets you explicitly mark what information can be
missing, and makes it easier to write code that
handle missing values. You can’t accidentally treat
an optional as if it were non-optional because this
mistake produces an error at compile time. After you
unwrap the value, none of the other code that works
with that value needs to check for nil, so there’s no
.

need to repeatedly check the same value in different

parts of your code.
When you access an optional value, your code
always handles both the nil and non-nil case.
There are several things you can do when a value is
missing, as described in the following sections:
 Skip the code that operates on the value when

it’s nil.
 Propagate the nil value, by returning nil or

using the ?. operator described in Optional

Chaining.
 Provide a fallback value, using the ?? operator.

 Stop program execution, using the ! operator.

Note
In Objective-C, nil is a pointer to a nonexistent
object. In Swift, nil isn’t a pointer — it’s the
absence of a value of a certain type. Optionals
of any type can be set to nil, not just object types.
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, guard,
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. For more
information about if, guard, and while statements,
see Control Flow.
.

Write an optional binding for an 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 = Int(possibleNumber) {
print("The string \"\(possibleNumber)\" has an integer value of \
(actualNumber)")
} else {
print("The string \"\(possibleNumber)\" couldn't be converted to an
integer")
}
// Prints "The string "123" has an integer value of 123"

This code can be read as:

“If the optional Int returned
by Int(possibleNumber) contains a value, set a new
constant called actualNumber to 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 has the corresponding non-
optional type. In this case, the type
of possibleNumber is Int?, so the type
of actualNumber is Int.
If you don’t need to refer to the original, optional
constant or variable after accessing the value it
contains, you can use the same name for the new
constant or variable:
let myNumber = Int(possibleNumber)
// Here, myNumber is an optional integer
if let myNumber = myNumber {
.

// Here, myNumber is a non-optional integer

print("My number is \(myNumber)")
}
// Prints "My number is 123"

This code starts by checking

whether myNumber contains a value, just like the
code in the previous example. If myNumber has a
value, the value of a new constant
named myNumber is set to that value. Inside the body
of the if statement, writing myNumber refers to that
new non-optional constant. Writing myNumber before
or after the if statement refers to the original
optional integer constant.
Because this kind of code is so common, you can
use a shorter spelling to unwrap an optional value:
Write just the name of the constant or variable that
you’re unwrapping. The new, unwrapped constant or
variable implicitly uses the same name as the
optional value.
if let myNumber {
print("My number is \(myNumber)")
}
// Prints "My number is 123"

You can use both constants and variables with

optional binding. If you wanted to manipulate the
value of myNumber within the first branch of
the if statement, you could write if var
myNumber instead, and the value contained within the
optional would be made available as a variable
rather than a constant. Changes you make
to myNumber inside the body of the if statement
apply only to that local variable, not to the original,
optional constant or variable that you unwrapped.
.

You can include as many optional bindings and

Boolean conditions in a single if statement as you
need to, separated by commas. If any of the values
in the optional bindings are nil or any Boolean
condition evaluates to false, the
whole if statement’s condition is considered to
be false. The following if statements are
equivalent:
if let firstNumber = Int("4"), let secondNumber = Int("42"), firstNumber <
secondNumber && secondNumber < 100 {
print("\(firstNumber) < \(secondNumber) < 100")
}
// Prints "4 < 42 < 100"

if let firstNumber = Int("4") {

if let secondNumber = Int("42") {
if firstNumber < secondNumber && secondNumber < 100 {
print("\(firstNumber) < \(secondNumber) < 100")
}
}
}
// Prints "4 < 42 < 100"

Constants and variables created with optional

binding in an if statement are available only within
the body of the if statement. In contrast, the
constants and variables created with
a guard statement are available in the lines of code
that follow the guard statement, as described
in Early Exit.

Providing a Fallback Value

Another way to handle a missing value is to supply a

default value using the nil-coalescing operator (??). If
the optional on the left of the ?? isn’t nil, that
value is unwrapped and used. Otherwise, the value
on the right of ?? is used. For example, the code
.

below greets someone by name if one is specified,

and uses a generic greeting when the name is nil.
let name: String? = nil
let greeting = "Hello, " + (name ?? "friend") + "!"
print(greeting)
// Prints "Hello, friend!"

For more information about using ?? to provide a

fallback value, see Nil-Coalescing Operator.

