Note: This is in reverse chronological order, so newer entries are added to the top.
Version | Released | Toolchain |
---|---|---|
Swift 5.2 | ||
Swift 5.1 | 2019-09-20 | Xcode 11.0 |
Swift 5.0 | 2019-03-25 | Xcode 10.2 |
Swift 4.2 | 2018-09-17 | Xcode 10.0 |
Swift 4.1 | 2018-03-29 | Xcode 9.3 |
Swift 4.0 | 2017-09-19 | Xcode 9.0 |
Swift 3.1 | 2017-03-27 | Xcode 8.3 |
Swift 3.0 | 2016-09-13 | Xcode 8.0 |
Swift 2.2 | 2016-03-21 | Xcode 7.3 |
Swift 2.1 | 2015-10-21 | Xcode 7.1 |
Swift 2.0 | 2015-09-17 | Xcode 7.0 |
Swift 1.2 | 2015-04-08 | Xcode 6.3 |
Swift 1.1 | 2014-12-02 | Xcode 6.1.1 |
Swift 1.0 | 2014-09-15 | Xcode 6.0 |
-
The compiler will now correctly strip argument labels from function references used with the
as
operator in a function call. As a result, theas
operator can now be used to disambiguate a call to a function with argument labels.func foo(x: Int) {} func foo(x: UInt) {} (foo as (Int) -> Void)(5) // Calls foo(x: Int) (foo as (UInt) -> Void)(5) // Calls foo(x: UInt)
Previously this was only possible for functions without argument labels.
This change also means that a generic type alias can no longer be used to preserve the argument labels of a function reference through the
as
operator. The following is now rejected:typealias Magic<T> = T func foo(x: Int) {} (foo as Magic)(x: 5) // error: Extraneous argument label 'x:' in call
The function value must instead be called without argument labels:
(foo as Magic)(5)
-
A class-constrained protocol extension, where the extended protocol does not impose a class constraint, will now infer the constraint implicitly.
protocol Foo {} class Bar: Foo { var someProperty: Int = 0 } // Even though 'Foo' does not impose a class constraint, it is automatically // inferred due to the Self: Bar constraint. extension Foo where Self: Bar { var anotherProperty: Int { get { return someProperty } // As a result, the setter is now implicitly nonmutating, just like it would // be if 'Foo' had a class constraint. set { someProperty = newValue } } }
-
Values of types that declare
func callAsFunction
methods can be called like functions. The call syntax is shorthand for applyingfunc callAsFunction
methods.struct Adder { var base: Int func callAsFunction(_ x: Int) -> Int { return x + base } } var adder = Adder(base: 3) adder(10) // returns 13, same as `adder.callAsFunction(10)`
func callAsFunction
argument labels are required at call sites.- Multiple
func callAsFunction
methods on a single type are supported. mutating func callAsFunction
is supported.func callAsFunction
works withthrows
andrethrows
.func callAsFunction
works with trailing closures.
-
A method override is no longer allowed to have a generic signature with requirements not imposed by the base method. For example:
protocol P {} class Base { func foo<T>(arg: T) {} } class Derived: Base { override func foo<T: P>(arg: T) {} }
will now be diagnosed as an error.
-
Subscripts can now declare default arguments:
struct Subscriptable { subscript(x: Int, y: Int = 0) { ... } } let s = Subscriptable() print(s[0])
Add new entries to the top of this section, not here!
-
Duplicate tuple element labels are no longer allowed, because it leads to incorrect behavior. For example:
let dupLabels: (foo: Int, foo: Int) = (foo: 1, foo: 2) enum Foo { case bar(x: Int, x: Int) } let f: Foo = .bar(x: 0, x: 1)
will now be diagnosed as an error.
Note: You can still use duplicate argument labels when declaring functions and subscripts, as long as the internal parameter names are different. For example:
func foo(bar x: Int, bar y: Int) {} subscript(a x: Int, a y: Int) -> Int {}
-
Functions can now hide their concrete return type by declaring what protocols it conforms to instead of specifying the exact return type:
func makeMeACollection() -> some Collection { return [1, 2, 3] }
Code that calls the function can use the interface of the protocol, but does not have visibility into the underlying type.
-
Subscripts can now be declared
static
or (inside classes)class
. -
The existing
@dynamicMemberLookup
attribute has been extended with a support for strongly-typed keypath implementations:@dynamicMemberLookup struct Lens<T> { let getter: () -> T let setter: (T) -> Void var value: T { get { return getter() } set { setter(newValue) } } subscript<U>(dynamicMember keyPath: WritableKeyPath<T, U>) -> Lens<U> { return Lens<U>( getter: { self.value[keyPath: keyPath] }, setter: { self.value[keyPath: keyPath] = $0 }) } }
-
More thorough checking has been implemented for restrictions around escaping closures capturing
inout
parameters or values of noescape type. While most code should not be affected, there are edge cases where the Swift 5.0 compiler would accept code violating these restrictions. This could result in runtime crashes or silent data corruption.An example of invalid code which was incorrectly accepted by the Swift 5.0 compiler is an
@escaping
closure calling a local function which references aninout
parameter from an outer scope:struct BadCaptureExample { var escapingClosure: () -> () mutating func takesInOut(_ x: inout Int) { func localFunction() { x += 1 } escapingClosure = { localFunction() } } }
The compiler now correctly diagnoses the above code by pointing out that the capture of
x
bylocalFunction()
is invalid, sincelocalFunction()
is referenced from an@escaping
closure.This also addresses certain cases where the compiler incorrectly diagnosed certain code as invalid, when in fact no violation of restrictions had taken place. For example,
func takesNoEscape(_ fn: () -> ()) { func localFunction() { fn() } { localFunction() }() }
-
Conversions between tuple types are now fully implemented. Previously, the following would diagnose an error:
let values: (Int, Int) = (10, 15) let converted: (Int?, Any) = values
-
The memberwise initializer for structures now provide default values for variables that hold default expressions.
struct Dog { var name = "Generic dog name" var age = 0 // The synthesized memberwise initializer init(name: String = "Generic dog name", age: Int = 0) } let sparky = Dog(name: "Sparky") // Dog(name: "Sparky", age: 0)
-
It is now possible to use
Self
to refer to the innermost nominal type inside struct, enum and class declarations. For example, the two method declarations inside this struct are equivalent:struct Box<Value> { func transform1() -> Self { return self } func transform2() -> Box<Value> { return self } }
In classes,
Self
is the dynamic type of theself
value, as before. Existing restrictions onSelf
in declaration types still apply; that is,Self
can only appear as the return type of a method. However,Self
can now be used inside the body of a method without limitation. -
Enum cases can now be matched against an optional enum without requiring a '?' at the end of the pattern.
enum Foo { case zero, one } let foo: Foo? = .zero switch foo { case .zero: break case .one: break case .none: break }
-
weak
andunowned
stored properties no longer inhibit the automatic synthesis ofEquatable
orHashable
conformance. -
An
@autoclosure
parameter can now be declared with a typealias type.class Foo { typealias FooClosure = () -> String func fooFunction(closure: @autoclosure FooClosure) {} }
-
Methods declared
@objc
inside a class can now returnSelf
:class MyClass : NSObject { @objc func clone() -> Self { return self } }
-
Assigning '.none' to an optional enum which also has a 'none' case or comparing such an enum with '.none' will now warn. Such expressions create an ambiguity because the compiler chooses Optional.none over Foo.none.
enum Foo { case none } // Assigned Optional.none instead of Foo.none let foo: Foo? = .none // Comparing with Optional.none instead of Foo.none let isEqual = foo == .none
The compiler will provide a warning along with a fix-it to replace '.none' with 'Optional.none' or 'Foo.none' to resolve the ambiguity.
-
Key path expressions can now include references to tuple elements.
-
Single-parameter functions accepting values of type
Any
are no longer preferred over other functions.func foo(_: Any) { print("Any") } func foo<T>(_: T) { print("T") } foo(0) // prints "Any" in Swift < 5.1, "T" in Swift 5.1
-
Array
andContiguousArray
now haveinit(unsafeUninitializedCapacity:initializingWith:)
, which provides access to the array's uninitialized storage.
Add new entries to the top of this section, not here!
-
The standard library now contains a
Result
type for manually propagating errors.enum Result<Success, Failure: Error> { case success(Success) case failure(Failure) }
This type serves a complementary role to that of throwing functions and initializers. Use
Result
in situations where automatic error propagation ortry
-catch
blocks are undesirable, such as in asynchronous code or when accumulating the results of successive error-producing operations. -
Error
now conforms to itself. This allows for the use ofError
itself as the argument for a generic parameter constrained toError
. -
Swift 3 mode has been removed. Supported values for the
-swift-version
flag are4
,4.2
, and5
. -
String interpolation has been overhauled to improve its performance, clarity, and efficiency.
Note that the old
_ExpressibleByStringInterpolation
protocol has been removed; any code making use of this protocol will need to be updated for the new design. An#if compiler
block can be used to conditionalize code between 4.2 and 5.0, for example:#if compiler(<5.0) extension MyType : _ExpressibleByStringInterpolation { ... } #else extension MyType : ExpressibleByStringInterpolation { ... } #endif
-
If
T
conforms to one of theExpressibleBy*
protocols andliteral
is a literal expression, thenT(literal)
will construct a literal of typeT
using the corresponding protocol, rather than calling a constructor member ofT
with a value of the protocol's default literal type.For example, expressions like
UInt64(0xffff_ffff_ffff_ffff)
are now valid, where previously they would overflow the default integer literal type ofInt
. -
In Swift 5 mode,
try?
with an expression of Optional type will flatten the resulting Optional, instead of returning an Optional of an Optional. -
In Swift 5 mode,
@autoclosure
parameters can no longer be forwarded to@autoclosure
arguments in another function call. Instead, you must explicitly call the function value with()
; the call itself is wrapped inside an implicit closure, guaranteeing the same behavior as in Swift 4 mode.Example:
func foo(_ fn: @autoclosure () -> Int) {} func bar(_ fn: @autoclosure () -> Int) { foo(fn) // Incorrect, `fn` can't be forwarded and has to be called foo(fn()) // Ok }
-
Single-element labeled tuple expressions, for example
(label: 123)
, were allowed in some contexts but often resulted in surprising, inconsistent behavior that varied across compiler releases. They are now completely disallowed.Note that single-element labeled types, for example
var x: (label: Int)
, have already been prohibited since Swift 3. -
In Swift 5 mode, a class method returning
Self
can no longer be overridden with a method returning a non-final concrete class type. Such code is not type safe and will need to be updated.For example,
class Base { class func factory() -> Self { ... } } class Derived : Base { class override func factory() -> Derived { ... } }
-
In Swift 5 mode, the type of
self
in a convenience initializer of a non-final class is now the dynamicSelf
type, and not the concrete class type. -
Protocols can now constrain their conforming types to those that subclasses a given class. Two equivalent forms are supported:
protocol MyView : UIView { ... } protocol MyView where Self : UIView { ... }
Note that Swift 4.2 accepted the second form, but it was not fully implemented and could sometimes crash at compile time or run time.
-
Extension binding now supports extensions of nested types which themselves are defined inside extensions. Previously this could fail with some declaration orders, producing spurious "undeclared type" errors.
-
Exclusive memory access is now enforced at runtime by default in optimized (
-O
/-Osize
) builds. Programs that violate exclusivity will trap at runtime with an "overlapping access" diagnostic message. This can be disabled via a command line flag:-enforce-exclusivity=unchecked
, but doing so may result in undefined behavior.Runtime violations of exclusivity typically result from simultaneous access of class properties, global variables (including variables in top-level code), or variables captured by escaping closures.
-
The
@dynamicCallable
attribute enables nominal types to be "callable" via a simple syntactic sugar. The primary use case is dynamic language interoperability.Toy example:
@dynamicCallable struct ToyCallable { func dynamicallyCall(withArguments: [Int]) {} func dynamicallyCall(withKeywordArguments: KeyValuePairs<String, Int>) {} } let x = ToyCallable() x(1, 2, 3) // desugars to `x.dynamicallyCall(withArguments: [1, 2, 3])` x(label: 1, 2) // desugars to `x.dynamicallyCall(withKeywordArguments: ["label": 1, "": 2])`
-
In Swift 5 mode, attempting to declare a static property with the same name as a nested type is now always correctly rejected. Previously, it was possible to perform such a redeclaration in an extension of a generic type.
For example:
struct Foo<T> {} extension Foo { struct i {} // compiler error: Invalid redeclaration of 'i' // (prior to Swift 5, this did not produce an error) static var i: Int { return 0 } }
-
In Swift 5 mode, when casting an optional value to a generic placeholder type, the compiler will be more conservative with the unwrapping of the value. The result of such a cast now more closely matches the result you would get in a non-generic context.
For example:
func forceCast<U>(_ value: Any?, to type: U.Type) -> U { return value as! U } let value: Any? = 42 print(forceCast(value, to: Any.self)) // prints: Optional(42) // (prior to Swift 5, this would print: 42) print(value as! Any) // prints: Optional(42)
-
Key paths now support the
\.self
keypath, which is aWritableKeyPath
that refers to its entire input value:let id = \Int.self var x = 2 print(x[keyPath: id]) // prints 2 x[keyPath: id] = 3 print(x[keyPath: id]) // prints 3
-
The
DictionaryLiteral
type has been renamed toKeyValuePairs
. A typealias preserves the old name for compatibility. -
Default arguments are now printed in SourceKit-generated interfaces for Swift modules, instead of just using a placeholder
default
. -
unowned
andunowned(unsafe)
variables now support Optional types. -
Designated initializers with variadic parameters are now correctly inherited in subclasses.
-
Extensions of concrete subclasses of generic classes can now contain
@objc
members. -
Complex recursive type definitions involving classes and generics that would previously cause deadlocks at run time are now fully supported.
-
In Swift 5 mode, when setting a property from within its own
didSet
orwillSet
observer, the observer will now only avoid being recursively called if the property is set onself
(either implicitly or explicitly).For example:
class Node { var children = [Node]() var depth: Int = 0 { didSet { if depth < 0 { // Will not recursively call didSet, as setting depth on self (same // with `self.depth = 0`). depth = 0 } // Will call didSet for each of the children, as we're not setting the // property on self (prior to Swift 5, this did not trigger property // observers to be called again). for child in children { child.depth = depth + 1 } } } }
-
The standard library now provides a unified set of randomization functionality. Integer types, floating point types, and Bool all introduce a new static method that creates a random value.
let diceRoll = Int.random(in: 1 ... 6) let randomUnit = Double.random(in: 0 ..< 1) let randomBool = Bool.random()
There are also additions to select a random element from a collection or shuffle its contents.
let greetings = ["hey", "hello", "hi", "hola"] let randomGreeting = greetings.randomElement()! // This returns an Optional let newGreetings = greetings.shuffled() // ["hola", "hi", "hey", "hello"]
Core to the randomization functionality is a new
RandomNumberGenerator
protocol. The standard library defines its own random number generator calledSystemRandomNumberGenerator
which is backed by a secure and thread-safe random number generator on each platform. All the randomization functions have ausing:
parameter that take aRandomNumberGenerator
that users can pass in their own random number generator.struct MersenneTwister: RandomNumberGenerator { func next() -> UInt64 { // implementation } } var mt = MersenneTwister() let diceRoll = Int.random(in: 1 ... 6, using: &mt)
-
The new CaseIterable protocol describes types which have a static “allCases” property that is used to describe all of the cases of the type. Swift will synthesize this “allCases” property for enums that have no associated values. For example:
enum Suit: CaseIterable { case heart case club case diamond case spade } print(Suit.allCases) // prints [Suit.heart, Suit.club, Suit.diamond, Suit.spade]
-
Protocol conformances are now able to be synthesized in extensions in the same file as the type definition, allowing automatic synthesis of conditional conformances to
Hashable
,Equatable
andCodable
(bothEncodable
andDecodable
). For instance, if there is a generic wrapper type that can only beEquatable
when its wrapped type is alsoEquatable
, the==
method can be automatically constructed by the compiler:struct Generic<Param> { var property: Param } extension Generic: Equatable where Param: Equatable {} // Automatically synthesized inside the extension: // static func ==(lhs: Generic, rhs: Generic) -> Bool { // return lhs.property == rhs.property // }
Code that wants to be as precise as possible should generally not conditionally conform to
Codable
directly, but rather its two constituent protocolsEncodable
andDecodable
, or else one can only (for instance) decode aGeneric<Param>
ifParam
isEncodable
in addition toDecodable
, even thoughEncodable
is likely not required:// Unnecessarily restrictive: extension Generic: Codable where Param: Codable {} // More precise: extension Generic: Encodable where Param: Encodable {} extension Generic: Decodable where Param: Decodable {}
Finally, due to
Decodable
having aninit
requirement, it is not possible to conform toDecodable
in an extension of a non-final class: such a class needs to have anyinit
s from protocols berequired
, which means they need to be in the class definition. -
ImplicitlyUnwrappedOptional<T>
is now an unavailable typealias ofOptional<T>
. Declarations annotated with!
have the typeOptional<T>
. If an expression involving one of these values will not compile successfully with the typeOptional<T>
, it is implicitly unwrapped, producing a value of typeT
.In some cases this change will cause code that previously compiled to need to be adjusted. Please see this blog post for more information.
-
The standard library now uses a high-quality, randomly seeded, universal hash function, represented by the new public
Hasher
struct.“Random seeding” varies the result of
hashValue
on each execution of a Swift program, improving the reliability of the standard library's hashed collections such asSet
andDictionary
. In particular, random seeding enables better protection against (accidental or deliberate) hash-flooding attacks.This change fulfills a long-standing prophecy in Hashable's documentation:
Hash values are not guaranteed to be equal across different executions of your program. Do not save hash values to use during a future execution.
As a consequence of random seeding, the elements in
Set
andDictionary
values may have a different order on each execution. This may expose some bugs in existing code that accidentally relies on repeatable ordering.Additionally, the
Hashable
protocol now includes an extra function requirement,hash(into:)
. The new requirement is designed to be much easier to implement than the oldhashValue
property, and it generally provides better hashing. To implementhash(into:)
, simply feed the exact same components of your type that you compare inEquatable
's==
implementation to the suppliedHasher
:struct Foo: Hashable { var a: String? var b: [Int] var c: [String: Int] static func ==(lhs: Foo, rhs: Foo) -> Bool { return lhs.a == rhs.a && lhs.b == rhs.b && lhs.c == rhs.c } func hash(into hasher: inout Hasher) { hasher.combine(a) hasher.combine(b) hasher.combine(c) } }
Automatic synthesis for
Hashable
(SE-0185) has been updated to generatehash(into:)
implementations. For example, the==
andhash(into:)
implementations above are equivalent to the ones synthesized by the compiler, and can be removed without changing the meaning of the code.Synthesis has also been extended to support deriving
hashValue
fromhash(into:)
, and vice versa. Therefore, code that only implementshashValue
continues to work in Swift 4.2. This new compiler functionality works for all types that can implementHashable
, including classes.Note that these changes don't affect Foundation's hashing interface. Classes that subclass
NSObject
should override thehash
property, like before.In certain controlled environments, such as while running particular tests, it may be helpful to selectively disable hash seed randomization, so that hash values and the order of elements in
Set
/Dictionary
values remain consistent across executions. You can disable hash seed randomization by defining the environment variableSWIFT_DETERMINISTIC_HASHING
with the value of1
. The Swift runtime looks at this variable during process startup and, if it is defined, replaces the random seed with a constant value. -
The behavior of
.description
and.debugDescription
for floating-point numbers has been changed. Previously these unconditionally printed a fixed number of decimal digits (e.g. 15 and 17 for Double, respectively). They now print exactly as many digits as are needed for the resulting string to convert back to the original source value, and no more. For more details, see the original bug report and the linked pull request. -
Various function-like declarations can now be marked as
@inlinable
, making their bodies available for optimizations from other modules.Inlinable function bodies must only reference public declarations, unless the referenced declaration is marked as
@usableFromInline
.Note that the presence of the attribute itself does not force inlining or any other optimization to be performed, nor does it have any effect on optimizations performed within a single module.
-
The C
long double
type is now imported asFloat80
on i386 and x86_64 macOS and Linux. The tgmath functions in the Darwin and glibc modules now supportFloat80
as well asFloat
andDouble
. Several tgmath functions have been made generic over[Binary]FloatingPoint
so that they will automatically be available for any conforming type. -
The standard library types
Optional
,Array
,ArraySlice
,ContiguousArray
,Dictionary
,Range
, andClosedRange
now conform to theHashable
protocol when their element or bound types (as the case may be) conform toHashable
. This makes synthesizedHashable
implementations available for types that include stored properties of these types. -
Custom compile-time warnings or error messages can be emitted using the
#warning(_:)
and#error(_:)
directives.#warning("this is incomplete") #if MY_BUILD_CONFIG && MY_OTHER_BUILD_CONFIG #error("MY_BUILD_CONFIG and MY_OTHER_BUILD_CONFIG cannot both be set") #endif
-
Public classes may now have internal
required
initializers. The rule forrequired
initializers is that they must be available everywhere the class can be subclassed, but previously we said thatrequired
initializers on public classes needed to be public themselves. (This limitation is a holdover from before the introduction of the open/public distinction in Swift 3.) -
C macros containing casts are no longer imported to Swift if the type in the cast is unavailable or deprecated, or produces some other diagnostic when referenced. (These macros were already only imported under very limited circumstances with very simple values, so this is unlikely to affect real-world code.)
-
Runtime query of conditional conformances is now implemented. Therefore, a dynamic cast such as
value as? P
, where the dynamic type ofvalue
conditionally conforms toP
, will succeed when the conditional requirements are met.
-
Compile-time testing for the existence and importability of modules is now implemented as a build configuration test. The
canImport
test allows the development of features that require a possibly-failing import declaration across multiple platforms.#if canImport(UIKit) import UIKit class MyView : UIView {} #elseif canImport(AppKit) import AppKit class MyView : NSView {} #else class MyView : CustomView {} #endif
-
If an initializer is declared in a different module from a struct, it must use
self.init(…)
orself = …
before returning or accessingself
. Failure to do so will produce a warning in Swift 4 and an error in Swift 5. This is to keep a client app from accidentally depending on a library's implementation details, and matches an existing restriction for classes, where cross-module initializers must be convenience initializers.This will most commonly affect code that extends a struct imported from C. However, most imported C structs are given a zeroing no-argument initializer, which can be called as
self.init()
before modifying specific properties.Swift library authors who wish to continue allowing initialization on a per-member basis should explicitly declare a public memberwise initializer for clients in other modules to use.
-
The standard library now defines the conformances of
Optional
,Array
,Dictionary
, andSet
toEncodable
andDecodable
as conditional conformances, available only when their type parameters conform toEncodable
orDecodable
, respectively. -
Index types for most standard library collections now conform to
Hashable
. These indices can now be used in key-path subscripts and hashed collections:let s = "Hashable" let p = \String.[s.startIndex] s[keyPath: p] // "H"
-
SE-0143 The standard library types
Optional
,Array
,ArraySlice
,ContiguousArray
, andDictionary
now conform to theEquatable
protocol when their element types conform toEquatable
. This allows the==
operator to compose (e.g., one can compare two values of type[Int : [Int?]?]
with==
), as well as use various algorithms defined forEquatable
element types, such asindex(of:)
. -
SE-0157 is implemented. Associated types can now declare "recursive" constraints, which require that the associated type conform to the enclosing protocol. The standard library protocols have been updated to make use of recursive constraints. For example, the
SubSequence
associated type ofSequence
follows the enclosing protocol:protocol Sequence { associatedtype Element associatedtype SubSequence: Sequence where SubSequence.Element == Element, SubSequence.SubSequence == SubSequence // ... } protocol Collection: Sequence where Self.SubSequence: Collection { // ... }
As a result, a number of new constraints have been introduced into the standard library protocols:
- Make the
Indices
associated type have the same traversal requirements as its enclosing protocol, e.g.,Collection.Indices
conforms toCollection
,BidirectionalCollection.Indices
conforms toBidirectionalCollection
, and so on - Make
Numeric.Magnitude
conform toNumeric
- Use more efficient
SubSequence
types for lazy filter and map - Eliminate the
*Indexable
protocols
- Make the
-
SE-0161 is fully implemented. KeyPaths now support subscript, optional chaining, and optional force-unwrapping components.
