This is an introductory explanation of the Swift 3 programming language as it relates to practical real-life iOS programming, from my book, iOS 10 Programming Fundamentals with Swift. Copyright 2016 Matt Neuburg. Please note that this edition is outdated; the current books are iOS 15 Programming Fundamentals with Swift and Programming iOS 14. If my work has been of help to you, please consider purchasing one or both of them, or you can reward me through PayPal at http://www.paypal.me/mattneub. Thank you!

Chapter 2. Functions

Nothing is so characteristic of Swift syntax as the way you declare and call functions. Probably nothing is so important, either! As I said in Chapter 1, all your code is going to be in functions; they are where the action is.

Function Parameters and Return Value

A function is like one of those pseudoscientific machines for processing miscellaneous stuff that you probably drew in your math textbook in elementary school. You know the ones I mean: with a funnel-like “hopper” at the top, and then a bunch of gears and cranks, and then a tube at the bottom where something is produced. A function is a machine like that: you feed some stuff in, the stuff is processed in accordance with what this particular machine does, and something is produced.

The stuff that goes in is the input; what comes out is the output. More technically, a function that expects input has parameters; a function that produces output has a result. For example, here’s a very silly but perfectly valid function that expects two Int values, adds them together, and produces that sum:

func sum (_ x:Int, _ y:Int) -> Int {
    let result = x + y
    return result
}

The syntax here is very strict and well-defined, and you can’t use Swift unless you understand it perfectly. Let’s pause to appreciate it in full detail; I’ll break the first line into pieces so that I can call them out individually:

func sum                      ❶
    (_ x:Int, _ y:Int)        ❸
    -> Int {                  ❺
        let result = x + y    ❻
        return result         ❼
}

The declaration starts with the keyword func, followed by the name of this function; here, it’s sum. This is the name that must be used in order to call the function — that is, in order to run the code that the function contains.

The name of the function is followed by its parameter list. It consists, minimally, of parentheses. If this function takes parameters (input), they are listed inside the parentheses, separated by comma. Each parameter has a strict format: the name of the parameter, a colon, and the type of the parameter.

This particular function declaration also has an underscore (_) and a space before each parameter name in the parameter list. I’m not going to explain that underscore yet. I need it for the example, so just trust me for now.

After the parentheses is an arrow operator ->, followed by the type of value that this function will return.

Then we have curly braces enclosing the body of the function — its actual code.

Within the curly braces, in the function body, the variables defined as the parameter names have sprung to life, with the types specified in the parameter list.

If the function is to return a value, it must do so with the keyword return followed by that value. And, not surprisingly, the type of that value must match the type declared earlier for the return value (after the arrow operator).

Here are some further points to note about the parameters and return type of our function:

Parameters

Our sum function expects two parameters — an Int, to which it gives the name x, and another Int, to which it gives the name y. The function body code won’t run unless code elsewhere calls this function and actually passes values of the specified types for its parameters. (In fact, if I were to try to call this function without providing a value for each of these two parameters, or if either of the values I provide were not an Int, the compiler would stop me with an error.) In the body of the function, therefore, we can confidently use those values, referring to them by those names, secure in the knowledge that such values will exist and that they will be Int values, as specified by our parameter list. This provides certainty for not only the programmer, but also the compiler.

Observe that these names, x and y, are arbitrary and purely local (internal) to this function. They are different from any other x and y that may be used in other functions or at a higher level of scope. These names are defined so that the parameter values will have names by which they can be referred to in the code within the function body. The parameter declaration is, indeed, a kind of variable declaration: we are declaring variables x and y for use inside this function.

Return type

The last statement of our sum function’s body returns the value of a variable called result; this variable was created by adding two Int values together, so it is an Int, which is what this function is supposed to produce. If I tried to return a String (return "howdy"), or if I were to omit the return statement altogether, the compiler would stop me with an error.

Note that the keyword return actually does two things. It returns the accompanying value, and it also halts execution of the function. It is permitted for more lines of code to follow a return statement, but the compiler will warn if this means that those lines of code can never be executed.

The function declaration before the curly braces is, in short, a contract about what kinds of values will be used as input and about what kind of output will be produced. According to this contract, the function expects a certain number of parameters, each of a certain type, and yields a certain type of result. Everything must correspond to this contract. The function body, inside the curly braces, can use the parameters as local variables. The returned value must match the declared return type.

