Swift (programming language)

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled

Swift
programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, iPadOS,
macOS, watchOS, tvOS, Linux, and z/OS. Swift is designed to
work with Apple's Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the
large body of existing Objective-C code written for Apple
products. It is built with the open source LLVM compiler Paradigm Multi-paradigm:
framework and has been included in Xcode since version 6, protocol-oriented,
released in 2014. On Apple platforms,[10] it uses the Objective-C object-oriented,
runtime library which allows C, Objective-C, C++ and Swift code functional,
to run within one program.[11] imperative, block
structured
Apple intended Swift to support many core concepts associated Declarative
with Objective-C, notably dynamic dispatch, widespread late programming
binding, extensible programming and similar features, but in a
Designed by Chris Lattner,
"safer" way, making it easier to catch software bugs; Swift has
Doug Gregor,
features addressing some common programming errors like null
John McCall, Ted
pointer dereferencing and provides syntactic sugar to help avoid
Kremenek, Joe
the pyramid of doom. Swift supports the concept of protocol
Groff, and Apple
extensibility, an extensibility system that can be applied to types,
Inc.[1]
structs and classes, which Apple promotes as a real change in
programming paradigms they term "protocol-oriented Developer Apple Inc.
programming"[12] (similar to traits).[13] First appeared June 2, 2014[2]

Swift was introduced at Apple's 2014 Worldwide Developers Stable release 5.1.3[3] /
Conference (WWDC).[14] It underwent an upgrade to version 1.2 December 13,
during 2014 and a more major upgrade to Swift 2 at WWDC 2019
2015. Initially a proprietary language, version 2.2 was made Preview release 5.2 branch[4]
open-source software under the Apache License 2.0 on December Typing Static, strong,
3, 2015, for Apple's platforms and Linux.[15][16] discipline inferred
OS Darwin, Linux,
Through version 3.0 the syntax of Swift went through significant
FreeBSD,
evolution, with the core team making source stability a focus in
Windows, z/OS
later versions.[17][18] In the first quarter of 2018 Swift surpassed
Objective-C in measured popularity.[19] License Apache License
2.0 (Swift 2.2 and
Swift 4.0, released in 2017, introduced several changes to some later)
built-in classes and structures. Code written with previous Proprietary (up to
versions of Swift can be updated using the migration Swift 2.2)[5][6]
functionality built into Xcode. Swift 5, released in March 2019, Filename .swift
introduced a stable binary interface on Apple platforms, allowing extensions
the Swift runtime to be incorporated into Apple operating
Website swift.org (https://s
systems. It is source compatible with Swift 4.[20]
wift.org)
Influenced by
Swift 5.1 was officially released in September 2019. Swift 5.1 Objective-C,[7] Rust, Haskell, Ruby,
builds on the previous version of Swift 5 by extending the stable Python, C#, CLU,[8] D[9]
features of the language to compile-time with the introduction of
module stability. The introduction of module stability makes it possible to create and share binary
frameworks that will work with future releases of Swift. [21]

Contents
History
Version history
Features
Closure Support
String support
Access control
Optionals and chaining
Value types
Protocol-oriented programming
Libraries, runtime and development
Memory management
Debugging and other elements
Performance
Comparisons to other languages
Development and other implementations
See also
References
External links

History
Development of Swift started in July 2010 by Chris Lattner, with the eventual collaboration of many
other programmers at Apple. Swift took language ideas "from Objective-C, Rust, Haskell, Ruby, Python,
C#, CLU, and far too many others to list".[8] On June 2, 2014, the Apple Worldwide Developers
Conference (WWDC) application became the first publicly released app written with Swift.[22] A beta
version of the programming language was released to registered Apple developers at the conference, but
the company did not promise that the final version of Swift would be source code compatible with the
test version. Apple planned to make source code converters available if needed for the full release.[22]

The Swift Programming Language, a free 500-page manual, was also released at WWDC, and is
available on the iBooks Store and the official website.[23]

Swift reached the 1.0 milestone on September 9, 2014, with the Gold Master of Xcode 6.0 for iOS.[24]
Swift 1.1 was released on October 22, 2014, alongside the launch of Xcode 6.1.[25] Swift 1.2 was
released on April 8, 2015, along with Xcode 6.3.[26] Swift 2.0 was announced at WWDC 2015, and was
made available for publishing apps in the App Store in September 21, 2015.[27] Swift 3.0 was released on
September 13, 2016.[28] Swift 4.0 was released on September 19, 2017.[29] Swift 4.1 was released on
March 29, 2018.[30]

Swift won first place for Most Loved Programming Language in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey
2015[31] and second place in 2016.[32]

On December 3, 2015, the Swift language, supporting libraries, debugger, and package manager were
open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license with a Runtime Library Exception,[33] and Swift.org (https://s
wift.org) was created to host the project. The source code is hosted on GitHub (https://github.com/apple/s
wift), where it is easy for anyone to get the code, build it themselves, and even create pull requests to
contribute code back to the project.