-
It is no longer valid to use the ownership keywords
weak
andunowned
for property declarations in protocols. These keywords are meaningless and misleading when used in a protocol as they don't have any effect.In Swift 3 and 4 mode the following example will produce a warning with a fix-it to remove the keyword. In Swift 5 mode and above an error will be produced.
class A {} protocol P { weak var weakVar: A? { get set } unowned var unownedVar: A { get set } }
-
Structs and enums that declare a conformance to
Equatable
/Hashable
now get an automatically synthesized implementation of==
/hashValue
. For structs, all stored properties must beEquatable
/Hashable
. For enums, all enum cases with associated values must beEquatable
/Hashable
.public struct Point: Hashable { public let x: Int public let y: Int public init(x: Int, y: Int) { self.x = x self.y = y } } Point(3, 0) == Point(0, 3) // false Point(3, 0) == Point(3, 0) // true Point(3, 0).hashValue // -2942920663782199421 public enum Token: Hashable { case comma case identifier(String) case number(Int) } Token.identifier("x") == .number(5) // false Token.identifier("x") == .identifier("x") // true Token.number(50).hashValue // -2002318238093721609
If you wish to provide your own implementation of
==
/hashValue
, you still can; a custom implementation will replace the one synthesized by the compiler.
-
The standard library's
Dictionary
andSet
types have some new features. You can now create a new dictionary from a sequence of keys and values, and merge keys and values into an existing dictionary.let asciiTable = Dictionary(uniqueKeysWithValues: zip("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", 97...)) // ["w": 119, "n": 110, "u": 117, "v": 118, "x": 120, "q": 113, ...] let vegetables = ["tomato", "carrot", "onion", "onion", "carrot", "onion"] var vegetableCounts = Dictionary(zip(vegetables, repeatElement(1, count: Int.max)), uniquingKeysWith: +) vegetableCounts.merge([("tomato", 1)], uniquingKeysWith: +) // ["tomato": 2, "carrot": 2, "onion": 3]
Filtering a set or a dictionary now results in the same type. You can also now transform just the values of a dictionary, keeping the same keys, using the
mapValues(_:)
method.let vowels: Set<Character> = ["a", "e", "i", "o", "u"] let asciiVowels = asciiTable.filter({ vowels.contains($0.key) }) asciiVowels["a"] // 97 asciiVowels["b"] // nil let asciiHexTable = asciiTable.mapValues({ "0x" + String($0, radix: 16) }) // ["w": "0x77", "n": "0x6e", "u": "0x75", "v": "0x76", "x": "0x78", ...]
When using a key as a dictionary subscript, you can now supply a default value to be returned if the key is not present in the dictionary.
for veg in ["tomato", "cauliflower"] { vegetableCounts[veg, default: 0] += 1 } // ["tomato": 3, "carrot": 2, "onion": 3, "cauliflower": 1]
Use the new
init(grouping:by:)
initializer to convert an array or other sequence into a dictionary, grouped by a particular trait.let buttons = // an array of button instances let buttonsByStatus = Dictionary(grouping: buttons, by: { $0.isEnabled }) // How many enabled buttons? print("Enabled:", buttonsByStatus[true]?.count ?? 0)
Additionally, dictionaries and sets now have a visible
capacity
property and areserveCapacity(_:)
method similar to arrays, and a dictionary'skeys
andvalues
properties are represented by specialized collections. -
SE-0161 is partially implemented. Swift now natively supports key path objects for properties. Similar to KVC key path strings in Cocoa, key path objects allow a property to be referenced independently of accessing it from a value:
struct Point { var x, y: Double } let x = \Point.x let y = \Point.y let p = Point(x: 3, y: 4) p[keyPath: x] // gives 3 p[keyPath: y] // gives 4
-
Core Foundation types implicitly conform to Hashable (and Equatable), using CFHash and CFEqual as the implementation. This change applies even to "Swift 3 mode", so if you were previously adding this conformance yourself, use
#if swift(>=3.2)
to restrict the extension to Swift 3.1 and below. (SR-2388) -
Protocol composition types can now contain one or more class type terms, forming a class-constrained protocol composition.
For example:
protocol Paintable { func paint() } class Canvas { var origin: CGPoint } class Wall : Canvas, Paintable { func paint() { ... } } func render(_: Canvas & Paintable) { ... } render(Wall())
Note that class-constrained protocol compositions can be written and used in both Swift 3 and Swift 4 mode.
Generated headers for Swift APIs will map class-constrained protocol compositions to Objective-C protocol-qualified class types in both Swift 3 and Swift 4 mode (for instance,
NSSomeClass & SomeProto & OtherProto
in Swift becomesNSSomeClass <SomeProto, OtherProto>
in Objective-C).Objective-C APIs which use protocol-qualified class types differ in behavior when imported by a module compiled in Swift 3 mode and Swift 4 mode. In Swift 3 mode, these APIs will continue to import as protocol compositions without a class constraint (eg,
SomeProto & OtherProto
).In Swift 4 mode, protocol-qualified class types import as class-constrained protocol compositions, for a more faithful mapping of APIs from Objective-C to Swift.
Note that the current implementation of class-constrained protocol compositions lacks three features outlined in the Swift evolution proposal:
-
In the evolution proposal, a class-constrained is permitted to contain two different classes as long as one is a superclass of the other. The current implementation only allows multiple classes to appear in the composition if they are identical.
-
In the evolution proposal, associated type and class inheritance clauses are generalized to allow class-constrained protocol compositions. The current implementation does not allow this.
-
In the evolution proposal, protocol inheritance clauses are allowed to contain a class, placing a requirement that all conforming types are a subclass of the given class. The current implementation does not allow this.
These missing aspects of the proposal can be introduced in a future release without breaking source compatibility with existing code.
-
-
Protocols and associated types can now contain
where
clauses that provide additional restrictions on associated types. For example:protocol StringRepresentable: RawRepresentable where RawValue == String { } protocol RawStringWrapper { associatedtype Wrapped: RawRepresentable where Wrapper.RawValue == String }
-
In Swift 4 mode, a declaration is inferred to be
@objc
where it is required for semantic consistency of the programming model. Specifically, it is inferred when:- The declaration is an override of an
@objc
declaration - The declaration satisfies a requirement in an
@objc
protocol - The declaration has one of the following attributes:
@IBAction
,@IBOutlet
,@IBInspectable
,@GKInspectable
, or@NSManaged
Additionally, in Swift 4 mode,
dynamic
declarations that don't have@objc
inferred based on the rules above will need to be explicitly marked@objc
.Swift 3 compatibility mode retains the more-permissive Swift 3 rules for inference of
@objc
within subclasses ofNSObject
. However, the compiler will emit warnings about places where the Objective-C entry points for these inference cases are used, e.g., in a#selector
or#keyPath
expression, via messaging throughAnyObject
, or direct uses in Objective-C code within a mixed project. The warnings can be silenced by adding an explicit@objc
. Uses of these entrypoints that are not statically visible to the compiler can be diagnosed at runtime by setting the environment variableSWIFT_DEBUG_IMPLICIT_OBJC_ENTRYPOINT
to a value between 1 and 3 and testing the application. See the migration discussion in SE-0160. - The declaration is an override of an
-
Slicing a raw buffer no longer results in the same raw buffer type. Specifically,
Unsafe[Mutable]BufferPointer.SubSequence
now has type[Mutable]RandomAccessSlice<Unsafe[Mutable]RawBufferPointer>
. Therefore, indexing into a raw buffer slice is no longer zero-based. This is required for raw buffers to fully conform to genericCollection
. Changing the slice type resulted in the following behavioral changes:Passing a region within buffer to another function that takes a buffer can no longer be done via subscript:
Incorrect:
takesRawBuffer(buffer[i..<j])
This now requires explicit initialization, using a
rebasing:
initializer, which converts from a slice to a zero-basedUnsafe[Mutable]RawBufferPointer
:Correct:
takesRawBuffer(UnsafeRawBufferPointer(rebasing: buffer[i..<j]))
Subscript assignment directly from a buffer no longer compiles:
Incorrect:
buffer[n..<m] = smaller_buffer
This now requires creation of a slice from the complete source buffer:
Correct:
buffer[n..<m] = smaller_buffer.suffix(from: 0)
UnsafeRawBufferPointer
's slice type no longer has a nonmutating subscript setter. So assigning into a mutablelet
buffer no longer compiles:let slice = buffer[n..<m] slice[i..<j] = buffer[k..<l]
The assigned buffer slice now needs to be a
var
.var slice = buffer[n..<m] slice[i..<j] = buffer[k..<l]
-
Covariant method overrides are now fully supported, fixing many crashes and compile-time assertions when defining or calling such methods. Examples:
class Bed {} class Nook : Bed {} class Cat<T> { func eat(snack: T) {} func play(game: String) {} func sleep(where: Nook) {} } class Dog : Cat<(Int, Int)> { // 'T' becomes concrete override func eat(snack: (Int, Int)) {} // 'game' becomes optional override func play(game: String?) {} // 'where' becomes a superclass override func sleep(where: Bed) {} }
-
Subscript declarations can now be defined to have generic parameter lists. Example:
extension JSON { subscript<T>(key: String) -> T? where T : JSONConvertible { // ... } }
-
In Swift 4 mode, Swift's type system properly distinguishes between functions that take one tuple argument, and functions that take multiple arguments.
-
More types of C macros which define integer constants are supported by the importer. Specifically the
+, -, *, /, ^, >>, ==, <, <=, >, >=
operators are now recognized, and the previously-supported<<, &&, ||, &, |
operators always look through importable macros on each side of the operator. Logical AND and OR macros (&&
and||
) are now imported as Boolean constants, rather than integers of value 0 or 1.#define HIGHER (5 + 5) #define THE_EDGE (INT64_MAX - 1) #define FORTY_TWO (6 * 9) #define SPLIT (THE_EDGE / FORTY_TWO) #define HALF_AND_HALF (UINT64_MAX ^ UINT32_MAX) #define SMALL (BITWIDTH == 32) #define TINY (BITWIDTH <= 16) #define LIMITED (SMALL || TINY) // now imported as Bool.
-
Adds a new family of conversion initializers to all numeric types that either complete successfully without loss of information or return nil.
-
Swift will now warn when an
NSObject
subclass attempts to override the classinitialize
method. Swift doesn't guarantee that references to class names trigger Objective-C class realization if they have no other side effects, leading to bugs when Swift code attempted to overrideinitialize
. -
C functions that "return twice" are no longer imported into Swift. Instead, they are explicitly made unavailable, so attempting to reference them will result in a compilation error.
Examples of functions that "return twice" include
vfork
andsetjmp
. These functions change the control flow of a program in ways that that Swift has never supported. For example, definitive initialization of variables, a core Swift language feature, could not be guaranteed when these functions were used.Swift code that references these functions will no longer compile. Although this could be considered a source-breaking change, it's important to note that any use of these functions would have most likely crashed at runtime. Now, the compiler will prevent them from being used in the first place.
-
Indirect fields from C structures and unions are now always imported, while they previously weren't imported if they belonged to a union. This is done by naming anonymous fields. For example:
typedef struct foo_t { union { int a; double b; }; } foo_t;
Get imported as:
struct foo_t { struct __Unnamed_union___Anonymous_field0 { var a : Int { get set } var b : Double { get set } } var __Anonymous_field0 : foo_t.__Unnamed_union___Anonymous_field0 // a and b are computed properties accessing the content of __Anonymous_field0 var a : Int { get set } var b : Double { get set } }
Since new symbols are exposed from imported structure/unions, this may conflict with existing code that extended C types in order to provide their own accessors to the indirect fields.
-
The
withoutActuallyEscaping
function from SE-0103 has been implemented. To pass off a non-escaping closure to an API that formally takes an@escaping
closure, but which is used in a way that will not in fact escape it in practice, usewithoutActuallyEscaping
to get an escapable copy of the closure and delimit its expected lifetime. For example:func doSimultaneously(_ f: () -> (), and g: () -> (), on q: DispatchQueue) { // DispatchQueue.async normally has to be able to escape its closure // since it may be called at any point after the operation is queued. // By using a barrier, we ensure it does not in practice escape. withoutActuallyEscaping(f) { escapableF in withoutActuallyEscaping(g) { escapableG in q.async(escapableF) q.async(escapableG) q.sync(flags: .barrier) {} } } // `escapableF` and `escapableG` must be dequeued by the point // `withoutActuallyEscaping` returns. }
The old workaround of using
unsafeBitCast
to cast to an@escaping
type is not guaranteed to work in future versions of Swift, and will now raise a warning. -
Nested types may now appear inside generic types, and nested types may have their own generic parameters:
struct OuterNonGeneric { struct InnerGeneric<T> {} } struct OuterGeneric<T> { struct InnerNonGeneric {} struct InnerGeneric<T> {} } extension OuterNonGeneric.InnerGeneric {} extension OuterGeneric.InnerNonGeneric {} extension OuterGeneric.InnerGeneric {}
-
Constrained extensions allow same-type constraints between generic parameters and concrete types. This enables you to create extensions, for example, on
Array
withInt
elements:extension Array where Element == Int { }
-
The
Sequence
protocol adds two new membersprefix(while:)
anddrop(while:)
for common utility.prefix(while:)
requests the longest subsequence satisfying a predicate.drop(while:)
requests the remaining subsequence after dropping the longest subsequence satisfying a predicate.
The functions sizeof()
, strideof()
, and alignof()
have been removed.
Memory layout properties for a type T
are now spelled
MemoryLayout<T>.size
, MemoryLayout<T>.stride
, and
MemoryLayout<T>.alignment
, respectively.
-
The functions
sizeofValue()
,strideofValue()
, andalignofValue()
have been renamed toMemoryLayout.size(ofValue:)
,MemoryLayout.stride(ofValue:)
, andMemoryLayout.alignment(ofValue:)
. -
The functions
isUniquelyReferenced()
andisUniquelyReferencedNonObjC()
have been removed. Call the functionisKnownUniquelyReferenced()
instead.Classes using
isUniquelyReferenced()
needed to inherit fromNonObjectiveCBase
. TheNonObjectiveCBase
class has been removed.The method
ManagedBufferPointer.holdsUniqueReference
has been renamed toManagedBufferPointer.isUniqueReference
.// old class SwiftKlazz : NonObjectiveCBase {} expectTrue(isUniquelyReferenced(SwiftKlazz())) var managedPtr : ManagedBufferPointer = ... if !managedPtr.holdsUniqueReference() { print("not unique") } // new class SwiftKlazz {} expectTrue(isKnownUniquelyReferenced(SwiftKlazz())) var managedPtr : ManagedBufferPointer = ... if !managedPtr.isUniqueReference() { print("not unique") }
Initializers on Int
and UInt
that accept an ObjectIdentifier
must now use an explicit bitPattern
label.
let x: ObjectIdentifier = ...
// old
let u = UInt(x)
let i = Int(x)
// new
let u = UInt(bitPattern: x)
let i = Int(bitPattern: x)
-
The collection methods
partition()
andpartition(isOrderedBefore:)
have been removed from Swift. They are replaced by the methodpartition(by:)
which takes a unary predicate.Calls to the
partition()
method can be replaced by the following code.// old let p = c.partition() // new let p = c.first.flatMap({ first in c.partition(by: { $0 >= first }) }) ?? c.startIndex
-
Closure parameters are now non-escaping by default and do not require
@noescape
annotation. Use@escaping
to indicate that a closure parameter can escape.@autoclosure(escaping)
is now spelled@autoclosure @escaping
.@noescape
and@autoclosure(escaping)
are deprecated. -
To clarify their roles,
*LiteralConvertible
protocols have been renamed toExpressibleBy*Literal
. The protocol requirements are unchanged. -
An
Unsafe[Mutable]RawPointer
type has been introduced. It replacesUnsafe[Mutable]Pointer<Void>
. Conversion fromUnsafePointer<T>
toUnsafePointer<U>
has been disallowed.Unsafe[Mutable]RawPointer
provides an API for untyped memory access, and an API for binding memory to a type. Binding memory allows for safe conversion between pointer types.For detailed instructions on how to migrate your code to the new API refer to the UnsafeRawPointer migration guide. See also: See
bindMemory(to:capacity:)
,assumingMemoryBound(to:)
, andwithMemoryRebound(to:capacity:)
. -
The
dynamicType
keyword has been removed from Swift. It's replaced by a new primitive functiontype(of:)
. Existing code using the.dynamicType
member to retrieve the type of an expression should migrate to this new primitive. Code using.dynamicType
in conjunction withsizeof
should migrate to theMemoryLayout
structure introduced by SE-0101. -
The following two methods were added to
FloatingPoint
:func rounded(_ rule: FloatingPointRoundingRule) -> Self mutating func round( _ rule: FloatingPointRoundingRule)
These methods bind the IEEE 754 roundToIntegral operations. They provide the functionality of the C / C++
round()
,ceil()
,floor()
, andtrunc()
functions along with other rounding operations.Following onto SE-0113 and SE-0067, the following
Darwin.C
andglibc
module mathematical operations now operate on any type conforming toFloatingPoint
:fabs
,sqrt
,fma
,remainder
,fmod
,ceil
,floor
,round
, andtrunc
.See also: the changes associated with SE-0067.
-
The
FloatingPoint
protocol has been expanded to include most IEEE 754 required operations. A number of useful properties have been added to the protocol, representing quantities like the largest finite value or the smallest positive normal value (these correspond to the macros such as FLT_MAX defined in C).While almost all of the changes are additive, four changes impact existing code:
-
The
%
operator is no longer available forFloatingPoint
types. It was difficult to use correctly and its semantics did not match those of the corresponding integer operation. This made it something of an attractive nuisance. The new methodformTruncatingRemainder(dividingBy:)
provides the old semantics if they are needed. -
The static property
.NaN
has been renamed.nan
. -
The static property
.quietNaN
was redundant and has been removed. Use.nan
instead. -
The predicate
isSignaling
has been renamedisSignalingNaN
.
See also: the changes associated with SE-0113.
-
-
Argument labels have been removed from Swift function types. They are now part of the name of a function, subscript, or initializer. Calls to a function or initializer, and subscript uses, still require argument labels as they always have:
func doSomething(x: Int, y: Int) { } doSomething(x: 0, y: 0) // argument labels are required
Unapplied references to functions or initializers no longer carry argument labels. For example:
let f = doSomething(x:y:) // inferred type is now (Int, Int) -> Void
Explicitly-written function types can no longer carry argument labels. You can still provide parameter names for documentation purposes using the '_' in the argument label position:
typealias CompletionHandler =
(token: Token, error: Error?) -> Void // error: function types cannot have argument labels
typealias CompletionHandler =
(_ token: Token, _ error: Error?) -> Void // okay: names are for documentation purposes
-
The access level formerly known as
private
is now calledfileprivate
. A Swift 3 declaration markedprivate
can no longer be accessed outside its lexical scope (essentially its enclosing curly braces{}
). Aprivate
declaration at the top level of a file can be accessed anywhere within the same file, as it could in Swift 2. -
The standard library introduces the
AnyHashable
type for use in hashed heterogeneous collections. UntypedNSDictionary
andNSSet
Objective-C APIs now import as[AnyHashable: Any]
andSet<AnyHashable>
. -
Swift removes the
@noreturn
attribute on function declarations and replaces the attribute with an emptyNever
type:@noreturn func fatalError(msg: String) { ... } // old func fatalError(msg: String) -> Never { ... } // new func performOperation<T>(continuation: @noreturn T -> ()) { ... } // old func performOperation<T>(continuation: T -> Never) { ... } // new
-
Swift now imports Objective-C
id
APIs asAny
. In Swift 2,id
imported asAnyObject
. Swift also imports untypedNSArray
andNSDictionary
as[Any]
and[AnyHashable: Any]
, respectively. -
Swift eliminates implicit bridging conversions. Use
as
to force the conversion from a Swift value type to its corresponding object. For example, usestring as NSString
. Useas AnyObject
to convert a Swift value to its boxedid
representation. -
Collection subtype conversions and dynamic casts now work with protocol types:
protocol P {}; extension Int: P {} var x: [Int] = [1, 2, 3] var p: [P] = x var x2 = p as! [Int]
-
The
hasPrefix
andhasSuffix
functions now consider the empty string to be a prefix and suffix of all strings. -
Some non-failable UnicodeScalar initializers now return an Optional. When a UnicodeScalar cannot be constructed, these initializers return nil.
// Old var string = "" let codepoint: UInt32 = 55357 // Invalid let ucode = UnicodeScalar(codepoint) // Program crashes here. string.append(ucode)
The updated initializers allow users to write code that safely works around invalid codepoints, like this example:
// New var string = "" let codepoint: UInt32 = 55357 // Invalid if let ucode = UnicodeScalar(codepoint) { string.append(ucode) } else { // do something else }
-
Swift removes the
protocol<...>
composition construct and introduces an infix type operator&
in its place.let a: Foo & Bar let b = value as? A & B & C func foo<T : Foo & Bar>(x: T) { ... } func bar(x: Foo & Bar) { ... } typealias G = GenericStruct<Foo & Bar>
Swift previously defined the empty protocol composition (the
Any
type) asprotocol<>
. This definition has been removed from the standard library. TheAny
keyword behavior remains unchanged. -
Swift permits you to define operators within types or their extensions. For example:
struct Foo: Equatable { let value: Int static func ==(lhs: Foo, rhs: Foo) -> Bool { return lhs.value == rhs.value } }
You must declare these operators as
static
(or, within a class,class final
) and they must use the same signature as their global counterparts. As part of this change, protocol-declared operator requirements must be declaredstatic
explicitly:protocol Equatable { static func ==(lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool }
Note: The type checker performance optimization described by SE-0091 is not yet implemented.
-
Condition clauses in
if
,guard
, andwhile
statements now use a more regular syntax. Each pattern or optional binding must be prefixed withcase
orlet
respectively, and all conditions are separated by,
instead ofwhere
.// before if let a = a, b = b where a == b { } // after if let a = a, let b = b, a == b { }
-
The
NSError
type now bridges to the SwiftError
protocol type (formerlyErrorProtocol
in Swift 3,ErrorType
in Swift 2) in Objective-C APIs.NSError
now bridges like other Objective-C types, e.g.,NSString
bridges toString
.For example, the
UIApplicationDelegate
methodapplicate(_:didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError:)
previously accepted anNSError
argument:optional func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError error: NSError)
Now it accepts an Error
argument:
optional func application(_ application: UIApplication,
didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError error: Error)
Error types imported from Cocoa[Touch] maintain all of
the information in the corresponding NSError
. You no longer catch let as NSError
to extract, for example, the user-info
dictionary.
Specific error types now contain typed accessors for their common user-info keys. For example:
catch let error as CocoaError where error.code == .fileReadNoSuchFileError {
print("No such file: \(error.url)")
}
Swift-defined error types can now provide localized error
descriptions by adopting the new LocalizedError
protocol, e.g.,
extension HomeworkError : LocalizedError {
var errorDescription: String? {
switch self {
case .forgotten: return NSLocalizedString("I forgot it")
case .lost: return NSLocalizedString("I lost it")
case .dogAteIt: return NSLocalizedString("The dog ate it")
}
}
}
New RecoverableError
and CustomNSError
protocols
allow additional control over the handling of the error.