The same contract applies to code elsewhere that calls this function. Here’s some code that calls our sum function:

let z = sum(4,5)

Focus your attention on the right side of the equal sign — sum(4,5). That’s the function call. How is it constructed? It uses the name of the function; that name is followed by parentheses; and inside those parentheses, separated by a comma, are the values to be passed to each of the function’s parameters. Technically, these values are called arguments. Here, I’m using literal Int values, but I’m perfectly free to use Int variables instead; the only requirement is that I use things that have the correct type:

let x = 4
let y = 5
let z = sum(y,x)

In that code, I purposely used the names x and y for the variables whose values are passed as arguments, and I purposely reversed them in the call, to emphasize that these names have nothing to do with the names x and y inside the function parameter list and the function body. These names do not magically make their way to the function. Their values are all that matter; their values are the arguments.

What about the value returned by the function? That value is magically substituted for the function call, at the point where the function call is made. It happens that in the preceding code, the result is 9. So the last line is exactly as if I had said:

let z = 9

The programmer and the compiler both know what type of thing this function returns, so they also know where it is and isn’t legal to call this function. It’s fine to call this function as the initialization part of the declaration of the variable z, just as it would be to use 9 as the initialization part of that declaration: in both cases, we have an Int, and so z ends up being declared as an Int. But it would not be legal to write this:

let z = sum(4,5) + "howdy" // compile error

Because sum returns an Int, that’s the same as trying to add an Int to a String — and by default, you can’t do that in Swift.

Observe that it is legal to ignore the value returned from a function call:

sum(4,5)

That code is sort of silly in this particular situation, because we have made our sum function go to all the trouble of adding 4 and 5 for us and we have then thrown away the answer without capturing or using it. The compiler knows this, and will warn that we are failing to use the result of our function call. Nevertheless, a warning is not an error; that code is legal. There are, in fact, lots of situations where it is perfectly reasonable to ignore the value returned from a function call; in particular, the function may do other things (technically called side effects) in addition to returning a value, and the purpose of your call to that function may be those other things.

Tip

If you’re ignoring a function call result deliberately, you can silence the compiler warning by assigning the function call to _ (a variable without a name) — for example, _ = sum(4,5). Alternatively, if the function being called is your own, you can prevent the warning by marking the function declaration with @discardableResult.

If you can call sum wherever you can use an Int, and if the parameters of sum have to be Int values, doesn’t that mean you can call sum inside a call to sum? Of course it does! This is perfectly legal (and reasonable):

let z = sum(4,sum(5,6))

The only argument against writing code like that is that you might confuse yourself and that it might make things harder to debug later. But, technically, it’s legal, and quite normal.

Void Return Type and Parameters

Let’s return to our function declaration. With regard to a function’s parameters and return type, there are two degenerate cases that allow us to express a function declaration more briefly:

A function without a return type

No law says that a function must return a value. A function may be declared to return no value. In that case, there are three ways to write the declaration: you can write it as returning Void; you can write it as returning (), an empty pair of parentheses; or you can omit the arrow operator and the return type entirely. These are all legal:

func say1(_ s:String) -> Void { print(s) }
func say2(_ s:String) -> () { print(s) }
func say3(_ s:String) { print(s) }

If a function returns no value, then its body need not contain a return statement. If it does contain a return statement, its purpose will be purely to end execution of the function at that point.

A call to a function that returns no value is made purely for the function’s side effects; it has no useful return value that can be made part of a larger expression, so the statement will usually consist of the function call and nothing else.

A function without any parameters

No law says that a function must take any parameters. If it doesn’t, the parameter list in the function declaration can be completely empty. But you can’t omit the parameter list parentheses themselves! They will be present in the function declaration, after the function’s name:

func greet1() -> String { return "howdy" }

Obviously a function can lack both a return value and parameters; these are all ways of expressing the same thing:

func greet1() -> Void { print("howdy") }
func greet2() -> () { print("howdy") }
func greet3() { print("howdy") }

Just as you cannot omit the parentheses (the parameter list) from a function declaration, you cannot omit the parentheses from a function call. Those parentheses will be empty if the function takes no parameters, but they must be present. For example:

greet1()

Notice the parentheses!

