Apple released Swift in 2014, with the goal of introducing a new programming language that was fast, easy and effective. Make use of these 5 Swift features to have an easy iOS development. Swift is designed to couple with Objective-C and be compatible with current Mac OS X and iOS programs. This makes it easy for developers to add Swift to existing apps without removing old code.

1. 5SwiftFeaturestoMaximize
youriOSDevelopment

2. When Apple released Swift in 2014, its goal was to introduce a
new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch that
was fast, easy and effective.
And, as usual, Apple succeeded.

3. Swift is designed to couple with Objective-C and be
compatible with current Mac OS X and iOS programs. Making
it easy for developers to add Swift to existing apps
without removing older code.
Swift also comes with five features guaranteed to
maximize your iOS development experience.

4. Storyboard is perhaps the greatest
thing about creating iOS applications.
Any programmer who has struggled to
create a simple interface within a GUI
knows that with Storyboard, a clean
user interface isn’t just attainable,
it’s inevitable.
Storyboard
1

5. The Model-View-Controller (MVC) design
performs exactly as its name suggests,
defining how objects communicate with
one another within your app.
Most importantly to your iOS development,
MVC is a huge time-saver as it promotes
reusability and abstraction of your code.
MVC Design
2

6. With MVC, you end up with cleaner
code and find view objects that are
similar and reusable.
The Model:
data specific to your
app and doesn’t contain
anything dealing with the
user interface.
The Controller:
the communication link
between the model and
view objects.
The View:
the interface users see
and is notified by the
controller when data
changes.
MVC Design
2

7. Optionals are Swift’s way of dealing with null
values. Any variable type can be optional and is
declared by using a ? directly after the variable
name.
These optionals are key when a variable that
might not have a value associated with it is used.
Optionals enable programmers to know when
a value is missing and allows applications to
run successfully when they are. This may seem
tricky at first, but once you get the hang of
optionals and when to use them, they become a
failsafe to prevent your app from crashing.
Optionals
3

8. If you have a spreadsheet of people’s
information and want a print-out, but
some email or phone numbers are
missing, the sheet will error out.
Optionals
3 With Swift you can say:
if number = numberOptional { println(number) }
...And boom, your print-out is
successful!

9. Duck-typing lets Swift infer the variable type
so your only focus needs to be that objects
perform correctly.
But be sure to remember there are exceptions
where explicit casting is required!
Duck-typing does not work if you want to check
a type while declaring a class or need to ensure
that a variable can only be a certain type.
Duck-typing
4

10. If you haven’t used a language or object
environment (Python, Smalltalk) that implements
duck-typing it might seem odd at first.
Soon enough, you’ll be thinking less of variables
as integers or strings and more as objects.
Duck-typing
4

11. Navigation controllers allow for easy
movement through screens by providing a
navigation bar at the top of each one.
When the navigation controller is used
as the root view controller, each following
view is pushed onto a stack and added to
the navigation bar. This bar includes a back
button, a title, and is fully customizable to
display what you want, where you want.
The navigation controller is easy to set-up,
the only requirement is that it be your root
view. Implement this as a simple drop down
menu navigation within your app.
Navigation
Controllers
5

12. Get started by helping others troubleshoot their iOS
projects in real-time with Live by Experts Exchange today!
-or-
Become a freelancer and help others bring their brilliant
mobile app ideas to life with Gigs.
With these iOS development tips
in mind, what are you waiting for?