Force Unwrapping

When nil represents an unrecoverable failure, such

a programmer error or corrupted state, you can
access the underlying value by adding an
exclamation mark (!) to the end of the optional’s
name. This is known as force unwrapping the
optional’s value. When you force unwrap a non-
nil value, the result is its unwrapped value. Force
unwrapping a nil value triggers a runtime error.
The ! is, effectively, a shorter spelling
of fatalError(_:file:line:). For example, the code
below shows two equivalent approaches:
let possibleNumber = "123"
let convertedNumber = Int(possibleNumber)

let number = convertedNumber!

guard let number = convertedNumber else {

fatalError("The number was invalid")
}

Both versions of the code above depend

on convertedNumber always containing a value.
Writing that requirement as part of the code, using
either of the approaches above, lets your code check
that the requirement is true at runtime.
.

For more information about enforcing data

requirements and checking assumptions at runtime,
see Assertions and Preconditions.

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
optional’s value if it does exist.
Sometimes it’s clear from a program’s structure that
an optional will always have a value, after that
value is first set. In these cases, it’s useful to
remove the need to check and unwrap the optional’s
value every time it’s 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 point
(String!) rather than a question mark (String?) after
the type that you want to make optional. Rather than
placing an exclamation point after the optional’s
name when you use it, you place an exclamation
point after the optional’s type when you declare it.
Implicitly unwrapped optionals are useful when an
optional’s 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.
Don’t use an implicitly unwrapped optional when
there’s 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.
An implicitly unwrapped optional is a normal optional
behind the scenes, but can also be used like a non-
optional value, without the need to unwrap the
optional value each time it’s 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 explicit unwrapping

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

let implicitString: String = assumedString // Unwrapped automatically

You can think of an implicitly unwrapped optional as

giving permission for the optional to be force-
unwrapped if needed. When you use an implicitly
unwrapped optional value, Swift first tries to use it
as an ordinary optional value; if it can’t be used as
an optional, Swift force-unwraps the value. In the
code above, the optional value assumedString is
force-unwrapped before assigning its value
to implicitString because implicitString has an
explicit, non-optional type of String. In code
.

below, optionalString doesn’t have an explicit type

so it’s an ordinary optional.
let optionalString = assumedString
// The type of optionalString is "String?" and assumedString isn't force-
unwrapped.

If an implicitly unwrapped optional is nil and you

try to access its wrapped value, you’ll trigger a
runtime error. The result is exactly the same as if
you write an exclamation point to force unwrap a
normal optional that doesn’t contain a value.
You can check whether an implicitly unwrapped
optional is nil the same way you check a normal
optional:
if assumedString != nil {
print(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 {
print(definiteString)
}
// Prints "An implicitly unwrapped optional string."

Error Handling
You use error handling to respond to error
conditions your program may encounter during
execution.
In contrast to optionals, which can use the presence
or absence of a value to communicate success or
failure of a function, error handling allows you to
determine the underlying cause of failure, and, if
necessary, propagate the error to another part of
your program.
.

When a function encounters an error condition,

it throws an error. That function’s caller can
then catch the error and respond appropriately.
func canThrowAnError() throws {
// this function may or may not throw an error
}

A function indicates that it can throw an error by

including the throws keyword in its declaration.
When you call a function that can throw an error, you
prepend the try keyword to the expression.
Swift automatically propagates errors out of their
current scope until they’re handled by
a catch clause.
do {
try canThrowAnError()
// no error was thrown
} catch {
// an error was thrown
}

A do statement creates a new containing scope,

which allows errors to be propagated to one or
more catch clauses.
Here’s an example of how error handling can be used
to respond to different error conditions:
func makeASandwich() throws {
// ...
}

do {
try makeASandwich()
eatASandwich()
} catch SandwichError.outOfCleanDishes {
washDishes()
} catch SandwichError.missingIngredients(let ingredients) {
buyGroceries(ingredients)
}

In this example, the makeASandwich() function will

throw an error if no clean dishes are available or if
any ingredients are missing.
.

Because makeASandwich() can throw an error, the

function call is wrapped in a try expression. By
wrapping the function call in a do statement, any
errors that are thrown will be propagated to the
provided catch clauses.
If no error is thrown, the eatASandwich() function is
called. If an error is thrown and it matches
the SandwichError.outOfCleanDishes case, then
the washDishes() function will be called. If an error
is thrown and it matches
the SandwichError.missingIngredients case, then
the buyGroceries(_:) function is called with the
associated [String] value captured by
the catch pattern.
Throwing, catching, and propagating errors is
covered in greater detail in Error Handling.