In December 2015, IBM announced its Swift Sandbox website, which allows developers to write Swift
code in one pane and display output in another.[34][35][36] The Swift Sandbox was deprecated in January
2018.[37]

During the WWDC 2016, Apple announced an iPad exclusive app, named Swift Playgrounds, intended
to teach people how to code in Swift. The app is presented in a 3D video game-like interface which
provides feedback when lines of code are placed in a certain order and executed.[38][39][40]

In January 2017, Chris Lattner announced his departure from Apple for a new position with Tesla
Motors, with the Swift project lead role going to team veteran Ted Kremenek.[41][42]

During WWDC 2019, Apple announced SwiftUI, which provides a framework for declarative UI
structure design across all Apple platforms.[43]

Version history
 Version Release Date macOS Linux
Swift 1.0 September 9, 2014 Yes No
Swift 1.1 October 22, 2014 Yes No
Swift 1.2 April 8, 2015 Yes No
Swift 2.0 September 21, 2015 Yes No
Swift 2.1 October 20, 2015 Yes No
Swift 2.2 March 21, 2016 Yes Yes
Swift 2.2.1 May 3, 2016 Yes Yes
Swift 3.0 September 13, 2016 Yes Yes
Swift 3.0.1 October 28, 2016 Yes Yes
Swift 3.0.2 December 13, 2016 Yes Yes
Swift 3.1 March 27, 2017 Yes Yes
Swift 3.1.1 April 21, 2017 Yes Yes
Swift 4.0 September 19, 2017 Yes Yes
Swift 4.0.2 November 1, 2017 Yes Yes
Swift 4.0.3 December 5, 2017 Yes Yes
Swift 4.1 March 29, 2018 Yes Yes
Swift 4.1.1 May 4, 2018 No Yes
Swift 4.1.2 May 31, 2018 Yes Yes
Swift 4.1.3 July 27, 2018 No Yes
Swift 4.2 September 17, 2018 Yes Yes
Swift 4.2.1 October 30, 2018 Yes Yes
Swift 4.2.2 February 4, 2019 No Yes
Swift 4.2.3 February 28, 2019 No Yes
Swift 4.2.4 March 29, 2019 No Yes

Swift 5.0[44] March 25, 2019 Yes Yes

Swift 5.0.1 April 18, 2019 Yes Yes
Swift 5.0.2 July 15, 2019 No Yes
Swift 5.0.3 August 30, 2019 No Yes
Swift 5.1 September 10, 2019 Yes Yes

Features
Swift is an alternative to the Objective-C language that employs modern programming-language theory
concepts and strives to present a simpler syntax. During its introduction, it was described simply as
"Objective-C without the C".[45][46]

By default, Swift does not expose pointers and other unsafe accessors, in contrast to Objective-C, which
uses pointers pervasively to refer to object instances. Also, Objective-C's use of a Smalltalk-like syntax
for making method calls has been replaced with a dot-notation style and namespace system more familiar
to programmers from other common object-oriented (OO) languages like Java or C#. Swift introduces
true named parameters and retains key Objective-C concepts, including protocols, closures and
categories, often replacing former syntax with cleaner versions and allowing these concepts to be applied
to other language structures, like enumerated types (enums)[47]

Closure Support
Swift supports closures (known as lambdas in other languages). Here is an example:

1 /// Here is a closure

2 {(arg1: Int, arg2: Int) -> Int in
3 return arg1 + arg2
4 }

Swift has a trailing closure syntax like this:

1 // This function takes a closure or function that returns an int and then just evaluates the
function.
2 func a(closure a: () -> Int) -> Int {
3 return a()
4 }
5
6 /// Without trailing closure syntax
7
8 a(closure: {return 1})
9
10 /// With trailing closure syntax
11 a {return 1}

As you can see the trailing closure syntax is elegant. You must omit the parameter names.

Here is criteria for the trailing closure syntax:

1. If the function only has one parameter and it is a closure you can use the trailing closure
syntax
2. If the parameter at the end is a closure than you can use the trailing closure syntax

String support
Under the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch environments, many common classes were part of the Foundation Kit
library. This included the NSString string library (using Unicode), the NSArray and NSDictionary
collection classes, and others. Objective-C provided various bits of syntactic sugar to allow some of these
objects to be created on-the-fly within the language, but once created, the objects were manipulated with
object calls. For instance, in Objective-C concatenating two NSStrings required method calls similar to
this:

NSString *str = @"hello,";

str = [str stringByAppendingString:@" world"];

In Swift, many of these basic types have been promoted to the language's core, and can be manipulated
directly. For instance, strings are invisibly bridged to NSString (when Foundation is imported) and can
now be concatenated with the + operator, allowing greatly simplified syntax; the prior example
becoming:[48]
 var str = "hello,"
str += " world"

Access control
Swift supports five access control levels for symbols: open, public, internal, fileprivate,
and private. Unlike many object-oriented languages, these access controls ignore inheritance
hierarchies: private indicates that a symbol is accessible only in the immediate scope,
fileprivate indicates it is accessible only from within the file, internal indicates it is accessible
within the containing module, public indicates it is accessible from any module, and open (only for
classes and their methods) indicates that the class may be subclassed outside of the module.[49]

Optionals and chaining

An important new feature in Swift is option types, which allow references or values to operate in a
manner similar to the common pattern in C, where a pointer may refer to a value or may be null. This
implies that non-optional types cannot result in a null-pointer error; the compiler can ensure this is not
possible.