-
Function parameters with defaulted arguments are specified in declaration order. Call sites must now supply those arguments using that order:
func requiredArguments(a: Int, b: Int, c: Int) {} func defaultArguments(a: Int = 0, b: Int = 0, c: Int = 0) {} requiredArguments(a: 0, b: 1, c: 2) requiredArguments(b: 0, a: 1, c: 2) // error defaultArguments(a: 0, b: 1, c: 2) defaultArguments(b: 0, a: 1, c: 2) // error
Labeled parameters with default arguments may still be elided, so long as included arguments follow declaration order:
defaultArguments(a: 0) // ok defaultArguments(b: 1) // ok defaultArguments(c: 2) // ok defaultArguments(a: 1, c: 2) // ok defaultArguments(b: 1, c: 2) // ok defaultArguments(c: 1, b: 2) // error
-
Traps from force-unwrapping nil
Optional
s now show the source location of the force unwrap operator. -
Slice types add a
base
property that allows public readonly access to their base collections. -
Nested generic functions may now capture bindings from the environment, for example:
func outer<T>(t: T) -> T { func inner<U>(u: U) -> (T, U) { return (t, u) } return inner(u: (t, t)).0 }
-
Initializers are now inherited even if the base class or derived class is generic:
class Base<T> { let t: T init(t: T) { self.t = t } } class Derived<T> : Base<T> { // init(t: T) is now synthesized to call super.init(t: t) }
-
"Move
where
clause to end of declaration" is now implemented. This change allows you to writewhere
clauses after a declaration signature and before its body. For example, before this change was implemented, you'd write:func anyCommonElements<T : SequenceType, U : SequenceType where T.Generator.Element: Equatable, T.Generator.Element == U.Generator.Element> (lhs: T, _ rhs: U) -> Bool { ... }
Now the
where
clause appears just before the body:func anyCommonElements<T : SequenceType, U : SequenceType>(lhs: T, _ rhs: U) -> Bool where T.Generator.Element: Equatable, T.Generator.Element == U.Generator.Element { ... }
The old form is currently accepted for compatibility. It will eventually be rejected.
-
"Allow (most) keywords in member references" is implemented. This change allows the use of members after a dot without backticks, e.g. "foo.default", even though
default
is a keyword forswitch
statements. -
Objective-C lightweight generic classes are now imported as generic types in Swift. Some limitations apply because Objective-C generics are not represented at runtime:
-
When an ObjC generic class is used in a checked
as?
,as!
, oris
cast, the generic parameters are not checked at runtime. The cast succeeds if the operand is an instance of the ObjC class, regardless of parameters.let x = NSFoo<NSNumber>(value: NSNumber(integer: 0)) let y: AnyObject = x let z = y as! NSFoo<NSString> // Succeeds
-
Swift subclasses can only inherit from an ObjC generic class when its generic parameters are fully specified.
// Error: Can't inherit ObjC generic class with unbound parameter T class SwiftFoo1<T>: NSFoo<T> { } // OK: Can inherit ObjC generic class with specific parameters class SwiftFoo2<T>: NSFoo<NSString> { }
-
Swift can extend ObjC generic classes but the extensions cannot be constrained, and definitions inside the extension don't have access to the class's generic parameters.
extension NSFoo { // Error: Can't access generic param T func foo() -> T { return T() } } // Error: extension can't be constrained extension NSFoo where T: NSString { }
-
Foundation container classes
NS[Mutable]Array
,NS[Mutable]Set
, andNS[Mutable]Dictionary
are still imported as nongeneric classes for the time being.
-
-
Enum elements can no longer be accessed as instance members in instance methods.
- As part of the changes for SE-0055 (see below), the pointee types of imported pointers (e.g. the
id
inid *
) are no longer assumed to always be_Nullable
even if annotated otherwise. - An implicit or explicit annotation of
_Null_unspecified
on a pointee type still imports asOptional
.
- As part of the changes for SE-0055 (see below), the pointee types of imported pointers (e.g. the
-
The types
UnsafePointer
,UnsafeMutablePointer
,AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer
,OpaquePointer
,Selector
, andZone
(formerlyNSZone
) now represent non-nullable pointers, i.e. pointers that are nevernil
. A nullable pointer is now represented usingOptional
, e.g.UnsafePointer<Int>?
For types imported from C, non-object pointers (such asint *
) now have their nullability taken into account.One possible area of difficulty is passing a nullable pointer to a function that uses C variadics. Swift will not permit this directly. As a workaround, use the following idiom to pass a pointer-sized integer value instead:
unsafeBitCast(nullablePointer, to: Int.self)
-
Function parameters adopt consistent labeling across all function parameters. With this update, first parameter declarations match the existing behavior of the second and later parameters. This change makes the language simpler.
Functions that were written and called as follows:
func foo(x: Int, y: Int) {} foo(1, y: 2) func bar(a a: Int, b: Int) {} bar(a: 3, b: 4)
Are now written as follows with the same behavior at call sites:
func foo(_ x: Int, y: Int) {} foo(1, y: 2) func bar(a: Int, b: Int) {} bar(a: 3, b: 4)
-
Comments are now treated as whitespace when determining whether an operator is prefix, postfix, or binary. For example, these now work:
if /*comment*/!foo { ... } 1 +/*comment*/2
Comments can no longer appear between a unary operator and its argument.
foo/* comment */! // no longer works
Parse errors resulting from this change can be resolved by moving the comment outside the expression.
-
The location of the inout attribute moves to after the colon (
:
) and before the parameter type.func foo(inout x: Int) { }
will now be written as:
func foo(x: inout Int) { }
-
let
is no longer accepted as a parameter attribute for functions. The compiler provides a fixit to remove it from the function declaration. -
var
is no longer accepted as a parameter attribute for functions. The compiler provides a fixit to create a shadow copy in the function body.func foo(var x: Int) { }
will now be written as:
func foo(x: Int) { var x = x }
-
The "none" members of imported NS_OPTIONS option sets are marked as unavailable when they are imported. Use
[]
to make an empty option set, instead of a None member. -
Adds the ability to declare variables in multiple patterns in cases.
-
Allows the Clang importer to import ObjC symbols using substantially different Swift-like naming paradigms:
- These updates generalize the use of
swift_name
, allowing arbitrary C and Objective-C entity import names. This adds fine-grained control over the import process. - Redundant type names are pruned (
documentForURL(_: NSURL)
becomesdocument(for: URL)
). Selectors are guaranteed to never be empty, to be transformed into Swift keywords, to be vacuously named (likeget
,set
,with
,for
). Additional pruning rules preserve readability and sense. - Common arguments are sensibly defaulted where the Objective-C API strongly hints at the need for a default argument. (For example, nullable trailing closures default to
nil
, option sets to[]
, andNSDictionary
parameters to[:]
.) First argument labels are added for defaulted arguments. - Boolean properties are prepended with
is
, and read as assertions on the receiver. - Non-type values, including enumerators, are lowercased.
- Classes that implement
compare(_:) -> NSComparisonResult
automatically import asComparable
.
- These updates generalize the use of
-
Attributes change from using
=
in parameters lists to using:
, aligning with function call syntax.// before @available(*, unavailable, renamed="MyRenamedProtocol") // after @available(*, unavailable, renamed: "MyRenamedProtocol")
-
Generic typealiases are now supported. For example:
typealias StringDictionary<T> = Dictionary<String, T> typealias IntFunction<T> = (T) -> Int typealias MatchingTriple<T> = (T, T, T) typealias BackwardTriple<T1, T2, T3> = (T3, T2, T1)
etc.
-
The
@noescape
attribute is extended to be a more general type attribute. You can now declare values of@noescape
function type, e.g. in manually curried function signatures. You can now also declare local variables of@noescape
type, and use@noescape
intypealiases
. For example, this is now valid code:func apply<T, U>(@noescape f: T -> U, @noescape g: (@noescape T -> U) -> U) -> U { return g(f) }
-
The
#line
directive (which resets the logical source location for diagnostics and debug information) is renamed to#sourceLocation
. -
Curried function syntax (with successive parenthesized groups of arguments) is removed, and now produces a compile-time error. Use chained functional return types instead.
// Before
public func project(function f: FunctionType)(p0: CGPoint, p1: CGPoint)(x: CGFloat) -> CGPoint
// After
public func project(function f: FunctionType) -> (p0: CGPoint, p1: CGPoint) -> (x: CGFloat) -> CGPoint
-
Generic signatures can now contain superclass requirements with generic parameter types, for example:
func f<Food : Chunks<Meat>, Meat : Molerat>(f: Food, m: Meat) {}
-
Section markers are created in ELF binaries through special objects during link time. These objects allow for the deletion of
swift.ld
and the use of non-BFD linkers. A new argument to swiftc is provided to select the linker used, and the gold linker is set as the default for arm-based platforms. -
Catch blocks in
rethrows
functions may nowthrow
errors. For example:func process(f: () throws -> Int) rethrows -> Int { do { return try f() } catch is SomeError { throw OtherError() } }
-
Throwing closure arguments of a rethrowing function may now be optional. For example:
func executeClosureIfNotNil(closure: (() throws -> Void)?) rethrows { try closure?() }
-
The Objective-C selectors for the getter or setter of a property can now be referenced with
#selector
. For example:let sel1 = #selector(getter: UIView.backgroundColor) // sel1 has type Selector let sel2 = #selector(setter: UIView.backgroundColor) // sel2 has type Selector
-
A key-path can now be formed with
#keyPath
. For example:person.valueForKeyPath(#keyPath(Person.bestFriend.lastName))
-
Associated types in protocols can now be specified with a new
associatedtype
declaration, to replace the use oftypealias
:protocol P { associatedtype Ty }
The
typealias
keyword is still allowed (but deprecated and produces a warning) in Swift 2.2. This warning will become an error in Swift 3.0. -
Curried function syntax has been deprecated, and is slated to be removed in Swift 3.0.
-
The
++
and--
operators have been deprecated, and are slated to be removed in Swift 3.0. As a replacement, please usex += 1
on integer or floating point types, andx = x.successor()
on Index types. -
The implicit tuple splat behavior in function application has been deprecated and will be removed in Swift 3.0. For example, this code:
func foo(a : Int, b : Int) { ... } let x = (1, b: 2) foo(x) // Warning, deprecated.
should move to being written as:
foo(x.0, x.b)
-
New
#file
,#line
,#column
, and#function
expressions have been introduced to replace the existing__FILE__
,__LINE__
,__COLUMN__
, and__FUNCTION__
symbols. The__FILE__
-style symbols have been deprecated, and will be removed in Swift 3.0. -
The operator identifier lexer grammar has been revised to simplify the rules for operators that start with a dot ("."). The new rule is that an operator that starts with a dot may contain other dots in it, but operators that start with some other character may not contain dots. For example:
x....foo --> "x" "...." "foo" x&%^.foo --> "x" "&%^" ".foo"
This eliminates a special case for the
..<
operator, folding it into a simple and consistent rule. -
The "C-style for loop", which is spelled
for init; comparison; increment {}
has been deprecated and is slated for removal in Swift 3.0. -
Three new doc comment fields, namely
- keyword:
,- recommended:
and- recommendedover:
, allow Swift users to cooperate with code completion engine to deliver more effective code completion results. The- keyword:
field specifies concepts that are not fully manifested in declaration names.- recommended:
indicates other declarations are preferred to the one decorated; to the contrary,- recommendedover:
indicates the decorated declaration is preferred to those declarations whose names are specified. -
Designated class initializers declared as failable or throwing may now return
nil
or throw an error, respectively, before the object has been fully initialized. For example:class Widget : Gadget { let complexity: Int init(complexity: Int, elegance: Int) throws { if complexity > 3 { throw WidgetError.TooComplex } self.complexity = complexity try super.init(elegance: elegance) } }
-
All slice types now have
removeFirst()
andremoveLast()
methods. -
ArraySlice.removeFirst()
now preserves element indices. -
Global
anyGenerator()
functions have been changed into initializers onAnyGenerator
, making the API more intuitive and idiomatic. They have been deprecated in Swift 2.2, and will be removed in Swift 3.0. -
Closures appearing inside generic types and generic methods can now be converted to C function pointers, as long as no generic type parameters are referenced in the closure's argument list or body. A conversion of a closure that references generic type parameters now produces a diagnostic instead of crashing.
(rdar://problem/22204968)
-
Anonymously-typed members of C structs and unions can now be accessed from Swift. For example, given the following struct 'Pie', the 'crust' and 'filling' members are now imported:
struct Pie { struct { bool crispy; } crust; union { int fruit; } filling; }
Since Swift does not support anonymous structs, these fields are imported as properties named
crust
andfilling
having nested types namedPie.__Unnamed_crust
andPie.__Unnamed_filling
.(rdar://problem/21683348)
-
Argument labels and parameter names can now be any keyword except
var
,let
, orinout
. For example:NSURLProtectionSpace(host: "somedomain.com", port: 443, protocol: "https", realm: "Some Domain", authenticationMethod: "Basic")
would previously have required
protocol
to be surrounded in back-ticks. -
Tuples (up to arity 6) whose elements are all
Comparable
orEquatable
now implement the full set of comparison/equality operators. The comparison operators are defined in terms of lexicographical order. -
The
@objc(SomeName)
attribute is now supported on enums and enum cases to rename the generated Objective-C declaration.(rdar://problem/21930334)
-
When referencing a function or initializer, one can provide the complete name, including argument labels. For example:
let fn1 = someView.insertSubview(_:at:) let fn2 = someView.insertSubview(_:aboveSubview:) let buttonFactory = UIButton.init(type:)
-
There is a new build configuration function,
#if swift(>=x.y)
, which tests if the current Swift language version is at leastx.y
. This allows you to conditionally compile code for multiple language versions in the same file, even with different syntax, by deactivating parsing in inactive code blocks. For example:#if swift(>=2.2) // Only this code will be parsed in Swift 3.0 func foo(x: Int) -> (y: Int) -> () {} #else // This code is ignored entirely. func foo(x: Int)(y: Int) {} #endif
-
The Objective-C selector of a Swift method can now be determined directly with the #selector expression, e.g.,:
let sel = #selector(insertSubview(_:aboveSubview:)) // sel has type Selector
Along with this change, the use of string literals as selectors has been deprecated, e.g.,
let sel: Selector = "insertSubview:aboveSubview:"
Generally, such string literals should be replaced with uses of
#selector
, and the compiler will provide Fix-Its that use#selector
. In cases where this is not possible (e.g., when referring to the getter of a property), one can still directly construct selectors, e.g.:let sel = Selector("propertyName")
Note that the compiler is now checking the string literals used to construct Selectors to ensure that they are well-formed Objective-C selectors and that there is an
@objc
method with that selector.
-
Enums imported from C now automatically conform to the
Equatable
protocol, including a default implementation of the==
operator. This conformance allows you to use C enum pattern matching in switch statements with no additional code. (17287720) -
The
NSNumber.unsignedIntegerValue
property now has the typeUInt
instead ofInt
, as do other methods and properties that use theNSUInteger
type in Objective-C and whose names containunsigned..
. Most other uses ofNSUInteger
in system frameworks are imported asInt
as they were in Xcode 7. (19134055) -
Field getters and setters are now created for named unions imported from C. In addition, an initializer with a named parameter for the field is provided. For example, given the following Objective-C
typedef
:typedef union IntOrFloat { int intField; float floatField; } IntOrFloat;
Importing this
typedef
into Swift generates the following interface:struct IntOrFloat { var intField: Int { get set } init(intField: Int) var floatField: Float { get set } init(floatField: Float) }
(19660119)
-
Bitfield members of C structs are now imported into Swift. (21702107)
-
The type
dispatch_block_t
now refers to the type@convention(block) () -> Void
, as it did in Swift 1.2. This change allows programs usingdispatch_block_create
to work as expected, solving an issue that surfaced in Xcode 7.0 with Swift 2.0.Note: Converting to a Swift closure value and back is not guaranteed to preserve the identity of a
dispatch_block_t
. (22432170) -
Editing a file does not trigger a recompile of files that depend upon it if the edits only modify declarations marked private. (22239821)
-
Expressions interpolated in strings may now contain string literals. For example,
My name is \(attributes["name"]!)
is now a valid expression. (14050788) -
Error messages produced when the type checker cannot solve its constraint system continue to improve in many cases.
For example, errors in the body of generic closures (for instance, the argument closure to
map
) are much more usefully diagnosed. (18835890) -
Conversions between function types are supported, exhibiting covariance in function result types and contravariance in function parameter types. For example, it is legal to assign a function of type
Any -> Int
to a variable of typeString -> Any
. (19517003)
-
New
defer
statement. This statement runs cleanup code when the scope is exited, which is particularly useful in conjunction with the new error handling model. For example:func xyz() throws { let f = fopen("x.txt", "r") defer { fclose(f) } try foo(f) // f is closed if an error is propagated. let f2 = fopen("y.txt", "r") defer { fclose(f2) } try bar(f, f2) // f2 is closed, then f is closed if an error is propagated. } // f2 is closed, then f is closed on a normal path
(17302850)
-
Printing values of certain
enum
types shows the enumcase
and payload, if any. This is not supported for@objc
enums or certain enums with multiple payloads. (18334936) -
You can specify availability information on your own declarations with the
@available()
attribute.For example:
@available(iOS 8.0, OSX 10.10, *) func startUserActivity() -> NSUserActivity { ... }
This code fragment indicates that the
startUserActivity()
method is available on iOS 8.0+, on OS X v10.10+, and on all versions of any other platform. (20938565) -
A new
@nonobjc
attribute is introduced to selectively suppress ObjC export for instance members that would otherwise be@objc
. (16763754) -
Nongeneric classes may now inherit from generic classes. (15520519)
-
Public extensions of generic types are now permitted.
public extension Array { ... }
(16974298)
-
Enums now support multiple generic associated values, for example:
enum Either<T, U> { case Left(T), Right(U) }
(15666173)
-
Protocol extensions: Extensions can be written for protocol types. With these extensions, methods and properties can be added to any type that conforms to a particular protocol, allowing you to reuse more of your code. This leads to more natural caller side "dot" method syntax that follows the principle of "fluent interfaces" and that makes the definition of generic code simpler (reducing "angle bracket blindness"). (11735843)
-
Protocol default implementations: Protocols can have default implementations for requirements specified in a protocol extension, allowing "mixin" or "trait" like patterns.
-
Availability checking. Swift reports an error at compile time if you call an API that was introduced in a version of the operating system newer than the currently selected deployment target.
To check whether a potentially unavailable API is available at runtime, use the new
#available()
condition in an if or guard statement. For example:if #available(iOS 8.0, OSX 10.10, *) { // Use Handoff APIs when available. let activity = NSUserActivity(activityType:"com.example.ShoppingList.view") activity.becomeCurrent() } else { // Fall back when Handoff APIs not available. }
(14586648)
-
Native support for C function pointers: C functions that take function pointer arguments can be called using closures or global functions, with the restriction that the closure must not capture any of its local context. For example, the standard C qsort function can be invoked as follows:
var array = [3, 14, 15, 9, 2, 6, 5] qsort(&array, array.count, sizeofValue(array[0])) { a, b in return Int32(UnsafePointer<Int>(a).memory - UnsafePointer<Int>(b).memory) } print(array)
(16339559)
-
Error handling. You can create functions that
throw
,catch
, and manage errors in Swift.Using this capability, you can surface and deal with recoverable errors, such as "file-not-found" or network timeouts. Swift's error handling interoperates with
NSError
. (17158652) -
Testability: Tests of Swift 2.0 frameworks and apps are written without having to make internal routines public.
Use
@testable import {ModuleName}
in your test source code to make all public and internal routines usable. The app or framework target needs to be compiled with theEnable Testability
build setting set toYes
. TheEnable Testability
build setting should be used only in your Debug configuration, because it prohibits optimizations that depend on not exporting internal symbols from the app or framework. (17732115) -
if statements can be labeled, and labeled break statements can be used as a jump out of the matching if statement.
An unlabeled break does not exit the if statement. It exits the enclosing loop or switch statement, or it is illegal if none exists. (19150249)
-
A new
x?
pattern can be used to pattern match against optionals as a synonym for.Some(x)
. (19382878) -
Concatenation of Swift string literals, including across multiple lines, is now a guaranteed compile-time optimization, even at
-Onone
. (19125926) -
Nested functions can now recursively reference themselves and other nested functions. (11266246)
-
Improved diagnostics:
- A warning has been introduced to encourage the use of let instead of var when appropriate.
- A warning has been introduced to signal unused variables.
- Invalid mutation diagnostics are more precise.
- Unreachable switch cases cause a warning.
- The switch statement "exhaustiveness checker" is smarter. (15975935,20130240)
-
Failable convenience initializers are allowed to return
nil
before callingself.init
.Designated initializers still must initialize all stored properties before returning
nil
; this is a known limitation. (20193929) -
A new
readLine()
function has been added to the standard library. (15911365) -
SIMD Support: Clang extended vectors are imported and usable in Swift.
This capability enables many graphics and other low-level numeric APIs (for example,
simd.h
) to be usable in Swift. -
New
guard
statement: This statement allows you to model an early exit out of a scope.For example:
guard let z = bar() else { return } use(z)
The
else
block is required to exit the scope (for example, withreturn
,throw
,break
,continue
, and so forth) or end in a call to a@noreturn
function. (20109722) -
Improved pattern matching:
switch
/case
pattern matching is available to many new conditional control flow statements, includingif
/case
,while
/case
,guard
/case
, andfor-in
/case
.for-in
statements can also havewhere
clauses, which combine to support many of the features of list comprehensions in other languages. -
A new
do
statement allows scopes to be introduced with thedo
statement.For example:
do { //new scope do { //another scope } }
-
A new keyword
try?
has been added to Swift.try?
attempts to perform an operation that may throw. If the operation succeeds, the result is wrapped in an optional; if it fails (that is, if an error is thrown), the result isnil
and the error is discarded.For example:
func produceGizmoUsingTechnology() throws -> Gizmo { ... } func produceGizmoUsingMagic() throws -> Gizmo { ... } if let result = try? produceGizmoUsingTechnology() { return result } if let result = try? produceGizmoUsingMagic() { return result } print("warning: failed to produce a Gizmo in any way") return nil
try?
always adds an extra level ofOptional
to the result type of the expression being evaluated. If a throwing function's normal return type isInt?
, the result of calling it withtry?
will beInt??
, orOptional<Optional<Int>>
. (21692467) -
Type names and enum cases now print and convert to
String
without qualification by default.debugPrint
orString(reflecting:)
can still be used to get fully qualified names. For example:enum Fruit { case Apple, Banana, Strawberry } print(Fruit.Apple) // "Apple" debugPrint(Fruit.Apple) // "MyApp.Fruit.Apple")
(21788604)
-
C
typedef
s of block types are imported astypealias
s for Swift closures.The primary result of this is that
typedef
s for blocks with a parameter of typeBOOL
are imported as closures with a parameter of typeBool
(rather thanObjCBool
as in the previous release). This matches the behavior of block parameters to imported Objective-C methods. (22013912) -
The type
Boolean
inMacTypes.h
is imported asBool
in contexts that allow bridging between Swift and Objective-C types.In cases where the representation is significant,
Boolean
is imported as a distinctDarwinBoolean
type, which isBooleanLiteralConvertible
and can be used in conditions (much like theObjCBool
type). (19013551) -
Fields of C structs that are marked
__unsafe_unretained
are presented in Swift usingUnmanaged
.It is not possible for the Swift compiler to know if these references are really intended to be strong (+1) or unretained (+0). (19790608)
-
The
NS_REFINED_FOR_SWIFT
macro can be used to move an Objective-C declaration aside to provide a better version of the same API in Swift, while still having the original implementation available. (For example, an Objective-C API that takes aClass
could offer a more precise parameter type in Swift.)The
NS_REFINED_FOR_SWIFT
macro operates differently on different declarations:-
init
methods will be imported with the resulting Swift initializer having__
prepended to its first external parameter name.// Objective-C - (instancetype)initWithClassName:(NSString *)name NS_REFINED_FOR_SWIFT;
// Swift init(__className: String)
-
Other methods will be imported with
__
prepended to their base name.// Objective-C - (NSString *)displayNameForMode:(DisplayMode)mode NS_REFINED_FOR_SWIFT;
// Swift func __displayNameForMode(mode: DisplayMode) -> String
-
Subscript methods will be treated like any other methods and will not be imported as subscripts.