Tip

Even a function that returns no value technically does in fact return a value — namely, a value of type Void, which may be expressed as the literal (). (I’ll explain in Chapter 3 what the literal () really represents.) Thus, it is legal for such a function to say return (); whether it says that or not, () is what it returns, and it is legal (though nearly always pointless) to capture that value.

Function Signature

If we ignore for a moment the parameter names in the function declaration, we can completely characterize a function by the types of its inputs and its output, using an expression like this:

(Int, Int) -> Int

That in fact is a legal expression in Swift. It is the signature of a function. In this case, it’s the signature of our sum function. Of course, there can be other functions that take two Int parameters and return an Int — and that’s just the point. This signature characterizes all functions that have this number of parameters, of these types, and that return a result of this type. A function’s signature is, in effect, its type — the type of the function. The fact that functions have types will be of great importance later on.

The signature of a function must include both the parameter list (without parameter names) and the return type, even if one or both of those is empty; so, the signature of a function that takes no parameters and returns no value may be written in any of four equivalent ways, including (Void) -> Void and () -> ().

External Parameter Names

A function can externalize the names of its parameters. The external names must then appear in a call to the function as labels to the arguments. There are several reasons why this is a good thing:

  • It clarifies the purpose of each argument; each argument label can give a clue as to how that argument contributes to the behavior of the function.
  • It distinguishes one function from another; two functions with the same name (before the parentheses) and the same signature but different externalized parameter names are two distinct functions.
  • It helps Swift to interface with Objective-C and Cocoa, where method parameters nearly always have externalized names.

Externalized parameter names are so standard in Swift that there’s a rule: by default, all parameter names are externalized automatically, using the internal name as the externalized name. Thus, if you want a parameter name to be externalized, and if you want the externalized name to be the same as the internal name, do nothing — that will happen all by itself.

If you want to depart from the default behavior, you can do either of the following in your function declaration:

Change the name of an external parameter
If you want to change the external name of a parameter to be different from its internal name, precede the internal name with the external name and a space.
Suppress the externalization of a parameter

To suppress a parameter’s external name, precede the internal name with an underscore and a space.

(That explains my declaration func sum (_ x:Int, _ y:Int) -> Int at the start of this chapter: I was suppressing the externalization of the parameter names, so as not to have to explain argument labels at the outset.)

Here’s the declaration for a function that concatenates a string with itself a given number of times:

func echoString(_ s:String, times:Int) -> String {
    var result = ""
    for _ in 1...times { result += s }
    return result
}

That function’s first parameter has an internal name only, but its second parameter has an external name, which will be the same as its internal name, namely times. And here’s how to call it:

let s = echoString("hi", times:3)

In the call, as you can see, the external name precedes the argument as a label, separated by a colon.

Now let’s say that in our echoString function we prefer to use times purely as an external name for the second parameter, with a different name — say, n — as the internal name. And let’s strip the string off the function’s name (before the parentheses) and make it the external name of the first parameter. Then the declaration would look like this:

func echo(string s:String, times n:Int) -> String {
    var result = ""
    for _ in 1...n { result += s}
    return result
}

In the body of that function, there is now no times variable available; times is purely an external name, for use in the call. The internal name is n, and that’s the name the code refers to. And here’s how to call it:

let s = echo(string:"hi", times:3)

Tip

The existence of external names doesn’t mean that the call can use a different parameter order from the declaration. For example, our echo(string:times:) expects a String parameter and an Int parameter, in that order. The order can’t be different in the call, even though the label might appear to disambiguate which argument goes with which parameter.

Overloading

In Swift, function overloading is legal (and common). This means that two functions with exactly the same name, including their external parameter names, can coexist as long as they have different signatures.

Thus, for example, these two functions can coexist:

func say (_ what:String) {
}
func say (_ what:Int) {
}

The reason overloading works is that Swift has strict typing. A String is not an Int. Swift can tell them apart in the declaration, and Swift can tell them apart in a function call. Thus, Swift knows unambiguously that say("what") is different from say(1).

Overloading works for the return type as well. Two functions with the same name and parameter types can have different return types. But the context of the call must disambiguate; that is, it must be clear what return type the caller is expecting.