Optional types are created with the Optional mechanism—to make an Integer that is nullable, one
would use a declaration similar to var optionalInteger: Optional<Int>. As in C#,[50] Swift
also includes syntactic sugar for this, allowing one to indicate a variable is optional by placing a question
mark after the type name, var optionalInteger: Int?.[51] Variables or constants that are
marked optional either have a value of the underlying type or are nil. Optional types wrap the base
type, resulting in a different instance. String and String? are fundamentally different types, the
latter has more in common with Int? than String.

To access the value inside, assuming it is not nil, it must be unwrapped to expose the instance inside.
This is performed with the ! operator:

let myValue = anOptionalInstance!.someMethod()

In this case, the ! operator unwraps anOptionalInstance to expose the instance inside, allowing
the method call to be made on it. If anOptionalInstance is nil, a null-pointer error occurs. This can
be annoying in practice, so Swift also includes the concept of optional chaining to test whether the
instance is nil and then unwrap it if it is non-null:

let myValue = anOptionalInstance?.someMethod()

In this case the runtime only calls someMethod if anOptionalInstance is not nil, suppressing the
error. Normally this requires the programmer to test whether myValue is nil before proceeding. The
origin of the term chaining comes from the more common case where several method calls/getters are
chained together. For instance:

let aTenant = aBuilding.TenantList[5]

let theirLease = aTenant.leaseDetails
let leaseStart = theirLease?.startDate
can be reduced to:

let leaseStart = aBuilding.TenantList[5].leaseDetails?.startDate

The ? syntax circumvents the pyramid of doom.

Swift 2 introduced the new keyword guard for cases in which code should stop executing if some
condition is unmet:

guard let leaseStart = aBuilding.TenantList[5]?.leaseDetails?.startDate else

{
//handle the error case where anything in the chain is nil
//else scope must exit the current method or loop
}
//continue, knowing that leaseStart is not nil

Using guard has three benefits. While the syntax can act as an if statement, its primary benefit is
inferring non-nullability. Where an if statement requires a case, guard assumes the case based on the
condition provided. Also, since guard contains no scope, with exception of the else closure,
leaseStart is presented as an unwrapped optional to the guard's super-scope. Lastly, if the guard
statement's test fails, Swift requires the else to exit the current method or loop, ensuring leaseStart
never is accessed when nil. This is performed with the keywords return, continue, break, or
throw.

Objective-C was weakly typed and allowed any method to be called on any object at any time. If the
method call failed, there was a default handler in the runtime that returned nil. That meant that no
unwrapping or testing was needed, the equivalent statement in Objective-C:

leaseStart = [[[aBuilding tenantList:5] leaseDetails] startDate]

Would return nil, and this could be tested. However, this also demanded that all method calls be dynamic,
which introduces significant overhead. Swift's use of optionals provides a similar mechanism for testing
and dealing with nils, but does so in a way that allows the compiler to use static dispatch because the
unwrapping action is called on a defined instance (the wrapper), versus occurring in the runtime dispatch
system.

Value types
In many object-oriented languages, objects are represented internally in two parts. The object is stored as
a block of data placed on the heap, while the name (or "handle") to that object is represented by a pointer.
Objects are passed between methods by copying the value of the pointer, allowing the same underlying
data on the heap to be accessed by anyone with a copy. In contrast, basic types like integers and floating-
point values are represented directly; the handle contains the data, not a pointer to it, and that data is
passed directly to methods by copying. These styles of access are termed pass-by-reference in the case of
objects, and pass-by-value for basic types.

Both concepts have their advantages and disadvantages. Objects are useful when the data is large, like the
description of a window or the contents of a document. In these cases, access to that data is provided by
copying a 32- or 64-bit value, versus copying an entire data structure. However, smaller values like
integers are the same size as pointers (typically both are one word), so there is no advantage to passing a
pointer, versus passing the value. Also, pass-by-reference inherently requires a dereferencing operation,
which can produce noticeable overhead in some operations, typically those used with these basic value
types, like mathematics.