-
Other declarations will have
__
prepended to their name.// Objective-C @property DisplayMode mode NS_REFINED_FOR_SWIFT;
// Swift var __mode: DisplayMode { get set }
(20070465)
-
-
Xcode provides context-sensitive code completions for enum elements and option sets when using the shorter dot syntax. (16659653)
-
The
NSManaged
attribute can be used with methods as well as properties, for access to Core Data's automatically generated Key-Value-Coding-compliant to-many accessors.@NSManaged var employees: NSSet @NSManaged func addEmployeesObject(employee: Employee) @NSManaged func removeEmployeesObject(employee: Employee) @NSManaged func addEmployees(employees: NSSet) @NSManaged func removeEmployees(employees: NSSet)
These can be declared in your
NSManagedObject
subclass. (17583057) -
The grammar has been adjusted so that lines beginning with '.' are always parsed as method or property lookups following the previous line, allowing for code formatted like this to work:
foo .bar .bas = 68000
It is no longer possible to begin a line with a contextual static member lookup (for example, to say
.staticVar = MyType()
). (20238557) -
Code generation for large
struct
andenum
types has been improved to reduce code size. (20598289) -
Nonmutating methods of structs, enums, and protocols may now be partially applied to their self parameter:
let a: Set<Int> = [1, 2, 3] let b: [Set<Int>] = [[1], [4]] b.map(a.union) // => [[1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 3, 4]]
(21091944)
-
Swift documentation comments recognize a new top-level list item:
- Throws: ...
This item is used to document what errors can be thrown and why. The documentation appears alongside parameters and return descriptions in Xcode QuickHelp. (21621679)
-
Unnamed parameters now require an explicit
_:
to indicate that they are unnamed. For example, the following is now an error:func f(Int) { }
and must be written as:
func f(_: Int) { }
This simplifies the argument label model and also clarifies why cases like
func f((a: Int, b: Int))
do not have parameters nameda
andb
. (16737312) -
It is now possible to append a tuple to an array. (17875634)
-
The ability to refer to the 0 element of a scalar value (producing the scalar value itself) has been removed. (17963034)
-
Variadic parameters can now appear anywhere in the parameter list for a function or initializer. For example:
func doSomethingToValues(values: Int... , options: MyOptions = [], fn: (Int) -> Void) { ... }
(20127197)
-
Generic subclasses of Objective-C classes are now supported. (18505295)
-
If an element of an enum with string raw type does not have an explicit raw value, it will default to the text of the enum's name. For example:
enum WorldLayer : String { case Ground, BelowCharacter, Character }
is equivalent to:
enum WorldLayer : String { case Ground = "Ground" case BelowCharacter = "BelowCharacter" case Character = "Character" }
(15819953)
-
The
performSelector
family of APIs is now available for Swift code. (17227475) -
When delegating or chaining to a failable initializer (for example, with
self.init(...)
orsuper.init(...)
), one can now force-unwrap the result with!
. For example:extension UIImage { enum AssetIdentifier: String { case Isabella case William case Olivia } convenience init(assetIdentifier: AssetIdentifier) { self.init(named: assetIdentifier.rawValue)! } }
(18497407)
-
Initializers can now be referenced like static methods by referring to
.init
on a static type reference or type object. For example:let x = String.init(5) let stringType = String.self let y = stringType.init(5) let oneTwoThree = [1, 2, 3].map(String.init).reduce("", combine: +)
.init
is still implicit when constructing using a static type, as inString(5)
..init
is required when using dynamic type objects or when referring to the initializer as a function value. (21375845) -
Enums and cases can now be marked indirect, which causes the associated value for the enum to be stored indirectly, allowing for recursive data structures to be defined. For example:
enum List<T> { case Nil indirect case Cons(head: T, tail: List<T>) } indirect enum Tree<T> { case Leaf(T) case Branch(left: Tree<T>, right: Tree<T>) }
(21643855)
-
Formatting for Swift expression results has changed significantly when using
po
orexpr -O
. Customization that was introduced has been refined in the following ways:-
The formatted summary provided by either
debugDescription
ordescription
methods will always be used for types that conform toCustomDebugStringConvertible
orCustomStringConvertible
respectively. When neither conformance is present, the type name is displayed and reference types also display the referenced address to more closely mimic existing behavior for Objective-C classes. -
Value types such as enums, tuples, and structs display all members indented below the summary by default, while reference types will not. This behavior can be customized for all types by implementing
CustomReflectable
.
These output customizations can be bypassed by using
p
orexpr
without the-O
argument to provide a complete list of all fields and their values. (21463866) -
-
Properties and methods using
Unmanaged
can now be exposed to Objective-C. (16832080) -
Applying the
@objc
attribute to a class changes that class's compile-time name in the target's generated Objective-C header as well as changing its runtime name. This applies to protocols as well. For example:// Swift @objc(MyAppDelegate) class AppDelegate : NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate { // ... }
// Objective-C @interface MyAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate> // ... @end
(17469485)
-
Collections containing types that are not Objective-C compatible are no longer considered Objective-C compatible types themselves.
For example, previously
Array<SwiftClassType>
was permitted as the type of a property marked@objc
; this is no longer the case. (19787270) -
Generic subclasses of Objective-C classes, as well as nongeneric classes that inherit from such a class, require runtime metadata instantiation and cannot be directly named from Objective-C code.
When support for generic subclasses of Objective-C classes was first added, the generated Objective-C bridging header erroneously listed such classes, which, when used, could lead to incorrect runtime behavior or compile-time errors. This has been fixed.
The behavior of the
@objc
attribute on a class has been clarified such that applying@objc
to a class which cannot appear in a bridging header is now an error.Note that this change does not result in a change of behavior with valid code because members of a class are implicitly
@objc
if any superclass of the class is an@objc
class, and all@objc
classes must inherit from NSObject. (21342574) -
The performance of
-Onone
(debug) builds has been improved by using prespecialized instances of generics in the standard library. It produces significantly faster executables in debug builds in many cases, without impacting compile time. (20486658) -
AnyObject
andNSObject
variables that refer to class objects can be cast back to class object types. For example, this code succeeds:let x: AnyObject = NSObject.self let y = x as! NSObject.Type
Arrays, dictionaries, and sets that contain class objects successfully bridge with
NSArray
,NSDictionary
, andNSSet
as well. Objective-C APIs that provideNSArray<Class> *
objects, such as-[NSURLSessionConfiguration protocolClasses]
, now work correctly when used in Swift. (16238475) -
print()
and reflection via Mirrors is able to report both the current case and payload for all enums with multiple payload types. The only remaining enum types that do not support reflection are@objc
enums and enums imported from C. (21739870) -
Enum cases with payloads can be used as functions. For example:
enum Either<T, U> { case Left(T), Right(U) } let lefts: [Either<Int, String>] = [1, 2, 3].map(Either.Left) let rights: [Either<Int, String>] = ["one", "two", "three"].map(Either.Right)
(19091028)
-
ExtensibleCollectionType
has been folded intoRangeReplaceableCollectionType
. In addition, default implementations have been added as methods, which should be used instead of the free Swift module functions related to these protocols. (18220295)
-
The standard library moved many generic global functions (such as
map
,filter
, andsort
) to be methods written with protocol extensions. This allows those methods to be pervasively available on all sequence and collection types and allowed the removal of the global functions. -
Deprecated enum elements no longer affect the names of nondeprecated elements when an Objective-C enum is imported into Swift. This may cause the Swift names of some enum elements to change. (17686122)
-
All enums imported from C are
RawRepresentable
, including those not declared withNS_ENUM
orNS_OPTIONS
. As part of this change, the value property of such enums has been renamedrawValue
. (18702016) -
Swift documentation comments use a syntax based on the Markdown format, aligning them with rich comments in playgrounds.
-
Outermost list items are interpreted as special fields and are highlighted in Xcode QuickHelp.
-
There are two methods of documenting parameters: parameter outlines and separate parameter fields. You can mix and match these forms as you see fit in any order or continuity throughout the doc comment. Because these are parsed as list items, you can nest arbitrary content underneath them.
-
Parameter outline syntax:
- Parameters: - x: ... - y: ...
-
Separate parameter fields:
- parameter x: ... - parameter y: ...
-
Documenting return values:
- returns: ...
Other special fields are highlighted in QuickHelp, as well as rendering support for all of Markdown. (20180161)
-
-
The
CFunctionPointer<T -> U>
type has been removed. C function types are specified using the new@convention(c)
attribute. Like other function types,@convention(c) T -> U
is not nullable unless made optional. The@objc_block
attribute for specifying block types has also been removed and replaced with@convention(block)
. -
Methods and functions have the same rules for parameter names. You can omit providing an external parameter name with
_
. To further simplify the model, the shorthand#
for specifying a parameter name has been removed, as have the special rules for default arguments.// Declaration func printFunction(str: String, newline: Bool) func printMethod(str: String, newline: Bool) func printFunctionOmitParameterName(str: String, _ newline: Bool) // Call printFunction("hello", newline: true) printMethod("hello", newline: true) printFunctionOmitParameterName("hello", true)
(17218256)
-
NS_OPTIONS
types get imported as conforming to theOptionSetType
protocol, which presents a set-like interface for options. Instead of using bitwise operations such as:// Swift 1.2: object.invokeMethodWithOptions(.OptionA | .OptionB) object.invokeMethodWithOptions(nil) if options @ .OptionC == .OptionC { // .OptionC is set }
Option sets support set literal syntax, and set-like methods such as contains:
object.invokeMethodWithOptions([.OptionA, .OptionB]) object.invokeMethodWithOptions([]) if options.contains(.OptionC) { // .OptionC is set }
A new option set type can be written in Swift as a struct that conforms to the
OptionSetType
protocol. If the type specifies arawValue
property and option constants asstatic let
constants, the standard library will provide default implementations of the rest of the option set API:struct MyOptions: OptionSetType { let rawValue: Int static let TuringMachine = MyOptions(rawValue: 1) static let LambdaCalculus = MyOptions(rawValue: 2) static let VonNeumann = MyOptions(rawValue: 4) } let churchTuring: MyOptions = [.TuringMachine, .LambdaCalculus]
(18069205)
-
Type annotations are no longer allowed in patterns and are considered part of the outlying declaration. This means that code previously written as:
var (a : Int, b : Float) = foo()
needs to be written as:
var (a, b) : (Int, Float) = foo()
if an explicit type annotation is needed. The former syntax was ambiguous with tuple element labels. (20167393)
-
The
do
/while
loop is renamed torepeat
/while
to make it obvious whether a statement is a loop from its leading keyword.In Swift 1.2:
do { ... } while <condition>
In Swift 2.0:
repeat { ... } while <condition>
(20336424)
-
forEach
has been added toSequenceType
. This lets you iterate over elements of a sequence, calling a body closure on each. For example:(0..<10).forEach { print($0) }
This is very similar to the following:
for x in 0..<10 { print(x) }
But take note of the following differences:
-
Unlike for-in loops, you can't use
break
orcontinue
to exit the current call of the body closure or skip subsequent calls. -
Also unlike for-in loops, using
return
in the body closure only exits from the current call to the closure, not any outer scope, and won't skip subsequent calls.
(18231840)
-
-
The
Word
andUWord
types have been removed from the standard library; useInt
andUInt
instead. (18693488) -
Most standard library APIs that take closures or
@autoclosure
parameters now userethrows
. This allows the closure parameters to methods likemap
andfilter
to throw errors, and allows short-circuiting operators like&&
,||
, and??
to work with expressions that may produce errors. (21345565) -
SIMD improvements: Integer vector types in the simd module now only support unchecked arithmetic with wraparound semantics using the
&+
,&-
, and&*
operators, in order to better support the machine model for vectors. The+
,-
, and*
operators are unavailable on integer vectors, and Xcode automatically suggests replacing them with the wrapping operators.Code generation for vector types in the simd module has been improved to better utilize vector hardware, leading to dramatically improved performance in many cases. (21574425)
-
All
CollectionType
objects are now sliceable.SequenceType
now has a notion ofSubSequence
, which is a type that represents only some of the values but in the same order. For example, theArraySubSequence
type isArraySlice
, which is an efficient view on theArray
type's buffer that avoids copying as long as it uniquely references theArray
from which it came.The following free Swift functions for splitting/slicing sequences have been removed and replaced by method requirements on the
SequenceType
protocol with default implementations in protocol extensions.CollectionType
has specialized implementations, where possible, to take advantage of efficient access of its elements./// Returns the first `maxLength` elements of `self`, /// or all the elements if `self` has fewer than `maxLength` elements. prefix(maxLength: Int) -> SubSequence /// Returns the last `maxLength` elements of `self`, /// or all the elements if `self` has fewer than `maxLength` elements. suffix(maxLength: Int) -> SubSequence /// Returns all but the first `n` elements of `self`. dropFirst(n: Int) -> SubSequence /// Returns all but the last `n` elements of `self`. dropLast(n: Int) -> SubSequence /// Returns the maximal `SubSequence`s of `self`, in order, that /// don't contain elements satisfying the predicate `isSeparator`. split(maxSplits maxSplits: Int, allowEmptySlices: Bool, @noescape isSeparator: (Generator.Element) -> Bool) -> [SubSequence]
The following convenience extension is provided for
split
:split(separator: Generator.Element, maxSplit: Int, allowEmptySlices: Bool) -> [SubSequence]
Also, new protocol requirements and default implementations on
CollectionType
are now available:/// Returns `self[startIndex..<end]` prefixUpTo(end: Index) -> SubSequence /// Returns `self[start..<endIndex]` suffixFrom(start: Index) -> SubSequence /// Returns `prefixUpTo(position.successor())` prefixThrough(position: Index) -> SubSequence
(21663830)
-
The
print
anddebugPrint
functions are improved:-
Both functions have become variadic, and you can print any number of items with a single call.
-
separator: String = " "
was added so you can control how the items are separated. -
terminator: String = "\n"
replacedappendNewline: bool = true.
With this change,print(x, appendNewline: false)
is expressed asprint(x, terminator: "")
. -
For the variants that take an output stream, the argument label
toStream
was added to the stream argument.
The
println
function from Swift 1.2 has been removed. (21788540) -
-
For consistency and better composition of generic code,
ArraySlice
indices are no longer always zero-based but map directly onto the indices of the collection they are slicing and maintain that mapping even after mutations.Before:
var a = Array(0..<10) var s = a[5..<10] s.indices // 0..<5 s[0] = 111 s // [111, 6, 7, 8, 9] s.removeFirst() s.indices // 1..<5
After:
var a = Array(0..<10) var s = a[5..<10] s.indices // 5..<10 s[5] = 99 s // [99, 6, 7, 8, 9] s.removeFirst() s.indices // 6..<10
Rather than define variants of collection algorithms that take explicit subrange arguments, such as
a.sortSubrangeInPlace(3..<7)
, the Swift standard library provides "slicing," which composes well with algorithms. This enables you to writea[3..<7].sortInPlace()
, for example. With most collections, these algorithms compose naturally.For example, before this change was incorporated:
extension MyIntCollection { func prefixThroughFirstNegativeSubrange() -> SubSequence { // Find the first negative element let firstNegative = self.indexOf { $0 < 0 } ?? endIndex // Slice off non-negative prefix let startsWithNegative = self.suffixFrom(firstNegative) // Find the first non-negative position in the slice let end = startsWithNegative.indexOf { $0 >= 0 } ?? endIndex return self[startIndex..<end] } }
The above code would work for any collection of
Int
s unless the collection is anArray<Int>
. Unfortunately, when array slice indices are zero-based, the last two lines of the method need to change to:let end = startsWithNegative.indexOf { $0 >= 0 } ?? startsWithNegative.endIndex return self[startIndex..<end + firstNegative]
These differences made working with slices awkward, error-prone, and nongeneric.
After this change, Swift collections start to provide a guarantee that, at least until there is a mutation, slice indices are valid in the collection from which they were sliced, and refer to the same elements. (21866825)
-
The method
RangeReplaceableCollectionType.extend()
was renamed toappendContentsOf()
, and thesplice()
method was renamed toinsertContentsOf()
. (21972324) -
find
has been renamed toindexOf()
, sort has been renamed tosortInPlace()
, andsorted()
becomessort()
. -
String.toInt()
has been renamed to a failableInt(String)
initializer, since initialization syntax is the preferred style for type conversions. -
String
no longer conforms toSequenceType
in order to prevent non-Unicode correct sequence algorithms from being prominently available on String. To perform grapheme-cluster-based, UTF-8-based, or UTF-16-based algorithms, use the.characters
,.utf8
, and.utf16
projections respectively. -
Generic functions that declare type parameters not used within the generic function's type produce a compiler error. For example:
func foo<T>() { } // error: generic parameter 'T' is not used in function signature
-
The
Dictionary.removeAtIndex(_:)
method now returns the key-value pair being removed as a two-element tuple (rather than returningVoid
). Similarly, theSet.removeAtIndex(_:)
method returns the element being removed. (20299881) -
Generic parameters on types in the Swift standard library have been renamed to reflect the role of the types in the API. For example,
Array<T>
becameArray<Element>
,UnsafePointer<T>
becameUnsafePointer<Memory>
, and so forth. (21429126) -
The
SinkType
protocol andSinkOf
struct have been removed from the standard library in favor of(T) -> ()
closures. (21663799)
-
The notions of guaranteed conversion and "forced failable" conversion are now separated into two operators. Forced failable conversion now uses the
as!
operator. The!
makes it clear to readers of code that the cast may fail and produce a runtime error. Theas
operator remains for upcasts (e.g.someDerivedValue as Base
) and type annotations (0 as Int8
) which are guaranteed to never fail. (19031957) -
Immutable (
let
) properties instruct
andclass
initializers have been revised to standardize on a general "let
s are singly initialized but never reassigned or mutated" model. Previously, they were completely mutable within the body of initializers. Now, they are only allowed to be assigned to once to provide their value. If the property has an initial value in its declaration, that counts as the initial value for all initializers. (19035287) -
The implicit conversions from bridged Objective-C classes (
NSString
/NSArray
/NSDictionary
) to their corresponding Swift value types (String
/Array
/Dictionary
) have been removed, making the Swift type system simpler and more predictable.This means that the following code will no longer work:
import Foundation func log(s: String) { println(x) } let ns: NSString = "some NSString" // okay: literals still work log(ns) // fails with the error // "'NSString' is not convertible to 'String'"
In order to perform such a bridging conversion, make the conversion explicit with the as keyword:
log(ns as String) // succeeds
Implicit conversions from Swift value types to their bridged Objective-C classes are still permitted. For example:
func nsLog(ns: NSString) { println(ns) } let s: String = "some String" nsLog(s) // okay: implicit conversion from String to NSString is permitted
Note that these Cocoa types in Objective-C headers are still automatically bridged to their corresponding Swift type, which means that code is only affected if it is explicitly referencing (for example)
NSString
in a Swift source file. It is recommended you use the corresponding Swift types (for example,String
) directly unless you are doing something advanced, like implementing a subclass in the class cluster. (18311362) -
The
@autoclosure
attribute is now an attribute on a parameter, not an attribute on the parameter's type.Where before you might have used:
func assert(predicate : @autoclosure () -> Bool) {...} you now write this as: func assert(@autoclosure predicate : () -> Bool) {...}
(15217242)
-
The
@autoclosure
attribute on parameters now implies the new@noescape
attribute. -
Curried function parameters can now specify argument labels.
For example:
func curryUnnamed(a: Int)(_ b: Int) { return a + b } curryUnnamed(1)(2) func curryNamed(first a: Int)(second b: Int) -> Int { return a + b } curryNamed(first: 1)(second: 2)
(17237268)
-
Swift now detects discrepancies between overloading and overriding in the Swift type system and the effective behavior seen via the Objective-C runtime.
For example, the following conflict between the Objective-C setter for
property
in a class and the methodsetProperty
in its extension is now diagnosed:class A : NSObject { var property: String = "Hello" // note: Objective-C method 'setProperty:' // previously declared by setter for // 'property' here } extension A { func setProperty(str: String) { } // error: method 'setProperty' // redeclares Objective-C method //'setProperty:' } Similar checking applies to accidental overrides in the Objective-C runtime: class B : NSObject { func method(arg: String) { } // note: overridden declaration // here has type '(String) -> ()' } class C : B { func method(arg: [String]) { } // error: overriding method with // selector 'method:' has incompatible // type '([String]) -> ()' } as well as protocol conformances: class MyDelegate : NSObject, NSURLSessionDelegate { func URLSession(session: NSURLSession, didBecomeInvalidWithError: Bool){ } // error: Objective-C method 'URLSession:didBecomeInvalidWithError:' // provided by method 'URLSession(_:didBecomeInvalidWithError:)' // conflicts with optional requirement method // 'URLSession(_:didBecomeInvalidWithError:)' in protocol // 'NSURLSessionDelegate' }
(18391046, 18383574)
-
The precedence of the Nil Coalescing Operator (
??
) has been raised to bind tighter than short-circuiting logical and comparison operators, but looser than as conversions and range operators. This provides more useful behavior for expressions like:if allowEmpty || items?.count ?? 0 > 0 {...}
-
The
&/
and&%
operators were removed, to simplify the language and improve consistency.Unlike the
&+
,&-
, and&*
operators, these operators did not provide two's-complement arithmetic behavior; they provided special case behavior for division, remainder by zero, andInt.min/-1
. These tests should be written explicitly in the code as comparisons if needed. (17926954) -
Constructing a
UInt8
from an ASCII value now requires the ascii keyword parameter. Using non-ASCII unicode scalars will cause this initializer to trap. (18509195) -
The C
size_t
family of types are now imported into Swift asInt
, since Swift prefers sizes and counts to be represented as signed numbers, even if they are non-negative.This change decreases the amount of explicit type conversion between
Int
andUInt
, better aligns withsizeof
returningInt
, and provides safer arithmetic properties. (18949559) -
Classes that do not inherit from
NSObject
but do adopt an@objc
protocol will need to explicitly mark those methods, properties, and initializers used to satisfy the protocol requirements as@objc
.For example:
@objc protocol SomethingDelegate { func didSomething() } class MySomethingDelegate : SomethingDelegate { @objc func didSomething() { ... } }
-
Dynamic casts (
as!
,as?
andis
) now work with Swift protocol types, so long as they have no associated types. (18869156) -
Adding conformances within a Playground now works as expected.
For example:
struct Point { var x, y: Double } extension Point : Printable { var description: String { return "(\(x), \(y))" } } var p1 = Point(x: 1.5, y: 2.5) println(p1) // prints "(1.5, 2.5)"
-
Imported
NS_ENUM
types with undocumented values, such asUIViewAnimationCurve
, can now be converted from their raw integer values using theinit(rawValue:)
initializer without being reset tonil
. Code that usedunsafeBitCast
as a workaround for this issue can be written to use the raw value initializer.For example:
let animationCurve = unsafeBitCast(userInfo[UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey].integerValue, UIViewAnimationCurve.self) can now be written instead as: let animationCurve = UIViewAnimationCurve(rawValue: userInfo[UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey].integerValue)!