For example, these two functions can coexist:

func say() -> String {
    return "one"
}
func say() -> Int {
    return 1
}

But now you can’t call say like this:

let result = say() // compile error

The call is ambiguous, and the compiler tells you so. The call must be used in a context where the expected return type is clear. For example, suppose we have another function that is not overloaded, and that expects a String parameter:

func giveMeAString(_ s:String) {
    print("thanks!")
}

Then giveMeAString(say()) is legal, because only a String can go in this spot, so we must be calling the say that returns a String. Similarly:

let result = say() + "two"

Only a String can be “added” to a String, so this must be the say() that returns a String.

The legality of overloading in Swift is particularly striking if you’re coming from Objective-C, where overloading is not legal. If you tried to declare two overloaded versions of the same method in Objective-C, you’d get a “Duplicate declaration” compile error. And indeed, if you try to declare two overloaded methods in Swift, but in a place where Objective-C can see them (see Appendix A. C, Objective-C, and Swift for what that means), you’ll get a Swift compile error, because such overloading is incompatible with Objective-C.

Tip

Two functions with the same signature but different external parameter names do not constitute a case of overloading; the functions have different external parameter names, so they are simply two different functions with two different names.

Default Parameter Values

A parameter can have a default value. This means that the caller can omit the parameter entirely, supplying no argument for it; the value will then be the default.

To specify a default value in a function declaration, append = and the default value after the parameter type:

class Dog {
    func say(_ s:String, times:Int = 1) {
        for _ in 1...times {
            print(s)
        }
    }
}

In effect, there are now two functions — say(_:) and say(_:times:). If you just want to say something once, you can call say(_:) with a single unlabeled argument, and a times: parameter value of 1 will be supplied for you:

let d = Dog()
d.say("woof") // same as saying d.say("woof", times:1)

If you want repetition, call say(_:times:):

let d = Dog()
d.say("woof", times:3)

Variadic Parameters

A parameter can be variadic. This means that the caller can supply as many values of this parameter’s type as desired, separated by comma; the function body will receive these values as an array.

To indicate in a function declaration that a parameter is variadic, follow it by three dots, like this:

func sayStrings(_ arrayOfStrings:String ...) {
    for s in arrayOfStrings { print(s) }
}

And here’s how to call it:

sayStrings("hey", "ho", "nonny nonny no")

The global print function takes a variadic first parameter, so you can output multiple values with a single command:

print("Manny", 3, true) // Manny 3 true

The print function’s default parameters dictate further details of the output. The default separator: (for when you provide multiple values) is a space, and the default terminator: is a newline; you can change either or both:

print("Manny", "Moe", separator:", ", terminator:", ")
print("Jack")
// output is "Manny, Moe, Jack" on one line

A function can declare a maximum of one variadic parameter (because otherwise it might be impossible to determine where the list of values ends).

Warning

Unfortunately, there’s a hole in the Swift language: there’s no way to convert an array into a comma-separated list of arguments (comparable to splatting in Ruby). If what you’re starting with is an array of some type, you can’t use it where a variadic of that type is expected.

Ignored Parameters

A parameter whose local name is an underscore is ignored. The caller must supply an argument, but it has no name within the function body and cannot be referred to there. For example:

func say(_ s:String, times:Int, loudly _:Bool) {

No loudly parameter makes its way into the function body, but the caller must still provide the third parameter:

say("hi", times:3, loudly:true)

The declaration needn’t have an externalized name for the ignored parameter:

func say(_ s:String, times:Int, _:Bool) {

But the caller must still supply it:

say("hi", times:3, true)

What’s the purpose of this feature? It isn’t to satisfy the compiler, because the compiler doesn’t complain if a parameter is never referred to in the function body. I use it primarily as a kind of note to myself, a way of saying, “Yes, I know there is a parameter here, and I am deliberately not using it for anything.”

Modifiable Parameters

In the body of a function, a parameter is essentially a local variable. By default, it’s a variable implicitly declared with let. You can’t assign to it:

func say(_ s:String, times:Int, loudly:Bool) {
    loudly = true // compile error
}

If your code needs to assign to a parameter name within the body of a function, declare a var local variable inside the function body and assign the parameter value to it; your local variable can even have the same name as the parameter:

func say(_ s:String, times:Int, loudly:Bool) {
    var loudly = loudly
    loudly = true // no problem
}

In that code, loudly is a local variable; assigning to it doesn’t change the value of any variable outside the function body. However, it is also possible to configure a parameter in such a way that assigning to it does modify the value of a variable outside the function body! One typical use case is that you want your function to return more than one result. For example, here I’ll write a rather advanced function that removes all occurrences of a given character from a given string and returns the number of occurrences that were removed:

func removeCharacter(_ c:Character, from s:String) -> Int {
    var s = s
    var howMany = 0
    while let ix = s.characters.index(of:c) {
        s.remove(at:ix)
        howMany += 1
    }
    return howMany
}

And you call it like this:

let s = "hello"
let result = removeCharacter("l", from:s) // 2

That’s nice, but we forgot one little thing: the original string, s, is still "hello"! In the function body, we removed all occurrences of the character from the local copy of the String parameter, but this change didn’t affect the original string.