Similarly to C# and in contrast to most other OO languages, Swift offers built-in support for objects
using either pass-by-reference or pass-by-value semantics, the former using the class declaration and
the latter using struct. Structs in Swift have almost all the same features as classes: methods,
implementing protocols and using the extension mechanisms. For this reason, Apple terms all data
generically as instances, versus objects or values. Structs do not support inheritance, however.[52]

The programmer is free to choose which semantics are more appropriate for each data structure in the
application. Larger structures like windows would be defined as classes, allowing them to be passed
around as pointers. Smaller structures, like a 2D point, can be defined as structs, which will be pass-by-
value and allow direct access to their internal data with no dereference. The performance improvement
inherent to the pass-by-value concept is such that Swift uses these types for almost all common data
types, including Int and Double, and types normally represented by objects, like String and
Array.[52] Using value types can result in significant performance improvements in user applications as
well.[53]

To ensure that even the largest structs do not cause a performance penalty when they are handed off,
Swift uses copy on write so that the objects are copied only if and when the program attempts to change a
value in them. This means that the various accessors have what is in effect a pointer to the same data
storage. So while the data is physically stored as one instance in memory, at the level of the application,
these values are separate and physical separation is enforced by copy on write only if needed.[54]

Protocol-oriented programming
A key feature of Objective-C is its support for categories, methods that can be added to extend classes at
runtime. Categories allow extending classes in-place to add new functions with no need to subclass or
even have access to the original source code. An example might be to add spell checker support to the
base NSString class, which means all instances of NSString in the application gain spell checking. The
system is also widely used as an organizational technique, allowing related code to be gathered into
library-like extensions. Swift continues to support this concept, although they are now termed extensions,
and declared with the keyword extension. Unlike Objective-C, Swift can also add new properties
accessors, types, and enums to extant instances.

Another key feature of Objective-C is its use of protocols, known in most modern languages as
interfaces. Protocols promise that a particular class implements a set of methods, meaning that other
objects in the system can call those methods on any object supporting that protocol. This is often used in
modern OO languages as a substitute for multiple inheritance, although the feature sets are not entirely
similar. A common example of a protocol in Cocoa is the NSCopying protocol, which defines one
method, copyWithZone, that implements deep copying on objects.[55]

In Objective-C, and most other languages implementing the protocol concept, it is up to the programmer
to ensure that the required methods are implemented in each class.[56] Swift adds the ability to add these
methods using extensions, and to use generic programming (generics) to implement them. Combined,
these allow protocols to be written once and support a wide variety of instances. Also, the extension
mechanism can be used to add protocol conformance to an object that does not list that protocol in its
definition.[55]

For example, a protocol might be declared called StringConvertible, which ensures that instances
that conform to the protocol implement a toString method that returns a String. In Swift, this can
be declared with code like this:

protocol StringConvertible
{
func toString() -> String
}

This protocol can now be added to String, with no access to the base class's source:

extension String: StringConvertible

{
func toString() -> String
{
self
}
}

In Swift, like many modern languages supporting interfaces, protocols can be used as types, which means
variables and methods can be defined by protocol instead of their specific type:

var someSortOfPrintableObject: StringConvertible

...
print(someSortOfPrintableObject.toString())

It does not matter what sort of instance someSortOfPrintableObject is, the compiler will ensure
that it conforms to the protocol and thus this code is safe. This syntax also means that collections can be
based on protocols also, like let printableArray = [StringConvertible].

As Swift treats structs and classes as similar concepts, both extensions and protocols are extensively used
in Swift's runtime to provide a rich API based on structs. For instance, Swift uses an extension to add the
Equatable protocol to many of their basic types, like Strings and Arrays, allowing them to be
compared with the == operator. A concrete example of how all of these features interact can be seen in
the concept of default protocol implementations:

func !=<T : Equatable>(lhs: T, rhs: T) -> Bool

This function defines a method that works on any instance conforming to Equatable, providing a not
equals function. Any instance, class or struct, automatically gains this implementation simply by
conforming to Equatable. As many instances gain Equatable through their base implementations
or other generic extensions, most basic objects in the runtime gain equals and not equals with no
code.[57]

This combination of protocols, defaults, protocol inheritance, and extensions allows many of the
functions normally associated with classes and inheritance to be implemented on value types.[55]
Properly used, this can lead to dramatic performance improvements with no significant limits in API.
This concept is so widely used within Swift, that Apple has begun calling it a protocol-oriented
programming language. They suggest addressing many of the problem domains normally solved though
classes and inheritance using protocols and structs instead.

