This blog will run you through the features, benefits and not so good things about Swift and intermittent comparisons with other programming languages used for similar purpose!
Swift was founded in 2014 and was released to public in 2015. It is a general purpose programming language created by Apple ecosystem, and is used to develop mobile apps for iOS, macOS, and other Apple platforms. Although Swift is 8.4 times faster than Python in terms of performance, later is still prevalent and is being used.
To understand it in an easy way, Swift came into being to support Objective C, and introduce many new concepts like multi-paradigm, dynamic dispatch, late binding, extensible programming, to address common programming errors like null pointer dereferencing, to make it easier for the developers to catch software bugs.
Most of us, were unaware of existing languages for iOS app development. It was evident that only Objective - C and Swift were available options, until there were hybrid app development (cross platform app development) programming languages. There are comparisons and each of them weigh a little more or little less based on their capabilities, features and benefits.
While C++ intends to create applications for web and Android, any Swift app development company develops applications for MacOS and iOS operating system. Notably, Swift originated out of Objective C, whereas C++ originated out of C programming language.
Important Features of Swift Programming Language
Swift comes with Playgrounds which allows iPhone developers to see what changes are being made. It comes with Tuples and multiple return values to enable iOS developers to return multiple values from functions using tuples, returned as a single entity from a function. Error Handling is mandatory, and Swift features four ways to handle errors.
What is Swift programming language used for?
Swift syntax is clean and concise and contains data types, variables, literals, constants, operators, characters and strings, loops and arrays in program structure that align on Xcode along with UIKit to look something like this:
import UIKit
var str = "Good Morning"
println (str)
Swift is not an alternative but an addition to programming languages like C, Java, C++, or Objective C. Something which is not similar with Swift syntax is that it does not require any semicolon after each statement. But this is not mandatory. If iOS developer happens to put a semicolon after a statement and does not put a semicolon after the next statement, the syntax will still be correct and will not show any compilation errors.
Remember, we used to put double forward slashes (//) to comment an English sentence in C++ code. Here in Swift, we need to use an asterisk along with a forward slash (/*.....*/) and close it with an asterisk and single forward slash to hide the statement from being read by the compiler.
For an example, check this code snippet:
/* This is a sample code */
import UIKit
/* Assign variable (string type)*/
var str = "Hi, this is Neeti""
/* Print */
println (str)
/* End of code */
Coming back to more features and advantages of Swift, its concise code is so powerful that its one line of code equals to thousands of lines of code in other high level programming languages. It scales with the changing project needs.
Swift can be coded in Xcode, AppCode, and Visual studio Code. Xcode is an official IDE for macOS and iOS applications while Visual Studio Code and AppCode are preferable integrated development environments (IDE's) for cross-platform development. This implies that Visual Studio can be used for both Android as well as for iOS app development.
Besides Appcode, Xcode, and Visual Studio Code, other IDE's for Swift are CodeRunner, Emacs Plugin, and CLion.
The following figure depicts the popularity of Swift, amongst top programming languages, according to Stack Over Flow Survey conducted in 2023:
(Source)
Disadvantages of Swift Programming Language
While we should not glorify the negatives as it is imperative to have a dry leaf or a thorn with a bunch of flowers. While we are 10 years down the line, Swift is still considered a new, nascent programming language. It still contains very few native libraries and tools. Not many people learn Swift easily.
Swift programming language has been evolving but is quite unstable owing to its lack of backward compatibility with each new release. Once a new version is released, iOS app developers are forced to completely rewrite the project in order to stay updated. It is not the "Apple's only language." Other alternatives exist.
Which databases does Swift use?
Swift pairs up well with SQLKit API for building and serializing SQL queries. Also Swift can work well if MongoDB driver is added to the iOS application. This is done via Swift Package Manager or by setting up a runnable project. Swift was initially created for Apple's Operating System (Darwin, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS), but it can also be written for Linux, Windows, and Android platforms.
Pros and Cons of Swift Programming Language
This discussion cannot be capped without comparing Swift with Kotlin. Later makes use of garbage collection approach (GCA), while Swift makes use of Automatic References Counting (ARC), which implies that Swift features better time management and is more precise. Also Swift does not support annotations (to add metadata to app code). Swift enables used to choose any structs, ptructs, and reference values to group variables under one list or one name. Swift allows enums (enumerations) to allow developers to quickly perform calculations.
Swift iOS programming language is a collection of projects, which have its own repositories. The list of projects include: (1) The Swift Compiler command line tool, (2) The standard library, (3) Core libraries, (4) The LLDB debugger, (5) The Swift package manager, (6) Xcode playground support.
Conclusive
Swift code is safe, concise and easy to code for operating systems like Linux and Windows. To Sum Up, lets have a look at important features that makes Swift desirable for iOS app development:
- Generics
- Tuples and multiple return values
- Closures unified with function pointers
- Structs that support methods, protocols, and extensions
- Fast and concise iteration over a collection
- Advanced control flow with guard, do, defer, and repeat keywords
- Powerful error handling built-in
- Functional programming patterns e.g.: map and filter
As we summarized the pros and cons of Swift programming language, we can easily conclude that it is easier to read and write. It supports inferred types to make code concise and free from errors. Its modules eliminate headers and provide namespaces. Memory management is automatic and statements need not be closed with semicolons. It borrows its 'grammar' from other languages - like parameters from Objective - C, etc.