Assertions and Preconditions

Assertions and preconditions are checks that
happen at runtime. You use them to make sure an
essential condition is satisfied before executing any
further code. If the Boolean condition in the
assertion or precondition evaluates to true, code
execution continues as usual. If the condition
evaluates to false, the current state of the program
is invalid; code execution ends, and your app is
terminated.
You use assertions and preconditions to express the
assumptions you make and the expectations you
.

have while coding, so you can include them as part

of your code. Assertions help you find mistakes and
incorrect assumptions during development, and
preconditions help you detect issues in production.
In addition to verifying your expectations at runtime,
assertions and preconditions also become a useful
form of documentation within the code. Unlike the
error conditions discussed in Error Handling above,
assertions and preconditions aren’t used for
recoverable or expected errors. Because a failed
assertion or precondition indicates an invalid
program state, there’s no way to catch a failed
assertion. Recovering from an invalid state is
impossible. When an assertion fails, at least one
piece of the program’s data is invalid — but you don’t
know why it’s invalid or whether an additional state
is also invalid.
Using assertions and preconditions isn’t a substitute
for designing your code in such a way that invalid
conditions are unlikely to arise. However, using them
to enforce valid data and state causes your app to
terminate more predictably if an invalid state occurs,
and helps make the problem easier to debug. When
assumptions aren’t checked, you might not notice
this kind problem until much later when code
elsewhere starts failing visibly, and after user data
has been silently corrupted. Stopping execution as
soon as an invalid state is detected also helps limit
the damage caused by that invalid state.
.

The difference between assertions and preconditions

is in when they’re checked: Assertions are checked
only in debug builds, but preconditions are checked
in both debug and production builds. In production
builds, the condition inside an assertion isn’t
evaluated. This means you can use as many
assertions as you want during your development
process, without impacting performance in
production.

Debugging with Assertions

You write an assertion by calling

the assert(_:_:file:line:) function from the Swift
standard library. You pass this function an
expression that evaluates to true or false and a
message to display if the result of the condition
is false. For example:
let age = -3
assert(age >= 0, "A person's age can't be less than zero.")
// This assertion fails because -3 isn't >= 0.

In this example, code execution continues if age >=

0 evaluates to true, that is, if the value of age is
nonnegative. If the value of age is negative, as in
the code above, then age >= 0 evaluates to false,
and the assertion fails, terminating the application.
You can omit the assertion message — for example,
when it would just repeat the condition as prose.
assert(age >= 0)

If the code already checks the condition, you use

the assertionFailure(_:file:line:) function to
indicate that an assertion has failed. For example:
if age > 10 {
print("You can ride the roller-coaster or the ferris wheel.")
.

} else if age >= 0 {

print("You can ride the ferris wheel.")
} else {
assertionFailure("A person's age can't be less than zero.")
}

Enforcing Preconditions

Use a precondition whenever a condition has the

potential to be false, but must definitely be true for
your code to continue execution. For example, use a
precondition to check that a subscript isn’t out of
bounds, or to check that a function has been passed
a valid value.
You write a precondition by calling
the precondition(_:_:file:line:) function. You
pass this function an expression that evaluates
to true or false and a message to display if the
result of the condition is false. For example:
// In the implementation of a subscript...
precondition(index > 0, "Index must be greater than zero.")

You can also call

the preconditionFailure(_:file:line:) function to
indicate that a failure has occurred — for example, if
the default case of a switch was taken, but all valid
input data should have been handled by one of the
switch’s other cases.
Note
If you compile in unchecked mode (-Ounchecked),
preconditions aren’t checked. The compiler assumes
that preconditions are always true, and it optimizes
your code accordingly. However,
the fatalError(_:file:line:) function always halts
execution, regardless of optimization settings.
.

You can use the fatalError(_:file:line:) function

during prototyping and early development to create
stubs for functionality that hasn’t been implemented
yet, by writing fatalError("Unimplemented") as the
stub implementation. Because fatal errors are never
optimized out, unlike assertions or preconditions,
you can be sure that execution always halts if it
encounters a stub implementation.
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