(19005771)
-
Negative floating-point literals are now accepted as raw values in enums. (16504472)
-
Unowned references to Objective-C objects, or Swift objects inheriting from Objective-C objects, no longer cause a crash if the object holding the unowned reference is deallocated after the referenced object has been released. (18091547)
-
Variables and properties with observing accessors no longer require an explicit type if it can be inferred from the initial value expression. (18148072)
-
Generic curried functions no longer produce random results when fully applied. (18988428)
-
Comparing the result of a failed
NSClassFromString
lookup againstnil
now behaves correctly. (19318533) -
Subclasses that override base class methods with co- or contravariance in Optional types no longer cause crashes at runtime.
For example:
class Base { func foo(x: String) -> String? { return x } } class Derived: Base { override func foo(x: String?) -> String { return x! } }
(19321484)
-
Swift now supports building targets incrementally, i.e. not rebuilding every Swift source file in a target when a single file is changed.
The incremental build capability is based on a conservative dependency analysis, so you may still see more files rebuilding than absolutely necessary. If you find any cases where a file is not rebuilt when it should be, please file a bug report. Running Clean on your target afterwards should allow you to complete your build normally. (18248514)
-
A new
Set
data structure is included which provides a generic collection of unique elements with full value semantics. It bridges withNSSet
, providing functionality analogous toArray
andDictionary
. (14661754) -
The
if-let
construct has been expanded to allow testing multiple optionals and guarding conditions in a singleif
(orwhile
) statement using syntax similar to generic constraints:if let a = foo(), b = bar() where a < b, let c = baz() { }
This allows you to test multiple optionals and include intervening boolean conditions, without introducing undesirable nesting (for instance, to avoid the optional unwrapping "pyramid of doom").
Further,
if-let
now also supports a single leading boolean condition along with optional bindinglet
clauses. For example:if someValue > 42 && someOtherThing < 19, let a = getOptionalThing() where a > someValue { }
(19797158, 19382942)
-
The
if-let
syntax has been extended to support a single leading boolean condition along with optional bindinglet
clauses.For example:
if someValue > 42 && someOtherThing < 19, let a = getOptionalThing() where a > someValue { }
(19797158)
-
let
constants have been generalized to no longer require immediate initialization. The new rule is that alet
constant must be initialized before use (like avar
), and that it may only be initialized: not reassigned or mutated after initialization. This enables patterns such as:let x: SomeThing if condition { x = foo() } else { x = bar() } use(x)
which formerly required the use of a
var
, even though there is no mutation taking place. (16181314) -
static
methods and properties are now allowed in classes (as an alias forclass final
). You are now allowed to declare static stored properties in classes, which have global storage and are lazily initialized on first access (like global variables). Protocols now declare type requirements as static requirements instead of declaring them as class requirements. (17198298) -
Type inference for single-expression closures has been improved in several ways:
- Closures that are comprised of a single return statement are now type checked as single-expression closures.
- Unannotated single-expression closures with non-
Void
return types can now be used inVoid
contexts. - Situations where a multi-statement closure's type could not be inferred because of a missing return-type annotation are now properly diagnosed.
-
Swift enums can now be exported to Objective-C using the
@objc
attribute.@objc
enums must declare an integer raw type, and cannot be generic or use associated values. Because Objective-C enums are not namespaced, enum cases are imported into Objective-C as the concatenation of the enum name and case name.For example, this Swift declaration:
// Swift @objc enum Bear: Int { case Black, Grizzly, Polar }
imports into Objective-C as:
// Objective-C typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, Bear) { BearBlack, BearGrizzly, BearPolar };
(16967385)
-
Objective-C language extensions are now available to indicate the nullability of pointers and blocks in Objective-C APIs, allowing your Objective-C APIs to be imported without
ImplicitlyUnwrappedOptional
. (See items below for more details.) (18868820) -
Swift can now partially import C aggregates containing unions, bitfields, SIMD vector types, and other C language features that are not natively supported in Swift. The unsupported fields will not be accessible from Swift, but C and Objective-C APIs that have arguments and return values of these types can be used in Swift. This includes the Foundation
NSDecimal
type and theGLKit
GLKVector
andGLKMatrix
types, among others. (15951448) -
Imported C structs now have a default initializer in Swift that initializes all of the struct's fields to zero.
For example:
import Darwin var devNullStat = stat() stat("/dev/null", &devNullStat)
If a structure contains fields that cannot be correctly zero initialized (i.e. pointer fields marked with the new
__nonnull
modifier), this default initializer will be suppressed. (18338802) -
New APIs for converting among the
Index
types forString
,String.UnicodeScalarView
,String.UTF16View
, andString.UTF8View
are available, as well as APIs for converting each of theString
views intoString
s. (18018911) -
Type values now print as the full demangled type name when used with
println
or string interpolation.toString(Int.self) // prints "Swift.Int" println([Float].self) // prints "Swift.Array<Swift.Float>" println((Int, String).self) // prints "(Swift.Int, Swift.String)"
(18947381)
-
A new
@noescape
attribute may be used on closure parameters to functions. This indicates that the parameter is only ever called (or passed as an@noescape
parameter in a call), which means that it cannot outlive the lifetime of the call. This enables some minor performance optimizations, but more importantly disables theself.
requirement in closure arguments. This enables control-flow-like functions to be more transparent about their behavior. In a future beta, the standard library will adopt this attribute in functions likeautoreleasepool()
.func autoreleasepool(@noescape code: () -> ()) { pushAutoreleasePool() code() popAutoreleasePool() }
(16323038)
-
Performance is substantially improved over Swift 1.1 in many cases. For example, multidimensional arrays are algorithmically faster in some cases, unoptimized code is much faster in many cases, and many other improvements have been made.
-
The diagnostics emitted for expression type check errors are greatly improved in many cases. (18869019)
-
Type checker performance for many common expression kinds has been greatly improved. This can significantly improve build times and reduces the number of "expression too complex" errors. (18868985)
-
The
@autoclosure
attribute has a second form,@autoclosure(escaping)
, that provides the same caller-side syntax as@autoclosure
but allows the resulting closure to escape in the implementation.For example:
func lazyAssertion(@autoclosure(escaping) condition: () -> Bool, message: String = "") { lazyAssertions.append(condition) // escapes } lazyAssertion(1 == 2, message: "fail eventually")
(19499207)
- A new compilation mode has been introduced for Swift called Whole Module
Optimization. This option optimizes all of the files in a target together
and enables better performance (at the cost of increased compile time). The
new flag can be enabled in Xcode using the
Whole Module Optimization
build setting or by using theswiftc
command line tool with the flag-whole-module-optimization
. (18603795)
-
flatMap
was added to the standard library.flatMap
is the function that maps a function over something and returns the result flattened one level.flatMap
has many uses, such as to flatten an array:[[1,2],[3,4]].flatMap { $0 }
or to chain optionals with functions:
[[1,2], [3,4]].first.flatMap { find($0, 1) }
(19881534)
-
The function
zip
was added. It joins two sequences together into one sequence of tuples. (17292393) -
utf16Count
is removed fromString
. Instead use count on theUTF16
view of theString
.For example:
count(string.utf16)
(17627758)
-
Class methods and initializers that satisfy protocol requirements now properly invoke subclass overrides when called in generic contexts. For example:
protocol P { class func foo() } class C: P { class func foo() { println("C!") } } class D: C { override class func foo() { println("D!") } } func foo<T: P>(x: T) { x.dynamicType.foo() } foo(C()) // Prints "C!" foo(D()) // Used to incorrectly print "C!", now prints "D!"
(18828217)
-
Values of type
Any
can now contain values of function type. (16406907) -
Documentation for the standard library (displayed in quick help and in the synthesized header for the Swift module) is improved. (16462500)
-
Class properties don't need to be marked final to avoid
O(n)
mutations on value semantic types. (17416120) -
Casts can now be performed between
CF
types (such asCFString
,CGImage
, andSecIdentity
) and AnyObject. Such casts will always succeed at run-time. For example:var cfStr: CFString = ... var obj: AnyObject = cfStr as AnyObject var cfStr = obj as CFString
(18088474)
-
HeapBuffer<Value, Element>
,HeapBufferStorage<Value, Element>
, andOnHeap<Value>
were never really useful, because their APIs were insufficiently public. They have been replaced with a single class,ManagedBuffer<Value, Element>
. See also the new functionisUniquelyReferenced(x)
which is often useful in conjunction withManagedBuffer
. -
The
Character
enum has been turned into a struct, to avoid exposing its internal implementation details. -
The
countElements
function has been renamedcount
, for better consistency with our naming conventions. -
Mixed-sign addition and subtraction operations, that were unintentionally allowed in previous versions, now cause a compilation error.
-
OS X apps can now apply the
@NSApplicationMain
attribute to their app delegate class in order to generate an implicitmain
for the app. This works like the@UIApplicationMain
attribute for iOS apps. -
Objective-C
init
and factory methods are now imported as failable initializers when they can returnnil
. In the absence of information about a potentially-nil
result, an Objective-Cinit
or factory method will be imported asinit!
.As part of this change, factory methods that have NSError** parameters, such as
+[NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:encoding:error:]
, will now be imported as (failable) initializers, e.g.,init?(contentsOfFile path: String, encoding: NSStringEncoding, error: NSErrorPointer)
-
Nested classes explicitly marked
@objc
will now properly be included in a target's generated header as long as the containing context is also (implicitly or explicitly)@objc
. Nested classes not explicitly marked@objc
will never be printed in the generated header, even if they extend an Objective-C class. -
All of the
*LiteralConvertible
protocols, as well asStringInterpolationConvertible
, now use initializers for their requirements rather than static methods starting withconvertFrom
. For example,IntegerLiteralConvertible
now has the following initializer requirement:init(integerLiteral value: IntegerLiteralType)
Any type that previously conformed to one of these protocols will need to replace its
convertFromXXX
static methods with the corresponding initializer.
-
Initializers can now fail by returning
nil
. A failable initializer is declared withinit?
(to return an explicit optional) orinit!
(to return an implicitly-unwrapped optional). For example, you could implementString.toInt
as a failable initializer ofInt
like this:extension Int { init?(fromString: String) { if let i = fromString.toInt() { // Initialize self = i } else { // Discard self and return 'nil'. return nil } } }
The result of constructing a value using a failable initializer then becomes optional:
if let twentytwo = Int(fromString: "22") { println("the number is \(twentytwo)") } else { println("not a number") }
In the current implementation, struct and enum initializers can return
nil
at any point inside the initializer, but class initializers can only returnnil
after all of the stored properties of the object have been initialized andself.init
orsuper.init
has been called. Ifself.init
orsuper.init
is used to delegate to a failable initializer, then thenil
return is implicitly propagated through the current initializer if the called initializer fails. -
The
RawRepresentable
protocol that enums with raw types implicitly conform to has been redefined to take advantage of failable initializers. ThefromRaw(RawValue)
static method has been replaced with an initializerinit?(rawValue: RawValue)
, and thetoRaw()
method has been replaced with arawValue
property. Enums with raw types can now be used like this:enum Foo: Int { case A = 0, B = 1, C = 2 } let foo = Foo(rawValue: 2)! // formerly 'Foo.fromRaw(2)!' println(foo.rawValue) // formerly 'foo.toRaw()'
- Characters can no longer be concatenated using
+
. UseString(c1) + String(c2)
instead.
- When force-casting between arrays of class or
@objc
protocol types usinga as [C]
, type checking is now deferred until the moment each element is accessed. Because bridging conversions from NSArray are equivalent to force-casts from[NSArray]
, this makes certain Array round-trips through Objective-C codeO(1)
instead ofO(N)
.
-
RawOptionSetType
now implementsBitwiseOperationsType
, so importedNS_OPTIONS
now support the bitwise assignment operators|=
,&=
, and^=
. It also no longer implementsBooleanType
; to check if an option set is empty, compare it tonil
. -
Types implementing
BitwiseOperationsType
now automatically support the bitwise assignment operators|=
,&=
, and^=
. -
Optionals can now be coalesced with default values using the
??
operator.??
is a short-circuiting operator that takes an optional on the left and a non-optional expression on the right. If the optional has a value, its value is returned as a non-optional; otherwise, the expression on the right is evaluated and returned:var sequence: [Int] = [] sequence.first ?? 0 // produces 0, because sequence.first is nil sequence.append(22) sequence.first ?? 0 // produces 22, the value of sequence.first
-
The optional chaining
?
operator can now be mutated through, like!
. The assignment and the evaluation of the right-hand side of the operator are conditional on the presence of the optional value:var sequences = ["fibonacci": [1, 1, 2, 3, 4], "perfect": [6, 28, 496]] sequences["fibonacci"]?[4]++ // Increments element 4 of key "fibonacci" sequences["perfect"]?.append(8128) // Appends to key "perfect" sequences["cubes"]?[3] = 3*3*3 // Does nothing; no "cubes" key
Note that optional chaining still flows to the right, so prefix increment operators are not included in the chain, so this won't type-check:
++sequences["fibonacci"]?[4] // Won't type check, can't '++' Int?
-
The swift command line interface is now divided into an interactive driver
swift
, and a batch compilerswiftc
:swift [options] input-file [program-arguments] Runs the script 'input-file' immediately, passing any program-arguments to the script. Without any input files, invokes the repl. swiftc [options] input-filenames The familiar swift compiler interface: compiles the input-files according to the mode options like -emit-object, -emit-executable, etc.
-
For greater clarity and explicitness when bypassing the type system,
reinterpretCast
has been renamedunsafeBitCast
, and it has acquired a (required) explicit type parameter. Solet x: T = reinterpretCast(y)
becomes
let x = unsafeBitCast(y, T.self)
-
Because their semantics were unclear, the methods
asUnsigned
(on the signed integer types) andasSigned
(on the unsigned integer types) have been replaced. The new idiom is explicit construction of the target type using thebitPattern:
argument label. So,myInt.asUnsigned()
has become
UInt(bitPattern: myInt)
-
To better follow Cocoa naming conventions and to encourage immutability, The following pointer types were renamed:
Old Name New Name UnsafePointer<T>
UnsafeMutablePointer<T>
ConstUnsafePointer<T>
UnsafePointer<T>
AutoreleasingUnsafePointer<T>
AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer<T>
Note that the meaning of
UnsafePointer
has changed from mutable to immutable. As a result, some of your code may fail to compile when assigning to anUnsafePointer.memory
property. The fix is to change yourUnsafePointer<T>
into anUnsafeMutablePointer<T>
. -
The optional unwrapping operator
x!
can now be assigned through, and mutating methods and operators can be applied through it:var x: Int! = 0 x! = 2 x!++ // Nested dictionaries can now be mutated directly: var sequences = ["fibonacci": [1, 1, 2, 3, 0]] sequences["fibonacci"]![4] = 5 sequences["fibonacci"]!.append(8)
-
The
@auto_closure
attribute has been renamed to@autoclosure
. -
There is a new
dynamic
declaration modifier. When applied to a method, property, subscript, or initializer, it guarantees that references to the declaration are always dynamically dispatched and never inlined or devirtualized, and that the method binding can be reliably changed at runtime. The implementation currently relies on the Objective-C runtime, sodynamic
can only be applied to@objc-compatible
declarations for now.@objc
now only makes a declaration visible to Objective-C; the compiler may now use vtable lookup or direct access to access (non-dynamic)@objc
declarations.class Foo { // Always accessed by objc_msgSend dynamic var x: Int // Accessed by objc_msgSend from ObjC; may be accessed by vtable // or by static reference in Swift @objc var y: Int // Not exposed to ObjC (unless Foo inherits NSObject) var z: Int }
dynamic
enables KVO, proxying, and other advanced Cocoa features to work reliably with Swift declarations. -
Clang submodules can now be imported:
import UIKit.UIGestureRecognizerSubclass
-
The numeric optimization levels
-O[0-3]
have been removed in favor of the named levels-Onone
and-O
. -
The
-Ofast
optimization flag has been renamed to-Ounchecked
. We will accept both names for now and remove-Ofast
in a later build. -
An initializer that overrides a designated initializer from its superclass must be marked with the
override
keyword, so that all overrides in the language consistently require the use ofoverride
. For example:class A { init() { } } class B : A { override init() { super.init() } }
-
Required initializers are now more prominent in several ways. First, a (non-final) class that conforms to a protocol that contains an initializer requirement must provide a required initializer to satisfy that requirement. This ensures that subclasses will also conform to the protocol, and will be most visible with classes that conform to
NSCoding
:class MyClass : NSObject, NSCoding { required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder!) { /*... */ } func encodeWithCoder(aCoder: NSCoder!) { /* ... */ } }
Second, because
required
places a significant requirement on all subclasses, therequired
keyword must be placed on overrides of a required initializer:class MySubClass : MyClass { var title: String = "Untitled" required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder!) { /*... */ } override func encodeWithCoder(aCoder: NSCoder!) { /* ... */ } }
Finally, required initializers can now be inherited like any other initializer:
class MySimpleSubClass : MyClass { } // inherits the required init(coder:).
-
Access control has been implemented.
public
declarations can be accessed from any module.internal
declarations (the default) can be accessed from within the current module.private
declarations can be accessed only from within the current file.
There are still details to iron out here, but the model is in place. The general principle is that an entity cannot be defined in terms of another entity with less accessibility.
Along with this, the generated header for a framework will only include public declarations. Generated headers for applications will include public and internal declarations.
-
CGFloat
is now a distinct floating-point type that wraps either aFloat
(on 32-bit architectures) or aDouble
(on 64-bit architectures). It provides all of the same comparison and arithmetic operations of Float and Double, and can be created using numeric literals. -
The immediate mode
swift -i
now works for writing#!
scripts that take command line arguments. The-i
option to the swift driver must now come at the end of the compiler arguments, directly before the input filename. Any arguments that come after-i
and the input filename are treated as arguments to the interpreted file and forwarded toProcess.arguments
. -
Type inference for
for..in
loops has been improved to consider the sequence along with the element pattern. For example, this accepts the following loops that were previously rejected:for i: Int8 in 0..<10 { } for i: Float in 0.0...10.0 { }
-
Introduced the new
BooleanLiteralConvertible
protocol, which allows user-defined types to support Boolean literals.true
andfalse
are nowBoolean
constants and keywords. -
The
@final
,@lazy
,@required
and@optional
attributes are now considered to be declaration modifiers - they no longer require (or allow) an@
sign. -
The
@prefix
,@infix
, and@postfix
attributes have been changed to declaration modifiers, so they are no longer spelled with an@
sign. Operator declarations have been rearranged fromoperator prefix +
toprefix operator +
for consistency.
-
C function pointer types are now imported as
CFunctionPointer<T>
, whereT
is a Swift function type.CFunctionPointer
andCOpaquePointer
can be explicitly constructed from one another, but they do not freely convert, nor isCFunctionPointer
compatible with Swift closures.Example:
int (*)(void)
becomesCFunctionPointer<(Int) -> Void>
. -
The interop model for pointers in C APIs has been simplified. Most code that calls C functions by passing arrays, UnsafePointers, or the addresses of variables with
&x
does not need to change. However, theCConstPointer
andCMutablePointer
bridging types have been removed, and functions and methods are now imported as and overridden by taking UnsafePointer andConstUnsafePointer
directly.Void
pointers are now imported as(Const)UnsafePointer<Void>
;COpaquePointer
is only imported for opaque types now. -
Array
types are now spelled with the brackets surrounding the element type. For example, an array ofInt
is written as:var array: [Int]
-
Dictionary
types can now be spelled with the syntax[K : V]
, whereK
is the key type andV
is the value type. For example:var dict: [String : Int] = ["Hello" : 1, "World" : 2]
The type
[K : V]
is syntactic sugar forDictionary<K, V>
; nothing else has changed. -
The
@IBOutlet
attribute no longer implicitly (and invisibly) changes the type of the declaration it is attached to. It no longer implicitly makes variables be an implicitly unwrapped optional and no longer defaults them to weak. -
The
\x
,\u
and\U
escape sequences in string literals have been consolidated into a single and less error prone\u{123456}
syntax.
-
The half-open range operator has been renamed from
..
to..<
to reduce confusion. The..<
operator is precedented in Groovy (among other languages) and makes it much more clear that it doesn't include the endpoint. -
Class objects such as
NSObject.self
can now be converted toAnyObject
and used as object values. -
Objective-C protocol objects such as
NSCopying.self
can now be used as instances of theProtocol
class, such as in APIs such as XPC. -
Arrays now have full value semantics: both assignment and initialization create a logically-distinct object
-
The
sort
function and array method modify the target in-place. A newsorted
function and array method are non-mutating, creating and returning a new collection.
-
sort
,map
,filter
, andreduce
methods onArray
s accept trailing closures:let a = [5, 6, 1, 3, 9] a.sort{ $0 > $1 } println(a) // [9, 6, 5, 3, 1] println(a.map{ $0 * 2 }) // [18, 12, 10, 6, 2] println(a.map{ $0 * 2 }.filter{ $0 < 10}) // [6, 2] println(a.reduce(1000){ $0 + $1 }) // 1024 (no kidding)
-
A lazy
map()
function in the standard library works on anySequence
. Example:class X { var value: Int init(_ value: Int) { self.value = value println("created X(\(value))") } } // logically, this sequence is X(0), X(1), X(2), ... X(50) let lazyXs = map(0..50){ X($0) } // Prints "created X(...)" 4 times for x in lazyXs { if x.value == 4 { break } }
-
There's a similar lazy
filter()
function:// 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 let tens = filter(0..50) { $0 % 10 == 0 } let tenX = map(tens){ X($0) } // 5 lazy Xs let tenXarray = Array(tenX) // Actually creates those Xs
-
Weak pointers of classbound protocol type work now.
-
IBOutlets
now default to weak pointers with implicit optional type (T!
). -
NSArray*
parameters and result types of Objective-C APIs are now imported asAnyObject[]!
, i.e., an implicitly unwrapped optional array storingAnyObject
values. For example,NSView
's constraints property@property (readonly) NSArray *constraints;
is now imported as
var constraints: AnyObject[]!
Note that one can implicitly convert between an
AnyObject[]
and anNSArray
(in both directions), so (for example) one can still explicitly useNSArray
if desired:var array: NSArray = view.constraints
Swift arrays bridge to
NSArray
similarly to the way Swift strings bridge toNSString
. -
ObjCMutablePointer
has been renamedAutoreleasingUnsafePointer
. -
UnsafePointer
(andAutoreleasingUnsafePointer
)'sset()
andget()
have been replaced with a property calledmemory
.-
Previously you would write:
val = p.get() p.set(val)
-
Now you write:
val = p.memory p.memory = val
-
-
Removed shorthand
x as T!
; instead use(x as T)!
x as T!
now means "x as implicitly unwrapped optional".
-
Range operators
..
and...
have been switched.1..3
now means 1,21...3
now means 1,2,3
-
The pound sign (
#
) is now used instead of the back-tick (`) to mark an argument name as a keyword argument, e.g.,func moveTo(#x: Int, #y: Int) { ... } moveTo(x: 5, y: 7)
-
Objective-C factory methods are now imported as initializers. For example,
NSColor
's+colorWithRed:green:blue:alpha
becomesinit(red: CGFloat, green: CGFloat, blue: CGFloat, alpha: CGFloat)
which allows an
NSColor
to be created as, e.g.,NSColor(red: 0.5, green: 0.25, blue: 0.25, alpha: 0.5)
Factory methods are identified by their kind (class methods), name (starts with words that match the words that end the class name), and result type (
instancetype
or the class type). -
Objective-C properties of some
CF
type are no longer imported asUnmanaged
. -
REPL mode now uses LLDB, for a greatly-expanded set of features. The colon prefix now treats the rest of the line as a command for LLDB, and entering a single colon will drop you into the debugging command prompt. Most importantly, crashes in the REPL will now drop you into debugging mode to see what went wrong.