If we want our function to alter the original value of an argument passed to it, we must do the following:

  • The type of the parameter we intend to modify must be declared inout.
  • When we call the function, the variable holding the value we intend to tell it to modify must be declared with var, not let.
  • Instead of passing the variable as an argument, we must pass its address. This is done by preceding its name with an ampersand (&).

Our removeCharacter(_:from:) now looks like this:

func removeCharacter(_ c:Character, from s: inout String) -> Int {
    var howMany = 0
    while let ix = s.characters.index(of:c) {
        s.remove(at:ix)
        howMany += 1
    }
    return howMany
}

And our call to removeCharacter(_:from:) now looks like this:

var s = "hello"
let result = removeCharacter("l", from:&s)

After the call, result is 2 and s is "heo". Notice the ampersand before name of s as the first argument in our function call! I like this requirement, because it forces us to acknowledge explicitly to the compiler, and to ourselves, that we’re about to do something potentially dangerous: we’re letting this function, as a side effect, modify a value outside of itself.

Tip

When a function with an inout parameter is called, the variable whose address was passed as argument to that parameter is always set, even if the function makes no changes to that parameter.

You may encounter variations on this pattern when you’re using Cocoa. The Cocoa APIs are written in C and Objective-C, so you probably won’t see the Swift term inout. You’ll probably see some mysterious type such as UnsafeMutablePointer. From your point of view as the caller, however, it’s the same thing. You’ll prepare a var variable and pass its address.

For instance, consider the problem of learning a UIColor’s RGBA components. There are four such components: the color’s red, green, blue, and alpha values. A function that, given a UIColor, returned the components of that color, would need to return four values at once — and that is something that Objective-C cannot do. So a different strategy is used. The UIColor method getRed(_:green:blue:alpha:) returns only a Bool reporting whether the component extraction succeeded. Instead of returning the actual components, it says: “You hand me four CGFloats as arguments, and I will modify them for you so that they are the results of this operation.” Here’s how the declaration for getRed(_:green:blue:alpha:) appears in Swift:

func getRed(_ red: UnsafeMutablePointer<CGFloat>,
    green: UnsafeMutablePointer<CGFloat>,
    blue: UnsafeMutablePointer<CGFloat>,
    alpha: UnsafeMutablePointer<CGFloat>) -> Bool

How would you call this function? The parameters are each an UnsafeMutablePointer to a CGFloat. You’ll create four var CGFloat variables beforehand, giving them each some value even though that value will be replaced when you call getRed(_:green:blue:alpha:). You’ll pass the addresses of those variables as arguments. Those variables are where the component values will be after the call; and you’ll probably be so sure that the component extraction will succeed, that you won’t even bother to capture the call’s actual result! So, for example:

let c = UIColor.purple
var r : CGFloat = 0
var g : CGFloat = 0
var b : CGFloat = 0
var a : CGFloat = 0
c.getRed(&r, green: &g, blue: &b, alpha: &a)
// now r, g, b, a are 0.5, 0.0, 0.5, 1.0

Sometimes, Cocoa will call your function with an UnsafeMutablePointer parameter, and you will want to change its value. To do this, you cannot assign directly to it, as we did with the inout variable s in our implementation of remove(from:character:). You’re talking to Objective-C, not to Swift, and this is an UnsafeMutablePointer, not an inout parameter. The technique here is to assign to the UnsafeMutablePointer’s pointee property. Here (without further explanation) is an example from my own code:

func popoverPresentationController(
    _ popoverPresentationController: UIPopoverPresentationController,
    willRepositionPopoverTo rect: UnsafeMutablePointer<CGRect>,
    in view: AutoreleasingUnsafeMutablePointer<UIView>) {
        view.pointee = self.button2
        rect.pointee = self.button2.bounds
}