Libraries, runtime and development

Swift uses the same runtime as the extant Objective-C system, but requires iOS 7 or macOS 10.9 or
higher.[58] Swift and Objective-C code can be used in one program, and by extension, C and C++ also. In
contrast to C, C++ code cannot be used directly from Swift. An Objective-C or C wrapper must be
created between Swift and C++.[59] In the case of Objective-C, Swift has considerable access to the
object model, and can be used to subclass, extend and use Objective-C code to provide protocol
support.[60] The converse is not true: a Swift class cannot be subclassed in Objective-C.[61]

To aid development of such programs, and the re-use of extant code, Xcode 6 and higher offers a semi-
automated system that builds and maintains a bridging header to expose Objective-C code to Swift. This
takes the form of an additional header file that simply defines or imports all of the Objective-C symbols
that are needed by the project's Swift code. At that point, Swift can refer to the types, functions, and
variables declared in those imports as though they were written in Swift. Objective-C code can also use
Swift code directly, by importing an automatically maintained header file with Objective-C declarations
of the project's Swift symbols. For instance, an Objective-C file in a mixed project called "MyApp" could
access Swift classes or functions with the code #import "MyApp-Swift.h". Not all symbols are
available through this mechanism, however—use of Swift-specific features like generic types, non-object
optional types, sophisticated enums, or even Unicode identifiers may render a symbol inaccessible from
Objective-C.[62]

Swift also has limited support for attributes, metadata that is read by the development environment, and
is not necessarily part of the compiled code. Like Objective-C, attributes use the @ syntax, but the
currently available set is small. One example is the @IBOutlet attribute, which marks a given value in
the code as an outlet, available for use within Interface Builder (IB). An outlet is a device that binds the
value of the on-screen display to an object in code.

Memory management
Swift uses Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) to manage memory. Apple used to require manual
memory management in Objective-C, but introduced ARC in 2011 to allow for easier memory allocation
and deallocation.[63] One problem with ARC is the possibility of creating a strong reference cycle, where
objects reference each other in a way that you can reach the object you started from by following
references (e.g. A references B, B references A). This causes them to become leaked into memory as they
are never released. Swift provides the keywords weak and unowned to prevent strong reference cycles.
Typically a parent-child relationship would use a strong reference while a child-parent would use either
weak reference, where parents and children can be unrelated, or unowned where a child always has a
parent, but parent may not have a child. Weak references must be optional variables, since they can
change and become nil.[64]

A closure within a class can also create a strong reference cycle by capturing self references. Self
references to be treated as weak or unowned can be indicated using a capture list.
Debugging and other elements
A key element of the Swift system is its ability to be cleanly debugged and run within the development
environment, using a read–eval–print loop (REPL), giving it interactive properties more in common with
the scripting abilities of Python than traditional system programming languages. The REPL is further
enhanced with the new concept playgrounds. These are interactive views running within the Xcode
environment that respond to code or debugger changes on-the-fly.[65] Playgrounds allow programmers to
add in Swift code along with markdown documentation. If some code changes over time or with regard
to some other ranged input value, the view can be used with the Timeline Assistant to demonstrate the
output in an animated way. In addition, Xcode has debugging features for Swift development including
breakpoints, step through and step over statements, as well as UI element placement breakdowns for app
developers.

Apple says that Swift is "an industrial-quality programming language that's as expressive and enjoyable
as a scripting language".[66]

Performance
Many of the features introduced with Swift also have well-known performance and safety trade-offs.
Apple has implemented optimizations that reduce this overhead.[67]

Comparisons to other languages

Swift is similar to C in various ways:

Most C operators are used in Swift, but there are some new operators, for example to
support integer operations with overflow (see under differences).
Curly braces are used to group statements.
Variables are assigned using an equals sign, but compared using two consecutive equals
signs. A new identity operator, ===, is provided to check if two data elements refer to the
same object.
Control statements while, if, and switch are similar, but have extended functions, e.g.,
a switch that takes non-integer cases, while and if supporting pattern matching and
conditionally unwrapping optionals, etc.
Square brackets are used with arrays, both to declare them and to get a value at a given
index in one of them.
It also has similarities to Objective-C:

Basic numeric types (Int, UInt, Float, Double)

Class methods are inherited, like instance methods; self in class methods is the class the
method was called on.
Similar for...in enumeration syntax.
Differences from Objective-C include:

Statements do not need to end with semicolons (;), though these must be used to allow
more than one statement on a line.
No header files.
Uses type inference.
Generic programming.
 Functions are first-class objects.
Enumeration cases can have associated data (algebraic data types).
Operators can be redefined for classes (operator overloading), and new operators can be
defined.
Strings fully support Unicode. Most Unicode characters can be used in either identifiers or
operators.
No exception handling. Swift 2 introduces a different and incompatible error-handling
model.[68]
Several notoriously error-prone behaviors of earlier C-family languages have been
changed:
Pointers are not exposed by default. There is no need for the programmer to keep track
of and mark names for referencing or dereferencing.
Assignments return no value. This prevents the common error of writing i = 0 instead
of i == 0 by throwing a compile-time error.
No need to use break statements in switch blocks. Individual cases do not fall
through to the next case unless the fallthrough statement is used.
Variables and constants are always initialized and array bounds are always checked.
Integer overflows, which result in undefined behavior for signed integers in C, are
trapped as a run-time error in Swift. Programmers can choose to allow overflows by
using the special arithmetical operators &+, &-, &*, &/ and &%. The properties min and
max are defined in Swift for all integer types and can be used to safely check for
potential overflows, versus relying on constants defined for each type in external
libraries.
The one-statement form of if and while, which allows for the omission of braces
around the statement, is unsupported.
C-style enumeration for (int i = 0; i < c; i++), which is prone to off-by-one
errors, is unsupported (from Swift 3 onward).[69]
The pre- and post- increment and decrement operators (i++, --i ...) are unsupported
(from Swift 3 onward), more so since C-style for statements are also unsupported from
Swift 3 onward.[70]