If you do have a need for the previous REPL, pass
-integrated-repl
. -
In a UIKit-based application, you can now eliminate your 'main.swift' file and instead apply the
@UIApplicationMain
attribute to yourUIApplicationDelegate
class. This will cause themain
entry point to the application to be automatically generated as follows:UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass(YourApplicationDelegate.self))
If you need nontrivial logic in your application entry point, you can still write out a
main.swift
. Note that@UIApplicationMain
andmain.swift
are mutually exclusive.
-
weak pointers now work with implicitly unchecked optionals, enabling usecases where you don't want to
!
every use of a weak pointer. For example:weak var myView : NSView!
of course, they still work with explicitly checked optionals like
NSView?
-
Dictionary subscripting now takes/returns an optional type. This allows querying a dictionary via subscripting to gracefully fail. It also enables the idiom of removing values from a dictionary using
dict[key] = nil
. As part of this,deleteKey
is no longer available. -
Stored properties may now be marked with the
@lazy
attribute, which causes their initializer to be evaluated the first time the property is touched instead of when the enclosing type is initialized. For example:func myInitializer() -> Int { println("hello\n"); return 42 } class MyClass { @lazy var aProperty = myInitializer() } var c = MyClass() // doesn't print hello var tmp = c.aProperty // prints hello on first access tmp = c.aProperty // doesn't print on subsequent loads. c = MyClass() // doesn't print hello c.aProperty = 57 // overwriting the value prevents it from ever running
Because lazy properties inherently rely on mutation of the property, they cannot be
let
s. They are currently also limited to being members of structs and classes (they aren't allowed as local or global variables yet) and cannot be observed withwillSet
/didSet
yet. -
Closures can now specify a capture list to indicate with what strength they want to capture a value, and to bind a particular field value if they want to.
Closure capture lists are square-bracket delimited and specified before the (optional) argument list in a closure. Each entry may be specified as
weak
orunowned
to capture the value with a weak or unowned pointer, and may contain an explicit expression if desired. Some examples:takeClosure { print(self.title) } // strong capture takeClosure { [weak self] in print(self!.title) } // weak capture takeClosure { [unowned self] in print(self.title) } // unowned capture
You can also bind arbitrary expression to named values in the capture list. The expression is evaluated when the closure is formed, and captured with the specified strength. For example:
// weak capture of "self.parent" takeClosure { [weak tmp = self.parent] in print(tmp!.title) }
The full form of a closure can take a signature (an argument list and optionally a return type) if needed. To use either the capture list or the signature, you must specify the context sensitive
in
keyword. Here is a (weird because there is no need forunowned
) example of a closure with both:myNSSet.enumerateObjectsUsingBlock { [unowned self] (obj, stop) in self.considerWorkingWith(obj) }
-
The word
with
is now removed from the first keyword argument name if an initialized imported from Objective-C. For example, instead of buildingUIColor
as:UIColor(withRed: r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: a)
it will now be:
UIColor(red: r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: a)
-
Dictionary
can be bridged toNSDictionary
and vice versa:-
NSDictionary
has an implicit conversion toDictionary<NSObject, AnyObject>
. It bridges in O(1), without memory allocation. -
Dictionary<K, V>
has an implicit conversion toNSDictionary
.Dictionary<K, V>
bridges toNSDictionary
iff bothK
andV
are bridged. Otherwise, a runtime error is raised.Depending on
K
andV
the operation can beO(1)
without memory allocation, orO(N)
with memory allocation.
-
-
Single-quoted literals are no longer recognized. Use double-quoted literals and an explicit type annotation to define
Characters
andUnicodeScalars
:var ch: Character = "a" var us: UnicodeScalar = "a"
-
The use of keyword arguments is now strictly enforced at the call site. For example, consider this method along with a call to it:
class MyColor { func mixColorWithRed(red: Float, green: Float, blue: Float) { /* ... */ } } func mix(color: MyColor, r: Float, g: Float, b: Float) { color.mixColorWithRed(r, g, b) }
The compiler will now complain about the missing
green:
andblue:
labels, with a Fix-It to correct the code:color.swift:6:24: error: missing argument labels 'green:blue:' in call color.mixColorWithRed(r, g, b) ^ green: blue:
The compiler handles missing, extraneous, and incorrectly-typed argument labels in the same manner. Recall that one can make a parameter a keyword argument with the back-tick or remove a keyword argument with the underscore.
class MyColor { func mixColor(`red: Float, green: Float, blue: Float) { /* ... */ } func mixColorGuess(red: Float, _ green: Float, _ blue: Float) { /* ... */ } } func mix(color: MyColor, r: Float, g: Float, b: Float) { color.mixColor(red: r, green: g, blue: b) // okay: all keyword arguments color.mixColorGuess(r, g, b) // okay: no keyword arguments }
Arguments cannot be re-ordered unless the corresponding parameters have default arguments. For example, given:
func printNumber(`number: Int, radix: Int = 10, separator: String = ",") { }
The following three calls are acceptable because only the arguments for defaulted parameters are re-ordered relative to each other:
printNumber(number: 256, radix: 16, separator: "_") printNumber(number: 256, separator: "_") printNumber(number: 256, separator: ",", radix: 16)
However, this call:
printNumber(separator: ",", radix: 16, number: 256)
results in an error due to the re-ordering:
printnum.swift:7:40: error: argument 'number' must precede argument 'separator' printNumber(separator: ",", radix: 16, number: 256) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^ ~~~
-
;
can no longer be used to demarcate an empty case in a switch statement, usebreak
instead.
-
The compiler's ability to diagnose many common kinds of type check errors has improved. (
expression does not type-check
has been retired.) -
Ranges can be formed with floating point numbers, e.g.
0.0 .. 100.0
. -
Convenience initializers are now spelled as
convenience init
instead of with the-> Self
syntax. For example:class Foo { init(x : Int) {} // designated initializer convenience init() { self.init(42) } // convenience initializer }
You still cannot declare designated initializers in extensions, only convenience initializers are allowed.
-
Reference types using the CoreFoundation runtime are now imported as class types. This means that Swift will automatically manage the lifetime of a
CFStringRef
the same way that it manages the lifetime of anNSString
.In many common cases, this will just work. Unfortunately, values are returned from
CF
-style APIs in a wide variety of ways, and unlike Objective-C methods, there simply isn't enough consistency for Swift to be able to safely apply the documented conventions universally. The framework teams have already audited many of the most importantCF
-style APIs, and those APIs should be imported without a hitch into Swift. For all the APIs which haven't yet been audited, we must import return types using theUnmanaged
type. This type allows the programmer to control exactly how the object is passed.For example:
// CFBundleGetAllBundles() returns an Unmanaged<CFArrayRef>. // From the documentation, we know that it returns a +0 value. let bundles = CFBundleGetAllBundles().takeUnretainedValue() // CFRunLoopCopyAllModes() returns an Unmanaged<CFArrayRef>. // From the documentation, we know that it returns a +1 value. let modes = CFRunLoopCopyAllModes(CFRunLoopGetMain()).takeRetainedValue()
You can also use
Unmanaged
types to pass and return objects indirectly, as well as to generate unbalanced retains and releases if you really require them.The API of the Unmanaged type is still in flux, and your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
-
The
@NSManaged
attribute can be applied to the properties of anNSManagedObject
subclass to indicate that they should be handled by CoreData:class Employee : NSManagedObject { @NSManaged var name: String @NSManaged var department: Department }
-
The
@weak
and@unowned
attributes have become context sensitive keywords instead of attributes. To declare aweak
orunowned
pointer, use:weak var someOtherWindow : NSWindow? unowned var someWindow : NSWindow
... with no
@
on theweak
/unowned
.
-
Swift now supports a
#elseif
form for build configurations, e.g.:#if os(OSX) typealias SKColor = NSColor #elseif os(iOS) typealias SKColor = UIColor #else typealias SKColor = Green #endif
-
You can now use the
true
andfalse
constants in build configurations, allowing you to emulate the C idioms of#if 0
(but spelled#if false
). -
break
now breaks out of switch statements. -
It is no longer possible to specify
@mutating
as an attribute, you may only use it as a keyword, e.g.:struct Pair { var x, y : Int mutating func nuke() { x = 0; y = 0 } }
The former
@!mutating
syntax used to mark setters as non-mutating is now spelled with thenonmutating
keyword. Both mutating and nonmutating are context sensitive keywords. -
NSLog
is now available from Swift code. -
The parser now correctly handles expressions like
var x = Int[]()
to create an empty array of integers. Previously you'd have to use syntax likeArray<Int>()
to get this. Now that this is all working, please prefer to useInt[]
consistently instead ofArray<Int>
. -
Character
is the new character literal type:var x = 'a' // Infers 'Character' type
You can force inference of
UnicodeScalar
like this:var scalar: UnicodeScalar = 'a'
Character
type represents a Unicode extended grapheme cluster (to put it simply, a grapheme cluster is what users think of as a character: a base plus any combining marks, or other cases explained in Unicode Standard Annex #29).
-
Loops and switch statements can now carry labels, and you can
break
/continue
to those labels. These use conventional C-style label syntax, and should be dedented relative to the code they are in. An example:func breakContinue(x : Int) -> Int { Outer: for a in 0..1000 { Switch: switch x { case 42: break Outer case 97: continue Outer case 102: break Switch case 13: continue // continue always works on loops. case 139: break // break will break out of the switch (but see below) } } }
-
We are changing the behavior of
break
to provide C-style semantics, to allow breaking out of a switch statement. Previously, break completely ignored switches so that it would break out of the nearest loop. In the example above,case 139
would break out of theOuter
loop, not theSwitch
.In order to avoid breaking existing code, we're making this a compile time error instead of a silent behavior change. If you need a solution for the previous behavior, use labeled break.
This error will be removed in a week or two.
-
Cocoa methods and properties that are annotated with the
NS_RETURNS_INNER_POINTER
attribute, including-[NSData bytes]
and-[{NS,UI}Color CGColor]
, are now safe to use and follow the same lifetime extension semantics as ARC.
-
Enabling/disabling of asserts
assert(condition, msg)
is enabled/disabled dependent on the optimization level. In debug mode at
-O0
asserts are enabled. At higher optimization levels asserts are disabled and no code is generated for them. However, asserts are always type checked even at higher optimization levels.Alternatively, assertions can be disabled/enabled by using the frontend flag
-assert-config Debug
, or-assert-config Release
. -
Added optimization flag
-Ofast
. It disables all assertions (assert
), and runtime overflow and type checks. -
The "selector-style" function and initializer declaration syntax is being phased out. For example, this:
init withRed(red: CGFloat) green(CGFloat) blue(CGFloat) alpha(CGFloat)
will now be written as:
init(withRed red: CGFloat, green: CGFloat, blue: CGFloat, alpha: CGFloat)
For each parameter, one can have both an argument API name (i.e.,
withRed
, which comes first and is used at the call site) and an internal parameter name that follows it (i.e.red
, which comes second and is used in the implementation). When the two names are the same, one can simply write the name once and it will be used for both roles (as withgreen
,blue
, andalpha
above). The underscore (_
) can be used to mean "no name", as when the following function/method:func murderInRoom(room:String) withWeapon(weapon: String)
is translated to:
func murderInRoom(_ room: String, withWeapon weapon: String)
The compiler now complains when it sees the selector-style syntax and will provide Fix-Its to rewrite to the newer syntax.
Note that the final form of selector syntax is still being hammered out, but only having one declaration syntax, which will be very close to this, is a known.
-
Stored properties can now be marked with the
@NSCopying
attribute, which causes their setter to be synthesized with a copy tocopyWithZone:
. This may only be used with types that conform to theNSCopying
protocol, or option types thereof. For example:@NSCopying var myURL : NSURL
This fills the same niche as the (
copy
) attribute on Objective-C properties.
-
Optional variables and properties are now default-initialized to
nil
:class MyClass { var cachedTitle: String? // "= nil" is implied }
-
@IBOutlet
has been improved in a few ways:-
IBOutlets
can now be@unchecked
optional. -
An
IBOutlet
declared as non-optional, i.e.,@IBOutlet var button: NSButton
will be treated as an
@unchecked
optional. This is considered to be the best practice way to write an outlet, unless you want to explicitly handle the null case - in which case, useNSButton?
as the type. Either way, the= nil
that was formerly required is now implicit.
-
-
The precedence of
is
andas
is now higher than comparisons, allowing the following sorts of things to be written without parens:if x is NSButton && y is NSButtonCell { ... } if 3/4 as Float == 6/8 as Float { ... }
-
Objective-C blocks are now transparently bridged to Swift closures. You never have to write
@objc_block
when writing Objective-C-compatible methods anymore. Block parameters are now imported as unchecked optional closure types, allowingnil
to be passed.
-
Dictionary
changes:-
Elements
are now tuples, so you can writefor (k, v) in d { // ... }
-
keys
andvalues
properties, which areCollections
projecting the corresponding aspect of each element.Dictionary
indices are usable with theirkeys
andvalues
properties, so:for i in indices(d) { let (k, v) = d[i] assert(k == d.keys[i]) assert(v == d.values[i]) }
-
-
Semicolon can be used as a single no-op statement in otherwise empty cases in
switch
statements:switch x { case 1, 2, 3: print("x is 1, 2 or 3") default: ; }
-
override
is now a context sensitive keyword, instead of an attribute:class Base { var property: Int { return 0 } func instanceFunc() {} class func classFunc() {} } class Derived : Base { override var property: Int { return 1 } override func instanceFunc() {} override class func classFunc() {} }
-
Prefix splitting for imported enums has been revised again due to feedback:
- If stripping off a prefix would leave an invalid identifier (like
10_4
), leave one more word in the result than would otherwise be there (Behavior10_4
). - If all enumerators have a
k
prefix (forconstant
) and the enum doesn't, thek
should not be considered when finding the common prefix. - If the enum name is a plural (like
NSSomethingOptions
) and the enumerator names use the singular form (NSSomethingOptionMagic
), this is considered a matching prefix (but only if nothing follows the plural).
- If stripping off a prefix would leave an invalid identifier (like
-
Cocoa APIs that take pointers to plain C types as arguments now get imported as taking the new
CMutablePointer<T>
andCConstPointer<T>
types instead ofUnsafePointer<T>
. These new types allow implicit conversions from Swiftinout
parameters and from Swift arrays:let rgb = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB() // CGColorRef CGColorCreate(CGColorSpaceRef, const CGFloat*); let white = CGColorCreate(rgb, [1.0, 1.0, 1.0]) var s = 0.0, c = 0.0 // void sincos(double, double*, double*); sincos(M_PI/2, &s, &c)
Pointers to pointers to ObjC classes, such as
NSError**
, get imported asObjCMutablePointer<NSError?>
. This type doesn't work with arrays, but accepts inouts ornil
:var error: NSError? let words = NSString.stringWithContentsOfFile("/usr/share/dict/words", encoding: .UTF8StringEncoding, error: &error)
Void
pointer parameters can be passed an array or inout of any type:// + (NSData*)dataWithBytes:(const void*)bytes length:(NSUInteger)length; let data = NSData.dataWithBytes([1.5, 2.25, 3.125], length: sizeof(Double.self) * 3) var fromData = [0.0, 0.0, 0.0] // - (void)getBytes:(void*)bytes length:(NSUInteger)length; data.getBytes(&fromData, length: sizeof(Double.self) * 3)
Note that we don't know whether an API reads or writes the C pointer, so you need to explicitly initialize values (like
s
andc
above) even if you know that the API overwrites them.This pointer bridging only applies to arguments, and only works with well- behaved C and ObjC APIs that don't keep the pointers they receive as arguments around or do other dirty pointer tricks. Nonstandard use of pointer arguments still requires
UnsafePointer
. -
Objective-C pointer types now get imported by default as the
@unchecked T?
optional type. Swift class types no longer implicitly includenil
.A value of
@unchecked T?
can be implicitly used as a value ofT
. Swift will implicitly cause a reliable failure if the value isnil
, rather than introducing undefined behavior (as in Objective-C ivar accesses or everything in C/C++) or silently ignoring the operation (as in Objective-C message sends).A value of
@unchecked T?
can also be implicitly used as a value ofT?
, allowing you explicitly handle the case of anil
value. For example, if you would like to just silently ignore a message send a la Objective-C, you can use the postfix?
operator like so:fieldsForKeys[kHeroFieldKey]?.setEditable(true)
This design allows you to isolate and handle
nil
values in Swift code without requiring excessive "bookkeeping" boilerplate to use values that you expect to be non-nil
.For now, we will continue to import C pointers as non-optional
UnsafePointer
andC*Pointer
types; that will be evaluated separately.We intend to provide attributes for Clang to allow APIs to opt in to importing specific parameters, return types, etc. as either the explicit optional type
T?
or the simple non-optional typeT
. -
The "separated" call syntax, i.e.,
NSColor.colorWithRed(r) green(g) blue(b) alpha(a) UIColor.init withRed(r) green(g) blue(b) alpha(a)
is being removed. The compiler will now produce an error and provide Fix-Its to rewrite calls to the "keyword-argument" syntax:
NSColor.colorWithRed(r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: a) UIColor(withRed: r, green:g, blue:b, alpha: a)
-
The
objc
attribute now optionally accepts a name, which can be used to provide the name for an entity as seen in Objective-C. For example:class MyType { var enabled: Bool { @objc(isEnabled) get { // ... } } }
The
@objc
attribute can be used to name initializers, methods, getters, setters, classes, and protocols. -
Methods, properties and subscripts in classes can now be marked with the
@final
attribute. This attribute prevents overriding the declaration in any subclass, and provides better performance (since dynamic dispatch is avoided in many cases).
-
Attributes on declarations are no longer comma separated.
Old syntax:
@_silgen_name("foo"), @objc func bar() {}
New syntax:
@_silgen_name("foo") @objc
The
,
was vestigial when the attribute syntax consisted of bracket lists. -
switch
now always requires a statement after acase
ordefault
.Old syntax:
switch x { case .A: case .B(1): println(".A or .B(1)") default: // Ignore it. }
New syntax:
switch x { case .A, .B(1): println(".A or .B(1)") default: () // Ignore it. }
The following syntax can be used to introduce guard expressions for patterns inside the
case
:switch x { case .A where isFoo(), .B(1) where isBar(): ... }
-
Observing properties can now
@override
properties in a base class, so you can observe changes that happen to them.class MyAwesomeView : SomeBasicView { @override var enabled : Bool { didSet { println("Something changed") } } ... }
Observing properties still invoke the base class getter/setter (or storage) when accessed.
-
An
as
cast can now be forced using the postfix!
operator without using parens:class B {} class D {} let b: B = D() // Before let d1: D = (b as D)! // After let d2: D = b as D!
Casts can also be chained without parens:
// Before let b2: B = (((D() as B) as D)!) as B // After let b3: B = D() as B as D! as B
-
as
can now be used inswitch
cases to match the result of a checked cast:func printHand(hand: Any) { switch hand { case 1 as Int: print("ace") case 11 as Int: print("jack") case 12 as Int: print("queen") case 13 as Int: print("king") case let numberCard as Int: print("\(numberCard)") case let (a, b) as (Int, Int) where a == b: print("two ") printHand(a) print("s") case let (a, b) as (Int, Int): printHand(a) print(" and a ") printHand(b) case let (a, b, c) as (Int, Int, Int) where a == b && b == c: print("three ") printHand(a) print("s") case let (a, b, c) as (Int, Int, Int): printHand(a) print(", ") printHand(b) print(", and a ") printHand(c) default: print("unknown hand") } } printHand(1, 1, 1) // prints "three aces" printHand(12, 13) // prints "queen and a king"
-
Enums and option sets imported from C/Objective-C still strip common prefixes, but the name of the enum itself is now taken into consideration as well. This keeps us from dropping important parts of a name that happen to be shared by all members.
// NSFileManager.h typedef NS_OPTIONS(NSUInteger, NSDirectoryEnumerationOptions) { NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsSubdirectoryDescendants = 1UL << 0, NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsPackageDescendants = 1UL << 1, NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsHiddenFiles = 1UL << 2 } NS_ENUM_AVAILABLE(10_6, 4_0);
// Swift let opts: NSDirectoryEnumerationOptions = .SkipsPackageDescendants
-
init
methods in Objective-C protocols are now imported as initializers. To conform toNSCoding
, you will now need to provideinit withCoder(aDecoder: NSCoder) { ... }
rather than
func initWithCoder(aDecoder: NSCoder) { ... }
-
When a class provides no initializers of its own but has default values for all of its stored properties, it will automatically inherit all of the initializers of its superclass. For example:
class Document { var title: String init() -> Self { self.init(withTitle: "Default title") } init withTitle(title: String) { self.title = title } } class VersionedDocument : Document { var version = 0 // inherits 'init' and 'init withTitle:' from Document }
When one does provide a designated initializer in a subclass, as in the following example:
class SecureDocument : Document { var key: CryptoKey init withKey(key: CryptoKey) -> Self { self.init(withKey: key, title: "Default title") } init withKey(key: CryptoKey) title(String) { self.key = key super.init(withTitle: title) } }
the compiler emits Objective-C method stubs for all of the designated initializers of the parent class that will abort at runtime if called, and which indicate which initializer needs to be implemented. This provides memory safety for cases where an Objective-C initializer (such as
-[Document init]
in this example) appears to be inherited, but isn't actually implemented. -
nil
may now be used as a Selector value. This allows calls to Cocoa methods that acceptnil
selectors. -
[]
and[:]
can now be used as the empty array and dictionary literal, respectively. Because these carry no information about their element types, they may only be used in a context that provides this information through type inference (e.g. when passing a function argument). -
Properties defined in classes are now dynamically dispatched and can be overridden with
@override
. Currently@override
only works with computed properties overriding other computed properties, but this will be enhanced in coming weeks.
-
The
didSet
accessor of an observing property now gets passed in the old value, so you can easily implement an action for when a property changes value. For example:class MyAwesomeView : UIView { var enabled : Bool = false { didSet(oldValue): if oldValue != enabled { self.needsDisplay = true } } ... }
-
The implicit argument name for set and willSet property specifiers has been renamed from
(value)
to(newValue)
. For example:var i : Int { get { return 42 } set { // defaults to (newValue) instead of (value) print(newValue) } }
-
The magic identifier
__FUNCTION__
can now be used to get the name of the current function as a string. Like__FILE__
and__LINE__
, if__FUNCTION__
is used as a default argument, the function name of the caller is passed as the argument.func malkovich() { println(__FUNCTION__) } malkovich() // prints "malkovich" func nameCaller(name: String = __FUNCTION__) -> String { return name } func foo() { println(nameCaller()) // prints "foo" } func foo(x: Int) bar(y: Int) { println(nameCaller()) // prints "foo:bar:" }
At top level,
__FUNCTION__
gives the module name:println(nameCaller()) // prints your module name
-
Selector-style methods can now be referenced without applying arguments using member syntax
foo.bar:bas:
, for instance, to test for the availability of an optional protocol method:func getFrameOfObjectValueForColumn(ds: NSTableViewDataSource, tableView: NSTableView, column: NSTableColumn, row: Int) -> AnyObject? { if let getObjectValue = ds.tableView:objectValueForTableColumn:row: { return getObjectValue(tableView, column, row) } return nil }
-
The compiler now warns about cases where a variable is inferred to have
AnyObject
,AnyClass
, or()
type, since type inference can turn a simple mistake (e.g. failing to cast anAnyObject
when you meant to) into something with ripple effects. Here is a simple example:t.swift:4:5: warning: variable 'fn' inferred to have type '()', which may be unexpected var fn = abort() ^ t.swift:4:5: note: add an explicit type annotation to silence this warning var fn = abort() ^ : ()
If you actually did intend to declare a variable of one of these types, you can silence this warning by adding an explicit type (indicated by the Fixit). See rdar://15263687 and rdar://16252090 for more rationale.
-
x.type
has been renamed tox.dynamicType
, and you can usetype
as a regular identifier again.