There is one very common situation where your function can modify a parameter without declaring it as inout — namely, when the parameter is an instance of a class. This is a special feature of classes, as opposed to the other two object type flavors, enum and struct. String isn’t a class; it’s a struct. That’s why we had to use inout in order to modify a String parameter. So I’ll illustrate by declaring a Dog class with a name property:

class Dog {
    var name = ""
}

Here’s a function that takes a Dog instance parameter and a String, and sets that Dog instance’s name to that String. Notice that no inout is involved:

func changeName(of d:Dog, to newName:String) {
    d.name = newName
}

Here’s how to call it. There’s no inout, so we pass a Dog instance directly:

let d = Dog()
d.name = "Fido"
print(d.name) // "Fido"
changeName(of:d, to:"Rover")
print(d.name) // "Rover"

Observe that we were able to change a property of our Dog instance d, even though it wasn’t passed as an inout parameter, and even though it was declared originally with let, not var. This appears to be an exception to the rules about modifying parameters — but it isn’t. It’s a feature of class instances, namely that they are themselves mutable. In changeName(of:to:), we didn’t actually attempt to modify the parameter itself. To do that, we would have had to substitute a different Dog instance. That is not what we tried to do, and if we did want to do it, the Dog parameter would need to be declared inout (and d would have to be declared with var and we would have to pass its address as argument).

Note

Technically, we say that classes are reference types, whereas the other object type flavors are value types. When you pass an instance of a struct as an argument to a function, you effectively wind up with a separate copy of the struct instance. But when you pass an instance of a class as an argument to a function, you pass a reference to the class instance itself. I’ll discuss this topic in more detail in Chapter 4.

Function In Function

A function can be declared anywhere, including inside the body of a function. A function declared in the body of a function (also called a local function) is available to be called by later code within the same scope, but is completely invisible elsewhere.

This feature is an elegant architecture for functions whose sole purpose is to assist another function. If only function A ever needs to call function B, function B might as well be packaged inside function A.

Here’s a typical example from one of my apps (I’ve omitted everything except the structure):

func checkPair(_ p1:Piece, and p2:Piece) -> Path? {
    // ...
    func addPathIfValid(_ midpt1:Point, _ midpt2:Point) {
        // ...
    }
    for y in -1..._yct {
        addPathIfValid((pt1.x,y),(pt2.x,y))
    }
    for x in -1..._xct {
        addPathIfValid((x,pt1.y),(x,pt2.y))
    }
    // ...
}

What I’m doing in the first for loop (for y) and what I’m doing in the second for loop (for x) are the same — but with a different set of starting values. We could write out the functionality in full inside each for loop, but that would be an unnecessary and confusing repetition. (Such a repetition would violate the principle often referred to as DRY, for “Don’t Repeat Yourself.”) To prevent that repetition, we could refactor the repeated code into an instance method to be called by both for loops, but that exposes this functionality more broadly than we need, as it is called only by these two for loops inside checkPair. A local function is the perfect compromise.

Sometimes, it’s worth using a local function even when that function will be called in only one place. Here’s another example from my code (it’s actually another part of the same function):

func checkPair(_ p1:Piece, and p2:Piece) -> Path? {
    // ...
    if arr.count > 0 {
        func distance(_ pt1:Point, _ pt2:Point) -> Double { ❶
            // utility to learn physical distance between two points
            let deltax = pt1.0 - pt2.0
            let deltay = pt1.1 - pt2.1
            return sqrt(Double(deltax * deltax + deltay * deltay))
        }
        for thisPath in arr {
            var thisLength = 0.0
            for ix in thisPath.indices.dropLast() {
                thisLength += distance(thisPath[ix],thisPath[ix+1]) ❷
            }
            // ...
        }
    }
    // ...
}

Again, the structure is clear (even though the code uses some Swift features I haven’t discussed yet). Deep inside the function checkPair, a moment comes when I have an array (arr) of paths, and I need to know the length of every path. Each path is itself an array of points, so to learn its length, I need to sum the distances between each pair of points. To get the distance between a pair of points, I use the Pythagorean theorem. I could apply the Pythagorean theorem and express the calculation right there inside the for loop (for ix). Instead:

I’ve expressed the Pythagorean theorem as a local function, distance, and then…

Inside the for loop I call that function.