Development and other implementations

Since the language is open-source, there are prospects of it being ported to the web.[71] Some web
frameworks have already been developed, such as IBM's Kitura, Perfect and Vapor.

An official "Server APIs" work group has also been started by Apple,[72] with members of the Swift
developer community playing a central role.[73]

A second free implementation of Swift that targets Cocoa, Microsoft's Common Language Infrastructure
(.NET), and the Java and Android platform exists as part of the Elements Compiler from RemObjects
Software.[74]

See also
Comparison of programming languages
Objective-C
Kotlin (programming language)
 Python (programming language)

References
1. U.S. patent no. 9329844
2. "Swift Has Reached 1.0" (https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/?id=14). Apple. September
9, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
3. https://github.com/apple/swift/releases
4. https://swift.org/blog/5-2-release-process/
5. "Swift, Objectively" (http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/swift-objectively/2401
68424). "Swift is proprietary and closed: It is entirely controlled by Apple and there is no
open source implementation."
6. Lattner, Chris (June 11, 2014). "Re: [LLVMdev] [cfe-dev] [Advertisement] open positions in
Apple's Swift compiler team" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140714201921/http://lists.cs.ui
uc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2014-June/073698.html). Archived from the original (http://lists.cs.
uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2014-June/073698.html) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 12,
2014. "You can imagine that many of us want it to be open source and part of LLVM, but the
discussion hasn't happened yet, and won't for some time."
7. Lattner, Chris (June 3, 2014). "Chris Lattner's Homepage" (http://nondot.org/sabre/). Chris
Lattner. Retrieved June 3, 2014. "The Swift language is the product of tireless effort from a
team of language experts, documentation gurus, compiler optimization ninjas, and an
incredibly important internal dogfooding group who provided feedback to help refine and
battle-test ideas. Of course, it also greatly benefited from the experiences hard-won by
many other languages in the field, drawing ideas from Objective-C, Rust, Haskell, Ruby,
Python, C#, CLU, and far too many others to list."
8. Lattner, Chris (June 3, 2014). "Chris Lattner's Homepage" (http://nondot.org/sabre). Chris
Lattner. Retrieved June 3, 2014. "I started work on the Swift Programming Language in July
of 2010. I implemented much of the basic language structure, with only a few people
knowing of its existence. A few other (amazing) people started contributing in earnest late in
2011, and it became a major focus for the Apple Developer Tools group in July 2013 [...]
drawing ideas from Objective-C, Rust, Haskell, Ruby, Python, C#, CLU, and far too many
others to list."
9. "Building assert() in Swift, Part 2: __FILE__ and __LINE__" (https://developer.apple.com/sw
ift/blog/?id=15). Retrieved September 25, 2014.
10. "The Swift Linux Port" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-linux-port/). Swift.org. Apple Inc. Retrieved
August 3, 2016.
11. Timmer, John (June 5, 2014). "A fast look at Swift, Apple's new programming language" (htt
ps://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/06/a-fast-look-at-swift-apples-new-programming-languag
e/). Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
12. Protocol-oriented Programming in Swift (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2LwFZatfTI).
Apple Inc. YouTube.
13. "Concepts are similar to Rust Traits" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13225740).
14. Williams, Owen (June 2, 2014). "Tim Berners-Lee's sixtieth birthday Apple announces Swift,
a new programming language for iOS" (https://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/06/02/apple-ann
ounces-swift-new-programming-language-ios). The Next Web. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
15. "Apple's new programming language Swift is now open source" (https://www.theverge.com/
2015/12/3/9842854/apple-swift-open-source-released). The Verge. Retrieved December 5,
2015.
16. "Apple Open Sources Swift in Latest Pitch to the Enterprise" (https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/201
5/12/03/apple-open-sources-swift-in-latest-pitch-to-the-enterprise/). CIO Journal. The Wall
Street Journal Blogs. December 3, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
17. "Looking back on Swift 3 and ahead to Swift 4" (https://forums.swift.org/t/looking-back-on-s
wift-3-and-ahead-to-swift-4/3610). Swift Forums. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
18. "Swift-Evolution" (https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution#source-stability). Swift Evolution.
Retrieved November 19, 2018.
19. "The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings: January 2018 – tecosystems" (https://re
dmonk.com/sogrady/2018/03/07/language-rankings-1-18/). redmonk.com. Retrieved
November 20, 2018.
20. Kremenek, Ted (March 25, 2019). "Swift 5 Released!" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-5-release
d/).
21. Kremenek, Ted (September 20, 2019). "Swift 5.1 Released!" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-5-1-