-
C macros that expand to a single constant string are now imported as global constants. Normal string literals are imported as
CString
;NSString
literals are imported asString
. -
All values now have a
self
property, exactly equivalent to the value itself:let x = 0 let x2 = x.self
Types also have a
self
property that is the type object for that type:let theClass = NSObject.self let theObj = theClass()
References to type names are now disallowed outside of a constructor call or member reference; to get a type object as a value,
T.self
is required. This prevents the mistake of intending to construct an instance of a class but forgetting the parens and ending up with the class object instead:let x = MyObject // oops, I meant MyObject()... return x.description() // ...and I accidentally called +description // instead of -description
-
Initializers are now classified as designated initializers, which are responsible for initializing the current class object and chaining via
super.init
, and convenience initializers, which delegate to another initializer and can be inherited. For example:class A { var str: String init() -> Self { // convenience initializer self.init(withString: "hello") } init withString(str: String) { // designated initializer self.str = str } }
When a subclass overrides all of its superclass's designated initializers, the convenience initializers are inherited:
class B { init withString(str: String) { // designated initializer super.init(withString: str) } // inherits A.init() }
Objective-C classes that provide
NS_DESIGNATED_INITIALIZER
annotations will have their init methods mapped to designated initializers or convenience initializers as appropriate; Objective-C classes withoutNS_DESIGNATED_INITIALIZER
annotations have all of theirinit
methods imported as designated initializers, which is safe (but can be verbose for subclasses). Note that the syntax and terminology is still somewhat in flux. -
Initializers can now be marked as
required
with an attribute, meaning that every subclass is required to provide that initializer either directly or by inheriting it from a superclass. To constructclass View { @required init withFrame(frame: CGRect) { ... } } func buildView(subclassObj: View.Type, frame: CGRect) -> View { return subclassObj(withFrame: frame) } class MyView : View { @required init withFrame(frame: CGRect) { super.init(withFrame: frame) } } class MyOtherView : View { // error: must override init withFrame(CGRect). }
-
Properties in Objective-C protocols are now correctly imported as properties. (Previously the getter and setter were imported as methods.)
-
Simple enums with no payloads, including
NS_ENUM
s imported from Cocoa, now implicitly conform to the Equatable and Hashable protocols. This means they can be compared with the==
and!=
operators and can be used asDictionary
keys:enum Flavor { case Lemon, Banana, Cherry } assert(Flavor.Lemon == .Lemon) assert(Flavor.Banana != .Lemon) struct Profile { var sweet, sour: Bool } let flavorProfiles: Dictionary<Flavor, Profile> = [ .Lemon: Profile(sweet: false, sour: true ), .Banana: Profile(sweet: true, sour: false), .Cherry: Profile(sweet: true, sour: true ), ] assert(flavorProfiles[.Lemon].sour)
-
val
has been removed. Long livelet
! -
Values whose names clash with Swift keywords, such as Cocoa methods or properties named
class
,protocol
,type
, etc., can now be defined and accessed by wrapping reserved keywords in backticks to suppress their builtin meaning:let `class` = 0 let `type` = 1 let `protocol` = 2 println(`class`) println(`type`) println(`protocol`) func foo(Int) `class`(Int) {} foo(0, `class`: 1)
-
The
override
attribute is now required when overriding a method, property, or subscript from a superclass. For example:class A { func foo() { } } class B : A { @override func foo() { } // 'override' is required here }
-
We're renaming
val
back tolet
. The compiler accepts both for this week, next week it will just acceptlet
. Please migrate your code this week, sorry for the back and forth on this. -
Swift now supports
#if
,#else
and#endif
blocks, along with target configuration expressions, to allow for conditional compilation within declaration and statement contexts.Target configurations represent certain static information about the compile-time build environment. They are implicit, hard-wired into the compiler, and can only be referenced within the conditional expression of an
#if
block.Target configurations are tested against their values via a pseudo-function invocation expression, taking a single argument expressed as an identifier. The argument represents certain static build-time information.
There are currently two supported target configurations:
os
, which can have the valuesOSX
oriOS
arch
, which can have the valuesi386
,x86_64
,arm
andarm64
Within the context of an
#if
block's conditional expression, a target configuration expression can evaluate to eithertrue
orfalse
.For example:
#if arch(x86_64) println("Building for x86_64") #else println("Not building for x86_64") #endif class C { #if os(OSX) func foo() { // OSX stuff goes here } #else func foo() { // non-OSX stuff goes here } #endif }
The conditional expression of an
#if
block can be composed of one or more of the following expression types:- A unary expression, using
!
- A binary expression, using
&&
or||
- A parenthesized expression
- A target configuration expression
For example:
#if os(iOS) && !arch(I386) ... #endif
Note that
#if
/#else
/#endif
blocks do not constitute a preprocessor, and must form valid and complete expressions or statements. Hence, the following produces a parser error:class C { #if os(iOS) func foo() {} } #else func bar() {} func baz() {} } #endif
Also note that "active" code will be parsed, typechecked and emitted, while "inactive" code will only be parsed. This is why code in an inactive
#if
or#else
block will produce parser errors for malformed code. This allows the compiler to detect basic errors in inactive regions.This is the first step to getting functionality parity with the important subset of the C preprocessor. Further refinements are planned for later.
- A unary expression, using
-
Swift now has both fully-closed ranges, which include their endpoint, and half-open ranges, which don't.
(swift) for x in 0...5 { print(x) } ; print('\n') // half-open range 01234 (swift) for x in 0..5 { print(x) } ; print('\n') // fully-closed range 012345
-
Property accessors have a new brace-based syntax, instead of using the former "label like" syntax. The new syntax is:
var computedProperty: Int { get { return _storage } set { _storage = value } } var implicitGet: Int { // This form still works. return 42 } var storedPropertyWithObservingAccessors: Int = 0 { willSet { ... } didSet { ... } }
-
Properties and subscripts now work in protocols, allowing you to do things like:
protocol Subscriptable { subscript(idx1: Int, idx2: Int) -> Int { get set } var prop: Int { get } } func foo(s: Subscriptable) { return s.prop + s[42, 19] }
These can be used for generic algorithms now as well.
-
The syntax for referring to the type of a type,
T.metatype
, has been changed toT.Type
. The syntax for getting the type of a value,typeof(x)
, has been changed tox.type
. -
DynamicSelf
is now calledSelf
; the semantics are unchanged. -
destructor
has been replaced withdeinit
, to emphasize that it is related toinit
. We will refer to these asdeinitializers
. We've also dropped the parentheses, i.e.:class MyClass { deinit { // release any resources we might have acquired, etc. } }
-
Class methods defined within extensions of Objective-C classes can now refer to
self
, including usinginstancetype
methods. As a result,NSMutableString
,NSMutableArray
, andNSMutableDictionary
objects can now be created with their respective literals, i.e.,var dict: NSMutableDictionary = ["a" : 1, "b" : 2]
-
The
Stream
protocol has been renamed back toGenerator,
which is precedented in other languages and causes less confusion with I/O streaming. -
The
type
keyword was split into two:static
andclass
. One can define static functions and static properties in structs and enums like this:struct S { static func foo() {} static var bar: Int = 0 } enum E { static func foo() {} }
class
keyword allows one to define class properties and class methods in classes and protocols:class C { class func foo() {} class var bar: Int = 0 } protocol P { class func foo() {} class var bar: Int = 0 }
When using
class
andstatic
in the extension, the choice of keyword depends on the type being extended:extension S { static func baz() {} } extension C { class func baz() {} }
-
The
let
keyword is no longer recognized. Please move toval
. -
The standard library has been renamed to
Swift
(instead ofswift
) to be more consistent with other modules on our platforms. -
NSInteger
and other types that are layout-compatible with Swift standard library types are now imported directly as those standard library types. -
Optional types now support a convenience method named "cache" to cache the result of a closure. For example:
class Foo { var _lazyProperty: Int? var property: Int { return _lazyProperty.cache { computeLazyProperty() } } }
-
We are experimenting with a new message send syntax. For example:
SKAction.colorizeWithColor(SKColor.whiteColor()) colorBlendFactor(1.0) duration(0.0)
When the message send is too long to fit on a single line, subsequent lines must be indented from the start of the statement or declaration. For example, this is a single message send:
SKAction.colorizeWithColor(SKColor.whiteColor()) colorBlendFactor(1.0) duration(0.0)
while this is a message send to colorizeWithColor: followed by calls to
colorBlendFactor
andduration
(on self or to a global function):SKAction.colorizeWithColor(SKColor.whiteColor()) colorBlendFactor(1.0) // call to 'colorBlendFactor' duration(0.0) // call to 'duration'
-
We are renaming the
let
keyword toval
. Thelet
keyword didn't work out primarily because it is not a noun, so "defining a let" never sounded right. We choseval
overconst
and other options becausevar
andval
have similar semantics (making syntactic similarity useful), becauseconst
has varied and sordid connotations in C that we don't want to bring over, and because we don't want to punish the "preferred" case with a longer keyword.For migration purposes, the compiler now accepts
let
andval
as synonyms,let
will be removed next week. -
Selector arguments in function arguments with only a type are now implicitly named after the selector chunk that contains them. For example, instead of:
func addIntsWithFirst(first : Int) second(second : Int) -> Int { return first+second }
you can now write:
func addIntsWithFirst(first : Int) second(Int) -> Int { return first+second }
if you want to explicitly want to ignore an argument, it is recommended that you continue to use the
_
to discard it, as in:func addIntsWithFirst(first : Int) second(_ : Int) -> Int {...}
-
The
@inout
attribute in argument lists has been promoted to a context-sensitive keyword. Where before you might have written:func swap<T>(a : @inout T, b : @inout T) { (a, b) = (b, a) }
You are now required to write:
func swap<T>(inout a : T, inout b : T) { (a, b) = (b, a) }
We made this change because
inout
is a fundamental part of the type system, which attributes are a poor match for. The inout keyword is also orthogonal to thevar
andlet
keywords (which may be specified in the same place), so it fits naturally there. -
The
@mutating
attribute (which can be used on functions in structs, enums, and protocols) has been promoted to a context-sensitive keyword. Mutating struct methods are now written as:struct SomeStruct { mutating func f() {} }
-
Half-open ranges (those that don't include their endpoint) are now spelled with three
.
s instead of two, for consistency with Ruby.(swift) for x in 0...5 { print(x) } ; print('\n') // new syntax 01234
Next week, we'll introduce a fully-closed range which does include its endpoint. This will provide:
(swift) for x in 0..5 { print(x) } ; print('\n') // coming soon 012345
These changes are being released separately so that users have a chance to update their code before its semantics changes.
-
Objective-C properties with custom getters/setters are now imported into Swift as properties. For example, the Objective-C property
@property (getter=isEnabled) BOOL enabled;
was previously imported as getter (
isEnabled
) and setter (setEnabled
) methods. Now, it is imported as a property (enabled
). -
didSet
/willSet
properties may now have an initial value specified:class MyAwesomeView : UIView { var enabled : Bool = false { // Initial value. didSet: self.needsDisplay = true } ... }
they can also be used as non-member properties now, e.g. as a global variable or a local variable in a function.
-
Objective-C instancetype methods are now imported as methods that return Swift's
DynamicSelf
type. WhileDynamicSelf
is not generally useful for defining methods in Swift, importing to it eliminates the need for casting with the numerousinstancetype
APIs, e.g.,let tileNode: SKSpriteNode = SKSpriteNode.spriteNodeWithTexture(tileAtlas.textureNamed("tile\(tileNumber).png"))!
becomes
let tileNode = SKSpriteNode.spriteNodeWithTexture(tileAtlas.textureNamed("tile\(tileNumber).png"))
DynamicSelf
will become more interesting in the coming weeks.
-
if
andwhile
statements can now conditionally bind variables. If the condition of anif
orwhile
statement is alet
declaration, then the right-hand expression is evaluated as anOptional
value, and control flow proceeds by considering the binding to betrue
if theOptional
contains a value, orfalse
if it is empty, and the variables are available in the true branch. This allows for elegant testing of dynamic types, methods, nullable pointers, and other Optional things:class B : NSObject {} class D : B { func foo() { println("we have a D") } } var b: B = D() if let d = b as D { d.foo() } var id: AnyObject = D() if let foo = id.foo { foo() }
-
When referring to a member of an
AnyObject
(orAnyClass
) object and using it directly (such as calling it, subscripting, or accessing a property on it), one no longer has to write the?
or!
. The run-time check will be performed implicitly. For example:func doSomethingOnViews(views: NSArray) { for view in views { view.updateLayer() // no '!' needed } }
Note that one can still test whether the member is available at runtime using
?
, testing the optional result, or conditionally binding a variable to the resulting member. -
The
swift
command line tool can now create executables and libraries directly, just like Clang. Useswift main.swift
to create an executable andswift -emit-library -o foo.dylib foo.swift
to create a library. -
Object files emitted by Swift are not debuggable on their own, even if you compiled them with the
-g
option. This was already true if you had multiple files in your project. To produce a debuggable Swift binary from the command line, you must compile and link in a single step withswift
, or pass object files AND swiftmodule files back intoswift
after compilation. (Or use Xcode.) -
import
will no longer import other source files, only built modules. -
The current directory is no longer implicitly an import path. Use
-I .
if you have modules in your current directory.
-
Properties in structs and classes may now have
willSet:
anddidSet:
observing accessors defined on them:For example, where before you may have written something like this in a class:
class MyAwesomeView : UIView { var _enabled : Bool // storage var enabled : Bool { // computed property get: return _enabled set: _enabled = value self.needDisplay = true } ... }
you can now simply write:
class MyAwesomeView : UIView { var enabled : Bool { // Has storage & observing methods didSet: self.needDisplay = true } ... }
Similarly, if you want notification before the value is stored, you can use
willSet
, which gets the incoming value before it is stored:var x : Int { willSet(value): // value is the default and may be elided, as with set: println("changing from \(x) to \(value)") didSet: println("we've got a value of \(x) now.\n") }
The
willSet
/didSet
observers are triggered on any store to the property, except stores frominit()
, destructors, or from within the observers themselves.Overall, a property now may either be "stored" (the default), "computed" (have a
get:
and optionally aset:
specifier), or an observed (willSet
/didSet
) property. It is not possible to have a custom getter or setter on an observed property, since they have storage.Two known-missing bits are:
- (rdar://problem/15920332) didSet/willSet variables need to allow initializers
- (rdar://problem/15922884) support non-member didset/willset properties
Because of the first one, for now, you need to explicitly store an initial value to the property in your
init()
method. -
Objective-C properties with custom getter or setter names are (temporarily) not imported into Swift; the getter and setter will be imported individually as methods instead. Previously, they would appear as properties within the Objective-C class, but attempting to use the accessor with the customized name would result in a crash.
The long-term fix is tracked as (rdar://problem/15877160).
-
Computed 'type' properties (that is, properties of types, rather than of values of the type) are now permitted on classes, on generic structs and enums, and in extensions. Stored 'type' properties in these contexts remain unimplemented.
The implementation of stored 'type' properties is tracked as (rdar://problem/15915785) (for classes) and (rdar://problem/15915867) (for generic types).
-
The following command-line flags have been deprecated in favor of new spellings. The old spellings will be removed in the following week's build:
Old Spelling New Spelling -emit-llvm
-emit-ir
-triple
-target
-serialize-diagnostics
-serialize-diagnostics-path
-
Imported
NS_OPTIONS
types now have a default initializer which produces a value with no options set. They can also be initialized to the empty set withnil
. These are equivalent:var x = NSMatchingOptions() var y: NSMatchingOptions = nil
-
The swift binary no longer has an SDK set by default. Instead, you must do one of the following:
- pass an explicit
-sdk /path/to/sdk
- set
SDKROOT
in your environment - run
swift
throughxcrun
, which setsSDKROOT
for you
- pass an explicit
-
let
declarations can now be used as struct/class properties. Alet
property is mutable withininit()
, and immutable everywhere else.class C { let x = 42 let y : Int init(y : Int) { self.y = y // ok, self.y is mutable in init() } func test() { y = 42 // error: 'y' isn't mutable } }
-
The immutability model for structs and enums is complete, and arguments are immutable by default. This allows the compiler to reject mutations of temporary objects, catching common bugs. For example, this is rejected:
func setTo4(a : Double[]) { a[10] = 4.0 // error: 'a' isn't mutable } ... setTo4(someArray)
since
a
is semantically a copy of the array passed into the function. The proper fix in this case is to mark the argument is@inout
, so the effect is visible in the caller:func setTo4(a : @inout Double[]) { a[10] = 4.0 // ok: 'a' is a mutable reference } ... setTo4(&someArray)
Alternatively, if you really just want a local copy of the argument, you can mark it
var
. The effects aren't visible in the caller, but this can be convenient in some cases:func doStringStuff(var s : String) { s += "foo" print(s) }
-
Objective-C instance variables are no longer imported from headers written in Objective-C. Previously, they would appear as properties within the Objective-C class, but trying to access them would result in a crash. Additionally, their names can conflict with property names, which confuses the Swift compiler, and there are no patterns in our frameworks that expect you to access a parent or other class's instance variables directly. Use properties instead.
-
The
NSObject
protocol is now imported under the nameNSObjectProtocol
(rather thanNSObjectProto
).
-
Improved deallocation of Swift classes that inherit from Objective-C classes: Swift destructors are implemented as
-dealloc
methods that automatically call the superclass's-dealloc
. Stored properties are released right before the object is deallocated (using the same mechanism as ARC), allowing properties to be safely used in destructors. -
Subclasses of
NSManagedObject
are now required to provide initial values for each of their stored properties. This permits initialization of these stored properties directly after +alloc to provide memory safety with CoreData's dynamic subclassing scheme. -
let
declarations are continuing to make slow progress. Curried and selector-style arguments are now immutable by default, andlet
declarations now get proper debug information.
-
The
static
keyword changed totype
. One can now define "type functions" and "type variables" which are functions and variables defined on a type (rather than on an instance of the type), e.g.,class X { type func factory() -> X { ... } type var version: Int }
The use of
static
was actively misleading, since type methods on classes are dynamically dispatched (the same as Objective-C+
methods).Note that
type
is a context-sensitive keyword; it can still be used as an identifier. -
Strings have a new native UTF-16 representation that can be converted back and forth to
NSString
at minimal cost. String literals are emitted as UTF-16 for string types that support it (including Swift'sString
). -
Initializers can now delegate to other initializers within the same class by calling
self.init
. For example:class A { } class B : A { var title: String init() { // note: cannot access self before delegating self.init(withTitle: "My Title") } init withTitle(title: String) { self.title = title super.init() } }
-
Objective-C protocols no longer have the
Proto
suffix unless there is a collision with a class name. For example,UITableViewDelegate
is now imported asUITableViewDelegate
rather thanUITableViewDelegateProto
. Where there is a conflict with a class, the protocol will be suffixed withProto
, as inNSObject
(the class) andNSObjectProto
(the protocol).
-
Happy New Year
-
Division and remainder arithmetic now trap on overflow. Like with the other operators, one can use the "masking" alternatives to get non-trapping behavior. The behavior of the non-trapping masking operators is defined:
x &/ 0 == 0 x &% 0 == 0 SIGNED_MIN_FOR_TYPE &/ -1 == -1 // i.e. Int8: -0x80 / -1 == -0x80 SIGNED_MIN_FOR_TYPE &% -1 == 0
-
Protocol conformance checking for
@mutating
methods is now implemented: an@mutating
struct method only fulfills a protocol requirement if the protocol method was itself marked@mutating
:protocol P { func nonmutating() @mutating func mutating() } struct S : P { // Error, @mutating method cannot implement non-@mutating requirement. @mutating func nonmutating() {} // Ok, mutating allowed, but not required. func mutating() {} }
As before, class methods never need to be marked
@mutating
(and indeed, they aren't allowed to be marked as such).
-
Merry Christmas
-
The setters of properties on value types (structs/enums) are now
@mutating
by default. To mark a setter non-mutating, use the@!mutating
attribute. -
Compiler inserts calls to
super.init()
into the class initializers that do not call any initializers explicitly. -
A
map
method with the semantics of Haskell'sfmap
was added toArray<T>
. Map applies a functionf: T->U
to the values stored in the array and returns an Array. So,(swift) func names(x: Int[]) -> String[] { return x.map { "<" + String($0) + ">" } } (swift) names(Array<Int>()) // r0 : String[] = [] (swift) names([3, 5, 7, 9]) // r1 : String[] = ["<3>", "<5>", "<7>", "<9>"]
-
Global variables and static properties are now lazily initialized on first use. Where you would use
dispatch_once
to lazily initialize a singleton object in Objective-C, you can simply declare a global variable with an initializer in Swift. Likedispatch_once
, this lazy initialization is thread safe.Unlike C++ global variable constructors, Swift global variables and static properties now never emit static constructors (and thereby don't raise build warnings). Also unlike C++, lazy initialization naturally follows dependency order, so global variable initializers that cross module boundaries don't have undefined behavior or fragile link order dependencies.
-
Swift has the start of an immutability model for value types. As part of this, you can now declare immutable value bindings with a new
let
declaration, which is semantically similar to defining a get-only property:let x = foo() print(x) // ok x = bar() // error: cannot modify an immutable value swap(&x, &y) // error: cannot pass an immutable value as @inout parameter x.clear() // error: cannot call mutating method on immutable value getX().clear() // error: cannot mutate a temporary
In the case of bindings of class type, the bound object itself is still mutable, but you cannot change the binding.
let r = Rocket() r.blastOff() // Ok, your rocket is mutable. r = Rocket() // error: cannot modify an immutable binding.
In addition to the
let
declaration itself,self
on classes, and a few other minor things have switched to immutable bindings.A pivotal part of this is that methods of value types (structs and enums) need to indicate whether they can mutate self - mutating methods need to be disallowed on let values (and get-only property results, temporaries, etc) but non-mutating methods need to be allowed. The default for a method is that it does not mutate
self
, though you can opt into mutating behavior with a new@mutating
attribute:struct MyWeirdCounter { var count : Int func empty() -> Bool { return count == 0 } @mutating func reset() { count = 0 } ... } let x = MyWeirdCounter() x.empty() // ok x.reset() // error, cannot mutate immutable 'let' value
One missing piece is that the compiler does not yet reject mutations of self in a method that isn't marked
@mutating
. That will be coming soon. Related to methods are properties. Getters and setters can be marked mutating as well:extension MyWeirdCounter { var myproperty : Int { get: return 42 @mutating set: count = value*2 } }
The intention is for setters to default to mutating, but this has not been implemented yet. There is more to come here.
-
A
map
method with the semantics of Haskell'sfmap
was added toOptional<T>
. Map applies a functionf: T->U
to any value stored in anOptional<T>
, and returns anOptional<U>
. So,(swift) func nameOf(x: Int?) -> String? { return x.map { "<" + String($0) + ">" } } (swift) (swift) var no = nameOf(.None) // Empty optional in... // no : String? = <unprintable value> (swift) no ? "yes" : "no" // ...empty optional out // r0 : String = "no" (swift) (swift) nameOf(.Some(42)) // Non-empty in // r1 : String? = <unprintable value> (swift) nameOf(.Some(42))! // Non-empty out // r2 : String = "<42>"
-
Cocoa types declared with the
NS_OPTIONS
macro are now available in Swift. LikeNS_ENUM
types, their values are automatically shortened based on the common prefix of the value names in Objective-C, and the name can be elided when type context provides it. They can be used inif
statements using the&
,|
,^
, and~
operators as in C:var options: NSJSONWritingOptions = .PrettyPrinted if options & .PrettyPrinted { println("pretty-printing enabled") }
We haven't yet designed a convenient way to author
NS_OPTIONS
-like types in Swift.