There is no savings whatever in the number of lines of code; in fact, declaring distance makes my code longer! Nor, strictly speaking, am I in danger of repeating myself; the application of the Pythagorean theorem is repeated many times, but it occurs at only one spot in my code, namely inside this one for loop. Nevertheless, abstracting the code into a more general distance-calculation utility makes my code much clearer: in effect, I announce in general form what I’m about to do (“Look! I’m going to calculate distances between points now!”), and then I do it. The function name, distance, gives my code meaning; it is more understandable and maintainable than if I had directly written out the steps of the distance calculation inline.

Tip

Local functions are really local variables with function values (a notion that I’ll explain later in this chapter). Therefore, a local function can’t have the same name as a local variable in the same scope, and two local functions can’t have the same name as one another in the same scope.

Recursion

A function can call itself. This is called recursion. Recursion seems a little scary, rather like jumping off a cliff, because of the danger of creating an infinite loop; but if you write the function correctly, you will always have a “stopper” condition that handles the degenerate case and prevents the loop from being infinite:

func countDownFrom(_ ix:Int) {
    print(ix)
    if ix > 0 { // stopper
        countDownFrom(ix-1) // recurse!
    }
}

Function As Value

If you’ve never used a programming language where functions are first-class citizens, perhaps you’d better sit down now, because what I’m about to tell you might make you feel a little faint: In Swift, a function is a first-class citizen. This means that a function can be used wherever a value can be used. For example, a function can be assigned to a variable; a function can be passed as an argument in a function call; a function can be returned as the result of a function.

Swift has strict typing. You can only assign a value to a variable or pass a value into or out of a function if it is the right type of value. In order for a function to be used as a value, it needs to have a type. And indeed it does! Have you guessed what it is? A function’s signature is its type.

The chief purpose of using a function as a value is so that this function can later be called without a definite knowledge of what function it is. Here’s the world’s simplest (and silliest) example, just to show the syntax and structure:

func doThis(_ f:()->()) {
    f()
}

That is a function doThis that takes one parameter (and returns no value). The parameter, f, is itself a function; we know this because the type of the parameter is given as a function signature, ()->(), meaning (as you know) a function that takes no parameters and returns no value. The function doThis then calls the function f that it received as its parameter, by saying f().

Having declared the function doThis, how would you call it? To do so, you’d need to pass it a function as argument. Here’s one way to do that:

func doThis(_ f:()->()) {
    f()
}
func whatToDo() {
    print("I did it")
}
doThis(whatToDo)

First, we declare a function (whatToDo) of the proper type — a function that takes no parameters and returns no value. Then, we call doThis, passing as argument a function reference — in effect, the bare name of the function. Notice that we are not calling whatToDo here; we are passing it. Sure enough, this works: we pass whatToDo as argument to doThis; doThis calls the function that it receives as its parameter; and the string "I did it" appears in the console.

But what’s the point of being able to do that? If our goal is to call whatToDo, why don’t we just call it? What’s useful about being able to tell some other function to call it? In the example I just gave, there is nothing useful about it; I was just showing you the syntax and structure. But in real life, this is a very valuable thing to do. Encapsulating function-calling in a function can reduce repetition and opportunity for error. Moreover, the other function may call the parameter function in some special way; for example, it might call it after doing other things, or at some later time.

Here’s a case from my own code. A common thing to do in Cocoa is to draw an image, directly, in code. This involves four steps:

let size = CGSize(width:45, height:20)
UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, 0) ❶
let p = UIBezierPath(
    roundedRect: CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:45, height:20), cornerRadius: 8)
p.stroke() ❷
let result = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()! ❸
UIGraphicsEndImageContext() 

Open an image context.

Draw into the context.

Extract the image.

Close the image context.

That’s terribly ugly. The sole purpose of all that code is to obtain result, the image; but that purpose is buried in all the other code. At the same time, the entire structure is boilerplate; every time I do this in any app, step 1, step 3, and step 4 are exactly the same. Moreover, I live in mortal fear of forgetting a step; for example, if I were to omit step 4 by mistake, the universe would explode.