released/).
22. Platforms State of the Union, Session 102, Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, June
2, 2014
23. The Swift Programming Language (https://itunes.apple.com/book/swift-programming-langua
ge/id881256329?mt=11). Apple. June 2, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014. Lay summary (http
s://swift.org/documentation/).
24. "Swift Has Reached 1.0" (https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/?id=14). September 9,
2014. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
25. "Xcode 6.1 Release Notes" (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/releasenotes/Developer
Tools/RN-Xcode/Chapters/xc6_release_notes.html). October 22, 2014. Retrieved
January 23, 2015.
26. "Xcode 6.3 Release Notes" (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/releasenotes/Developer
Tools/RN-Xcode/Chapters/xc6_release_notes.html). April 8, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
27. "Swift 2 Apps in the App Store" (https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/?id=32). Swift Blog.
Retrieved March 13, 2016.
28. Inc., Apple (September 13, 2016). "Swift 3.0 Released!" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-3-0-rele
ased/). Swift.org. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
29. Inc., Apple (September 17, 2017). "Swift 4.0 Released!" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-4-0-rele
ased/). Swift.org. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
30. Inc., Apple (March 29, 2018). "Swift 4.1 Released!" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-4-1-release
d/). Swift.org. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
31. "Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2015" (https://stackoverflow.com/research/devel
oper-survey-2015#tech-super).
32. "Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2016" (https://stackoverflow.com/research/devel
oper-survey-2016#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted).
33. "Swift.org and Open Source" (https://swift.org/about/#swiftorg-and-open-source). Swift.org.
Apple Inc. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
34. "Introducing the IBM Swift Sandbox — Swift" (https://developer.ibm.com/swift/2015/12/03/int
roducing-the-ibm-swift-sandbox/). Swift. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
35. Mayo, Benjamin. "Write Swift code in a web browser with the IBM Swift Sandbox" (https://9t
o5mac.com/2015/12/04/swift-web-browser-code-ibm-sandbox/). 9to5Mac. Retrieved
December 5, 2015.
36. "After Apple open sources it, IBM puts Swift programming in the cloud | ZDNet" (https://ww
w.zdnet.com/article/after-apple-open-sources-it-ibm-puts-swift-in-the-cloud/). ZDNet.
Retrieved December 5, 2015.
37. "Swift Package Catalog and Swift Sandbox Deprecation" (https://developer.ibm.com/swift/2
017/12/07/package-catalog-sandbox-deprecation/). Retrieved November 9, 2018.
38. "Swift Playgrounds" (https://developer.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/). Apple Developer.
Retrieved June 19, 2016.
39. "Swift Playgrounds — Preview" (https://www.apple.com/swift/playgrounds/). Apple.
Retrieved June 19, 2016.
40. Mayo, Benjamin (June 13, 2016). "Apple announces Swift Playgrounds for iPad at WWDC,
public release in fall" (https://9to5mac.com/2016/06/13/apple-announces-swift-playgrounds-f
or-ipad/). 9to5Mac. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
41. Cunningham, Andrew (January 10, 2017). "Longtime Apple programmer and Swift creator
leaves Apple for Tesla" (https://arstechnica.com/apple/2017/01/longtime-apple-programmer-
and-swift-creator-leaves-apple-for-tesla). Ars Technica.
42. Wuerthele, Mike (January 13, 2017). "New Swift project head Ted Kremenek said to be
running the show behind the scenes for some time" (http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/1
3/new-swift-project-head-ted-kremenek-said-to-be-running-the-show-behind-the-scenes-for-
some-time). AppleInsider.
43. Wednesday, Daniel Eran Dilger; June 19; 2019; PT, 11:26 am. "WWDC19: SwiftUI was the
brightest star in a galaxy of new ideas" (https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/06/19/wwdc19-s
wiftui-was-the-brightest-star-in-a-galaxy-of-new-ideas). AppleInsider. Retrieved July 19,
2019.
44. Kremenek, Ted (March 25, 2019). "Swift 5 Released!" (https://swift.org/blog/swift-5-release
d/). Swift.org. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
45. Metz, Rachel (June 3, 2014). "Apple Seeks a Swift Way to Lure More Developers" (https://w
ww.technologyreview.com/news/527821/apple-seeks-a-swift-way-to-lure-more-developers).
Technology Review.
46. Weber, Harrison (June 2, 2014). "Apple announces 'Swift,' a new programming language for
macOS & iOS" (https://venturebeat.com/2014/06/02/apple-introduces-a-new-programming-l
anguage-swift-objective-c-without-the-c/). VentureBeat.
47. "Advantages Of Using Swift" (https://themindstudios.com/blog/advantages-of-using-swift-ov
er-objective-c/). themindstudios.com. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
48. "Strings and Characters" (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/
swift/conceptual/swift_programming_language/StringsAndCharacters.html).
developer.apple.com. Apple Inc. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