-
Objective-C
id
is now imported asAnyObject
(formerly known asDynamicLookup
), Objective-CClass
is imported asAnyClass
. -
The casting syntax
x as T
now permits both implicit conversions (in which case it produces a value of typeT
) and for runtime-checked casts (in which case it produces a value of typeT?
that will be.Some(casted x)
on success and.None
on failure). An example:func f(x: AnyObject, y: NSControl) { var view = y as NSView // has type 'NSView' var maybeView = x as NSView // has type NSView? }
-
The precedence levels of binary operators has been redefined, with a much simpler model than C's. This is with a goal to define away classes of bugs such as those caught by Clang's
-Wparentheses
warnings, and to make it actually possible for normal humans to reason about the precedence relationships without having to look them up.We ended up with 6 levels, from tightest binding to loosest:
exponentiative: <<, >> multiplicative: *, /, %, & additive: +, -, |, ^ comparative: ==, !=, <, <=, >=, > conjunctive: && disjunctive: ||
-
The
Enumerable
protocol has been renamedSequence
. -
The
Char
type has been renamedUnicodeScalar
. The preferred unit of string fragments for users is calledCharacter
. -
Initialization semantics for classes, structs and enums init methods are now properly diagnosed by the compiler. Instance variables now follow the same initialization rules as local variables: they must be defined before use. The initialization model requires that all properties with storage in the current class be initialized before
super.init
is called (or, in a root class, before any method is called onself,
and before the final return).For example, this will yield an error:
class SomeClass : SomeBase { var x : Int init() { // error: property 'self.x' not initialized at super.init call super.init() } }
A simple fix for this is to change the property definition to
var x = 0
, or to explicitly assign to it before callingsuper.init()
. -
Relatedly, the compiler now diagnoses incorrect calls to
super.init()
. It validates that any path through an initializer callssuper.init()
exactly once, that all ivars are defined before the call to super.init, and that any uses which require the entire object to be initialized come after thesuper.init
call. -
Type checker performance has improved considerably (but we still have much work to do here).
- The "slice" versus "array" subtlety is now dead.
Slice<T>
has been folded intoArray<T>
andT[]
is just sugar forArray<T>
.
-
Unreachable code warning has been added:
var y: Int = 1 if y == 1 { // note: condition always evaluates to true return y } return 1 // warning: will never be executed
-
Overflows on integer type conversions are now detected at runtime and, when dealing with constants, at compile time:
var i: Int = -129 var i8 = Int8(i) // error: integer overflows when converted from 'Int' to 'Int8' var si = Int8(-1) var ui = UInt8(si) // error: negative integer cannot be converted to unsigned type 'UInt8'
-
def
keyword was changed back tofunc
.
-
Objective-C-compatible protocols can now contain optional requirements, indicated by the
@optional
attribute:@class_protocol @objc protocol NSWobbling { @optional def wobble() }
A class that conforms to the
NSWobbling
protocol above can (but does not have to) implementwobble
. When referring to thewobble
method for a value of typeNSWobbling
(or a value of generic type that is bounded byNSWobbling
), the result is an optional value indicating whether the underlying object actually responds to the given selector, using the same mechanism as messagingid
. One can use!
to assume that the method is always there,?
to chain the optional, or conditional branches to handle each case distinctly:def tryToWobble(w : NSWobbling) { w.wobble() // error: cannot call a value of optional type w.wobble!() // okay: calls -wobble, but fails at runtime if not there w.wobble?() // okay: calls -wobble only if it's there, otherwise no-op if w.wobble { // okay: we know -wobble is there } else { // okay: we know -wobble is not there } }
-
Enums from Cocoa that are declared with the
NS_ENUM
macro are now imported into Swift as Swift enums. Like all Swift enums, the constants of the Cocoa enum are scoped as members of the enum type, so the importer strips off the common prefix of all of the constant names in the enum when forming the Swift interface. For example, this Objective-C declaration:typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, NSComparisonResult) { NSOrderedAscending, NSOrderedSame, NSOrderedDescending, };
shows up in Swift as:
enum NSComparisonResult : Int { case Ascending, Same, Descending }
The
enum
cases can then take advantage of type inference from context. In Objective-C, you would write:NSNumber *foo = [NSNumber numberWithInt: 1]; NSNumber *bar = [NSNumber numberWithInt: 2]; switch ([foo compare: bar]) { case NSOrderedAscending: NSLog(@"ascending\n"); break; case NSOrderedSame: NSLog(@"same\n"); break; case NSOrderedDescending: NSLog(@"descending\n"); break; }
In Swift, this becomes:
var foo: NSNumber = 1 var bar: NSNumber = 2 switch foo.compare(bar) { case .Ascending: println("ascending") case .Same: println("same") case .Descending: println("descending") }
-
Work has begun on implementing static properties. Currently they are supported for nongeneric structs and enums.
struct Foo { static var foo: Int = 2 } enum Bar { static var bar: Int = 3 } println(Foo.foo) println(Bar.bar)
-
func
keyword was changed todef
. -
Implicit conversions are now allowed from an optional type
T?
to another optional typeU?
ifT
is implicitly convertible toU
. For example, optional subclasses convert to their optional base classes:class Base {} class Derived : Base {} var d: Derived? = Derived() var b: Base? = d
-
Type inference for variables has been improved, allowing any variable to have its type inferred from its initializer, including global and instance variables:
class MyClass { var size = 0 // inferred to Int } var name = "Swift"
Additionally, the arguments of a generic type can also be inferred from the initializer:
// infers Dictionary<String, Int> var dict: Dictionary = ["Hello": 1, "World": 2]
-
Missing return statement from a non-
Void
function is diagnosed as an error. -
Vector<T>
has been replaced withArray<T>
. This is a complete rewrite to use value-semantics and copy-on-write behavior. The former means that you never need to defensively copy again (or remember to attribute a property as "copy") and the latter yields better performance than defensive copying.Dictionary<T>
is next. -
switch
can now pattern-match into structs and classes, using the syntaxcase Type(property1: pattern1, property2: pattern2, ...):
.struct Point { var x, y: Double } struct Size { var w, h: Double } struct Rect { var origin: Point; var size: Size } var square = Rect(Point(0, 0), Size(10, 10)) switch square { case Rect(size: Size(w: var w, h: var h)) where w == h: println("square") case Rect(size: Size(w: var w, h: var h)) where w > h: println("long rectangle") default: println("tall rectangle") }
Currently only stored properties ("ivars" in ObjC terminology) are supported by the implementation.
-
Array and dictionary literals allow an optional trailing comma:
var a = [1, 2,] var d = ["a": 1, "b": 2,]
-
Unlike in Objective-C, objects of type
id
in Swift do not implicitly convert to any class type. For example, the following code is ill-formed:func getContentViewBounds(window : NSWindow) -> NSRect { var view : NSView = window.contentView() // error: 'id' doesn't implicitly convert to NSView return view.bounds() }
because
contentView()
returns anid
. One can now use the postfix!
operator to allow an object of typeid
to convert to any class type, e.g.,func getContentViewBounds(window : NSWindow) -> NSRect { var view : NSView = window.contentView()! // ok: checked conversion to NSView return view.bounds() }
The conversion is checked at run-time, and the program will fail if the object is not an NSView. This is shorthand for
var view : NSView = (window.contentView() as NSView)!
which checks whether the content view is an
NSView
(via theas NSView
). That operation returns an optionalNSView
(writtenNSView?
) and the!
operation assumes that the cast succeeded, i.e., that the optional has a value in it. -
The unconditional checked cast syntax
x as! T
has been removed. Many cases where conversion fromid
is necessary can now be handled by postfix!
(see above). Fully general unconditional casts can still be expressed usingas
and postfix!
together,(x as T)!
. -
The old "square bracket" attribute syntax has been removed.
-
Overflows on construction of integer and floating point values from integer literals that are too large to fit the type are now reported by the compiler. Here are some examples:
var x = Int8(-129) // error: integer literal overflows when stored into 'Int8' var y: Int = 0xFFFF_FFFF_FFFF_FFFF_F // error: integer literal overflows when stored into 'Int'
Overflows in constant integer expressions are also reported by the compiler.
var x: Int8 = 125 var y: Int8 = x + 125 // error: arithmetic operation '125 + 125' (on type 'Int8') results in // an overflow
-
Division by zero in constant expressions is now detected by the compiler:
var z: Int = 0 var x = 5 / z // error: division by zero
-
Generic structs with type parameters as field types are now fully supported.
struct Pair<T, U> { var first: T var second: U }
-
Autorelease pools can now be created using the
autoreleasepool
function.autoreleasepool { // code }
Note that the wrapped code is a closure, so constructs like
break
andcontinue
andreturn
do not behave as they would inside an Objective-C@autoreleasepool
statement. -
Enums can now declare a "raw type", and cases can declare "raw values", similar to the integer underlying type of C enums:
// Declare the underlying type as in Objective-C or C++11, with // ': Type' enum AreaCode : Int { // Assign explicit values to cases with '=' case SanFrancisco = 415 case EastBay = 510 case Peninsula = 650 case SanJose = 408 // Values are also assignable by implicit auto-increment case Galveston // = 409 case Baltimore // = 410 }
This introduces
fromRaw
andtoRaw
methods on the enum to perform conversions from and to the raw type:/* As if declared: extension AreaCode { // Take a raw value, and produce the corresponding enum value, // or None if there is no corresponding enum value static func fromRaw(raw:Int) -> AreaCode? // Return the corresponding raw value for 'self' func toRaw() -> Int } */ AreaCode.fromRaw(415) // => .Some(.SanFrancisco) AreaCode.fromRaw(111) // => .None AreaCode.SanJose.toRaw() // => 408
Raw types are not limited to integer types--they can additionally be character, floating-point, or string values:
enum State : String { case CA = "California" case OR = "Oregon" case WA = "Washington" } enum SquareRootOfInteger : Float { case One = 1.0 case Two = 1.414 case Three = 1.732 case Four = 2.0 }
Raw types are currently limited to simple C-like enums with no payload cases. The raw values are currently restricted to simple literal values; expressions such as
1 + 1
or references to other enum cases are not yet supported. Raw values are also currently required to be unique for each case in an enum.Enums with raw types implicitly conform to the
RawRepresentable
protocol, which exposes the fromRaw and toRaw methods to generics:protocol RawRepresentable { typealias RawType static func fromRaw(raw: RawType) -> Self? func toRaw() -> RawType }
-
Attribute syntax has been redesigned (see (rdar://10700853) and (rdar://14462729)) so that attributes now precede the declaration and use the
@
character to signify them. Where before you might have written:func [someattribute=42] foo(a : Int) {}
you now write:
@someattribute=42 func foo(a : Int) {}
This flows a lot better (attributes don't push the name for declarations away), and means that square brackets are only used for array types, collection literals, and subscripting operations.
-
The
for
loop now uses the Generator protocol instead of theEnumerator
protocol to iterate a sequence. This protocol looks like this:protocol Generator { typealias Element func next() -> Element? }
The single method
next()
advances the generator and returns an Optional, which is either.Some(value)
, wrapping the next value out of the underlying sequence, or.None
to signal that there are no more elements. This is an improvement over the previous Enumerator protocol because it eliminates the separateisEmpty()
query and better reflects the semantics of ephemeral sequences like un-buffered input streams.
-
The
[byref]
attribute has been renamed to[inout]
. When applied to a logical property, the getter is invoked before a call and the setter is applied to write back the result.inout
conveys this better and aligns with existing Objective-C practice better. -
[inout]
arguments can now be captured into closures. The semantics of a inout capture are that the captured variable is an independent local variable of the callee, and the inout is updated to contain the value of that local variable at function exit.In the common case, most closure arguments do not outlive the duration of their callee, and the observable behavior is unchanged. However, if the captured variable outlives the function, you can observe this. For example, this code:
func foo(x : [inout] Int) -> () -> Int { func bar() -> Int { x += 1 return x } // Call 'bar' once while the inout is active. bar() return bar } var x = 219 var f = foo(&x) // x is updated to the value of foo's local x at function exit. println("global x = \(x)") // These calls only update the captured local 'x', which is now independent // of the inout parameter. println("local x = \(f())") println("local x = \(f())") println("local x = \(f())") println("global x = \(x)")
will print:
global x = 220 local x = 221 local x = 222 local x = 223 global x = 220
In no case will you end up with a dangling pointer or other unsafe construct.
-
x as T
now performs a checked cast toT?
, producing.Some(t)
if the cast succeeds, or.None
if the cast fails. -
The ternary expression (
x ? y : z
) now requires whitespace between the first expression and the question mark. This permits?
to be used as a postfix operator. -
A significant new piece of syntactic sugar has been added to ease working with optional values. The
?
postfix operator is analogous to!
, but instead of asserting on None, it causes all the following postfix operators to get skipped and returnNone
.In a sense, this generalizes (and makes explicit) the Objective-C behavior where message sends to
nil
silently produce the zero value of the result.For example, this code
object?.parent.notifyChildEvent?(object!, .didExplode)
first checks whether
object
has a value; if so, it drills to its parent and checks whether that object implements thenotifyChildEvent
method; if so, it calls that method. (Note that we do not yet have generalized optional methods.)This code:
var titleLength = object?.title.length
checks whether
object
has a value and, if so, asks for the length of its title.titleLength
will have typeInt?
, and ifobject
was missing, the variable will be initialized to None. -
Objects with type
id
can now be used as the receiver of property accesses and subscript operations to get (but not set) values. The result is of optional type. For example, for a variableobj
of typeid
, the expressionobj[0]
will produce a value of type
id
, which will either contain the result of the message send objectAtIndexedSubscript(0) (wrapped in an optional type) or, if the object does not respond toobjectAtIndexedSubscript:
, an empty optional. The same approach applies to property accesses. -
_
can now be used not only invar
bindings, but in assignments as well, to ignore elements of a tuple assignment, or to explicitly ignore values.var a = (1, 2.0, 3) var x = 0, y = 0 _ = a // explicitly load and discard 'a' (x, _, y) = a // assign a.0 to x and a.2 to y
-
The
union
keyword has been replaced withenum
. Unions and enums are semantically identical in swift (the former just has data associated with its discriminators) andenum
is the vastly more common case. For more rationale, please see docs/proposals/Enums.rst -
The Optional type
T?
is now represented as anenum
:enum Optional<T> { case None case Some(T) }
This means that, in addition to the existing Optional APIs, it can be pattern-matched with switch:
var x : X?, y : Y? switch (x, y) { // Both are present case (.Some(var a), .Some(var b)): println("both") // One is present case (.Some, .None): case (.None, .Some): println("one") // Neither is present case (.None, .None): println("neither") }
-
Enums now allow multiple cases to be declared in a comma-separated list in a single
case
declaration:enum Color { case Red, Green, Blue }
-
The Objective-C
id
andClass
types now support referring to methods declared in any class or protocol without a downcast. For example, given a variablesender
of typeid
, one can refer to-isEqual: with:
sender.isEqual
The actual object may or may not respond to
-isEqual
, so this expression returns result of optional type whose value is determined via a compiler-generated-respondsToSelector
send. When it succeeds, the optional contains the method; when it fails, the optional is empty.To safely test the optional, one can use, e.g.,
var senderIsEqual = sender.isEqual if senderIsEqual { // this will never trigger an "unrecognized selector" failure var equal = senderIsEqual!(other) } else { // sender does not respond to -isEqual: }
When you know that the method is there, you can use postfix
!
to force unwrapping of the optional, e.g.,sender.isEqual!(other)
This will fail at runtime if in fact sender does not respond to
-isEqual:
. We have some additional syntactic optimizations planned for testing an optional value and handling both the success and failure cases concisely. Watch this space. -
Weak references now always have optional type. If a weak variable has an explicit type, it must be an optional type:
var [weak] x : NSObject?
If the variable is not explicitly typed, its type will still be inferred to be an optional type.
-
There is now an implicit conversion from
T
toT?
.
-
Constructor syntax has been improved to align better with Objective-C's
init
methods. Theconstructor
keyword has been replaced withinit
, and the selector style of declaration used for func declarations is now supported. For example:class Y : NSObject { init withInt(i : Int) string(s : String) { super.init() // call superclass initializer } }
One can use this constructor to create a
Y
object with, e.g.,Y(withInt:17, string:"Hello")
Additionally, the rules regarding the selector corresponding to such a declaration have been revised. The selector for the above initializer is
initWithInt:string:
; the specific rules are described in the documentation.Finally, Swift initializers now introduce Objective-C entry points, so a declaration such as:
class X : NSObject { init() { super.init() } }
Overrides
NSObject
's-init
method (which it calls first) as well as introducing the 'allocating' entry point so that one can create a newX
instance with the syntaxX()
. -
Variables in top-level code (i.e. scripts, but not global variables in libraries) that lack an initializer now work just like local variables: they must be explicitly assigned-to sometime before any use, instead of being default constructed. Instance variables are still on the TODO list.
-
Generic unions with a single payload case and any number of empty cases are now implemented, for example:
union Maybe<T> { case Some(T) case None } union Tristate<T> { case Initialized(T) case Initializing case Uninitialized }
Generic unions with multiple payload cases are still not yet implemented.
-
The implementation now supports partial application of class and struct methods:
(swift) class B { func foo() { println("B") } } (swift) class D : B { func foo() { println("D") } } (swift) var foo = B().foo // foo : () -> () = <unprintable value> (swift) foo() B (swift) foo = D().foo (swift) foo() D
Support for partial application of Objective-C class methods and methods in generic contexts is still incomplete.
-
Local variable declarations without an initializer are no longer implicitly constructed. The compiler now verifies that they are initialized on all paths leading to a use of the variable. This means that constructs like this are now allowed:
var p : SomeProtocol if whatever { p = foo() } else { p = bar() }
where before, the compiler would reject the definition of
p
saying that it needed an initializer expression.Since all local variables must be initialized before use, simple things like this are now rejected as well:
var x : Int print(x)
The fix is to initialize the value on all paths, or to explicitly default initialize the value in the declaration, e.g. with
var x = 0
or withvar x = Int()
(which works for any default-constructible type). -
The implementation now supports unions containing protocol types and weak reference types.
-
The type annotation syntax,
x as T
, has been removed from the language. The checked cast operationsx as! T
andx is T
still remain.
-
this
has been renamed toself
. Similarly,This
has been renamed toSelf
. -
Swift now supports unions. Unlike C unions, Swift's
union
is type-safe and always knows what type it contains at runtime. Union members are labeled usingcase
declarations; each case may have a different set of types or no type:union MaybeInt { case Some(Int) case None } union HTMLTag { case A(href:String) case IMG(src:String, alt:String) case BR }
Each
case
with a type defines a static constructor function for the union type.case
declarations without types become static members:var br = HTMLTag.BR var a = HTMLTag.A(href:"http://www.apple.com/") // 'HTMLTag' scope deduced for '.IMG' from context var img : HTMLTag = .IMG(src:"http://www.apple.com/mac-pro.png", alt:"The new Mac Pro")
Cases can be pattern-matched using
switch
:switch tag { case .BR: println("<br>") case .IMG(var src, var alt): println("<img src=\"\(escape(src))\" alt=\"\(escape(alt))\">") case .A(var href): println("<a href=\"\(escape(href))\">") }
Due to implementation limitations, recursive unions are not yet supported.
-
Swift now supports autolinking, so importing frameworks or Swift libraries should no longer require adding linker flags or modifying your project file.
-
Swift now supports weak references by applying the
[weak]
attribute to a variable declaration.(swift) var x = NSObject() // x : NSObject = <NSObject: 0x7f95d5804690> (swift) var [weak] w = x // w : NSObject = <NSObject: 0x7f95d5804690> (swift) w == nil // r2 : Bool = false (swift) x = NSObject() (swift) w == nil // r3 : Bool = true
Swift also supports a special form of weak reference, called
[unowned]
, for references that should never benil
but are required to be weak to break cycles, such as parent or sibling references. Accessing an[unowned]
reference asserts that the reference is still valid and implicitly promotes the loaded reference to a strong reference, so it does not need to be loaded and checked for nullness before use like a true[weak]
reference.class Parent { var children : Array<Child> func addChild(c:Child) { c.parent = this children.append(c) } } class Child { var [unowned] parent : Parent }
-
Numeric literals can now use underscores as separators. For example:
var billion = 1_000_000_000 var crore = 1_00_00_000 var MAXINT = 0x7FFF_FFFF_FFFF_FFFF var SMALLEST_DENORM = 0x0.0000_0000_0000_1p-1022
-
Types conforming to protocols now must always declare the conformance in their inheritance clause.
-
The build process now produces serialized modules for the standard library, greatly improving build times.
-
Arithmetic operators
+
,-
,*
, and/
on integer types now do overflow checking and trap on overflow. A parallel set of masking operators,&+
,&-
,&*
, and&/
, are defined to perform two's complement wrapping arithmetic for all signed and unsigned integer types. -
Debugger support. Swift has a
-g
command line switch that turns on debug info for the compiled output. Using the standard lldb debugger this will allow single-stepping through Swift programs, printing backtraces, and navigating through stack frames; all in sync with the corresponding Swift source code. An unmodified lldb cannot inspect any variables.Example session:
$ echo 'println("Hello World")' >hello.swift $ swift hello.swift -c -g -o hello.o $ ld hello.o "-dynamic" "-arch" "x86_64" "-macosx_version_min" "10.9.0" \ -framework Foundation lib/swift/libswift_stdlib_core.dylib \ lib/swift/libswift_stdlib_posix.dylib -lSystem -o hello $ lldb hello Current executable set to 'hello' (x86_64). (lldb) b top_level_code Breakpoint 1: where = hello`top_level_code + 26 at hello.swift:1, addre... (lldb) r Process 38592 launched: 'hello' (x86_64) Process 38592 stopped * thread #1: tid = 0x1599fb, 0x0000000100000f2a hello`top_level_code + ... frame #0: 0x0000000100000f2a hello`top_level_code + 26 at hello.shi... -> 1 println("Hello World") (lldb) bt * thread #1: tid = 0x1599fb, 0x0000000100000f2a hello`top_level_code + ... frame #0: 0x0000000100000f2a hello`top_level_code + 26 at hello.shi... frame #1: 0x0000000100000f5c hello`main + 28 frame #2: 0x00007fff918605fd libdyld.dylib`start + 1 frame #3: 0x00007fff918605fd libdyld.dylib`start + 1
Also try
s
,n
,up
,down
.
-
Swift now has a
switch
statement, supporting pattern matching of multiple values with variable bindings, guard expressions, and range comparisons. For example:func classifyPoint(point:(Int, Int)) { switch point { case (0, 0): println("origin") case (_, 0): println("on the x axis") case (0, _): println("on the y axis") case (var x, var y) where x == y: println("on the y = x diagonal") case (var x, var y) where -x == y: println("on the y = -x diagonal") case (-10..10, -10..10): println("close to the origin") case (var x, var y): println("length \(sqrt(x*x + y*y))") } }
-
Swift has a new closure syntax. The new syntax eliminates the use of pipes. Instead, the closure signature is written the same way as a function type and is separated from the body by the
in
keyword. For example:sort(fruits) { (lhs : String, rhs : String) -> Bool in return lhs > rhs }
When the types are omitted, one can also omit the parentheses, e.g.,
sort(fruits) { lhs, rhs in lhs > rhs }
Closures with no parameters or that use the anonymous parameters (
$0
,$1
, etc.) don't need thein
, e.g.,sort(fruits) { $0 > $1 }
-
nil
can now be used without explicit casting. Previously,nil
had typeNSObject
, so one would have to write (e.g.)nil as! NSArray
to create anil
NSArray
. Now,nil
picks up the type of its context. -
POSIX.EnvironmentVariables
andswift.CommandLineArguments
global variables were merged into aswift.Process
variable. Now you can access command line arguments withProcess.arguments
. In order to access environment variables addimport POSIX
and useProcess.environmentVariables
.