49. "Access Control" (https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Swift/Conceptu
al/Swift_Programming_Language/AccessControl.html). developer.apple.com. Apple Inc.
Retrieved October 25, 2016.
50. "Nullable Types" (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1t3y8s4s.aspx), C#
Programming Guide, Microsoft.
51. "Types" (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/swift/conceptual/
swift_programming_language/Types.html). developer.apple.com. Apple Inc. Retrieved
July 16, 2014.
52. "Classes and Structures" (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Swift/Conc
eptual/Swift_Programming_Language/ClassesAndStructures.html). Apple.com.
53. Guhit, Fiel. "Performance Case Study on Swift 1.1, Swift 1.2, and Objective-C" (https://medi
um.com/@fielgood/swift-1-1-swift-1-2-and-objective-c-a-performance-case-study-d86f7a333
e2a).
54. Building Better Apps with Value Types (https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2015/?id=
414). Apple.
55. "NSCopying Protocol Reference" (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/docum
entation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Protocols/NSCopying_Protocol/index.html). Apple.
56. "Working with Protocols" (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Con
ceptual/ProgrammingWithObjectiveC/WorkingwithProtocols/WorkingwithProtocols.html).
Apple.
57. Thompson, Mattt (September 2, 2014). "Swift Default Protocol Implementations" (https://nsh
ipster.com/swift-default-protocol-implementations/). NSHipster.
58. "Do Swift-based apps work on macOS 10.9/iOS 7 and lower?" (https://stackoverflow.com/qu
estions/24001778/do-swift-based-apps-work-on-os-x-10-9-ios-7-and-lower/24038997#2403
8997), StackOverflow
59. "Using Swift with Cocoa and Objective-C: Basic Setup" (https://developer.apple.com/library/
prerelease/ios/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/BuildingCocoaApps/index.html). apple.com.
January 6, 2015.
60. "Writing Swift Classes with Objective-C Behavior" (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerel
ease/ios/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/BuildingCocoaApps/WritingSwiftClassesWithObje
ctive-CBehavior.html), Apple Inc.
61. "Migrating Your Objective-C Code to Swift" (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documen
tation/Swift/Conceptual/BuildingCocoaApps/Migration.html).
62. "Swift and Objective-C in the Same Project" (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/i
os/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/BuildingCocoaApps/MixandMatch.html#//apple_ref/doc/
uid/TP40014216-CH10-XID_77), Apple Inc.
63. "Automatic Reference Counting" (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/docume
ntation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/AutomaticReferenceCounting.html),
Apple Inc.
64. Lanier, Brian; Groff, Joe. "Intermediate Swift" (https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/201
4/?include=403#403). Apple. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
65. Metz, Cade. "Why Coders Are Going Nuts Over Apple's New Programming Language" (http
s://www.wired.com/2014/06/apple-swift-language/). Wired. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
66. About Swift (https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/Swift/Concep
tual/Swift_Programming_Language/), Apple Inc.
67. "Optimizing Swift Performance" (https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/409/).
Apple, Inc. June 2015.
68. "Error-Handling in Swift-Language" (https://stackoverflow.com/a/26749528).
stackoverflow.com.
69. "apple/swift-evolution" (https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0007-
remove-c-style-for-loops.md). GitHub. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
70. "apple/swift-evolution" (https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0004-
remove-pre-post-inc-decrement.md). GitHub. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
71. Barbosa, Greg (February 22, 2016). "IBM brings Swift to the cloud, releases web framework
Kitura written in Apple's programming language" (https://9to5mac.com/2016/02/22/ibm-swift
-cloud-kitura/). 9to5Mac. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
72. Inc., Apple (October 25, 2016). "Server APIs Work Group" (https://swift.org/blog/server-api-
workgroup/). Swift.org. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
73. Inc., Apple. "Swift.org" (https://swift.org/server-apis/). Swift.org. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
74. "RemObjects Elements Compiler" (http://www.elementscompiler.com/silver). Retrieved
January 17, 2016.

External links
Official website (https://swift.org/)
Swift (https://developer.apple.com/swift/) at Apple Developer
Swift's source code (https://github.com/apple/swift) on GitHub
Server-side Swift (https://developer.ibm.com/swift/)
Swift Example (https://iosexample.com/)
Server-side Swift - The Vapor Framework (https://vapor.codes/)
Swift for IBM z/OS (https://developer.ibm.com/mainframe/products/ibm-toolkit-swift-z-os/)
 Swift for Linux on z Systems (https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/swift-compiler)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swift_(programming_language)&oldid=935496990"

This page was last edited on 12 January 2020, at 23:04 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.