The only thing that’s different every time I draw is step 2. Thus, step 2 is the only part I should have to write out! The entire problem is solved by writing a utility function expressing the boilerplate:

func imageOfSize(_ size:CGSize, _ whatToDraw:() -> ()) -> UIImage {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, 0)
    whatToDraw()
    let result = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return result
}

My imageOfSize utility is so useful that I declare it at the top level of a file, where all my files can see it. To make an image, I perform step 2 (the actual drawing) in a function and pass that function as argument to the imageOfSize utility:

func drawing() {
    let p = UIBezierPath(
        roundedRect: CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:45, height:20),
        cornerRadius: 8)
    p.stroke()
}
let image = imageOfSize(CGSize(width:45, height:20), drawing)

Now that is a beautifully expressive and clear way to turn drawing instructions into an image.

Tip

Evidently Apple agrees with my criticism of UIGraphicsBeginImageContext..., because iOS 10 introduces a new class, UIGraphicsImageRenderer, that expresses itself using syntax similar to my imageOfSize. Nevertheless, I’ll continue using imageOfSize in this chapter, because it illustrates important aspects of Swift functions.

The Cocoa API is full of situations where you’ll pass a function to be called by the runtime in some special way or at some later time. Some common Cocoa situations even involve passing two functions. For instance, when you perform view animation, you’ll often pass one function prescribing the action to be animated and another function saying what to do afterward:

func whatToAnimate() { // self.myButton is a button in the interface
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
}
func whatToDoLater(finished:Bool) {
    print("finished: \(finished)")
}
UIView.animate(withDuration:
    0.4, animations: whatToAnimate, completion: whatToDoLater)

That means: Change the frame origin (that is, the position) of this button in the interface, but do it over time (four-tenths of a second); and then, when that’s finished, print a log message in the console saying whether the animation was performed or not.

The Cocoa documentation will often describe a function to be passed in this way as a handler, and will refer it as a block, because that’s the Objective-C syntactic construct needed here; in Swift, it’s a function, so just think of it as a function and pass a function.

Anonymous Functions

Consider once again this earlier example:

func whatToAnimate() { // self.myButton is a button in the interface
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
}
func whatToDoLater(finished:Bool) {
    print("finished: \(finished)")
}
UIView.animate(withDuration:
    0.4, animations: whatToAnimate, completion: whatToDoLater)

There’s a slight bit of ugliness in that code. I’m declaring functions whatToAnimate and whatToDoLater, just because I want to pass those functions in the last line. I don’t really need the names whatToAnimate and whatToDoLater for anything, except to refer to them in the last line; neither the names nor the functions will ever be used again. Therefore, it would be nice to be able to pass just the body of those functions without a declared name.

That’s called an anonymous function, and it’s legal and common in Swift. To form an anonymous function, you do two things:

  1. Create the function body itself, including the surrounding curly braces, but with no function declaration.
  2. If necessary, express the function’s parameter list and return type as the first line inside the curly braces, followed by the keyword in.

Let’s practice by transforming our named function declarations into anonymous functions. Here’s the named function declaration for whatToAnimate:

func whatToAnimate() {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
}

Here’s an anonymous function that does the same thing. Notice how I’ve moved the parameter list and return type inside the curly braces:

{
    () -> () in
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
}

Here’s the named function declaration for whatToDoLater:

func whatToDoLater(finished:Bool) {
    print("finished: \(finished)")
}

Here’s an anonymous function that does the same thing:

{
    (finished:Bool) -> () in
    print("finished: \(finished)")
}

Now that we know how to make anonymous functions, let’s use them. The point where we need the functions is the point where we’re passing arguments to animate(withDuration:animations:completion:). We can create and pass anonymous functions right at that point, like this:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4,
    animations: {
        () -> () in
        self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    },
    completion: {
        (finished:Bool) -> () in
        print("finished: \(finished)")
    }
)

We can make the same improvement in the way we call the imageOfSize function from the preceding section. Earlier, we called that function like this:

func drawing() {
    let p = UIBezierPath(
        roundedRect: CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:45, height:20),
        cornerRadius: 8)
    p.stroke()
}
let image = imageOfSize(CGSize(width:45, height:20), drawing)

We now know, however, that we don’t need to declare the drawing function separately. We can call imageOfSize with an anonymous function:

let image = imageOfSize(CGSize(width:45, height:20), {
    () -> () in
    let p = UIBezierPath(
        roundedRect: CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:45, height:20),
        cornerRadius: 8)
    p.stroke()
})

Anonymous functions are very commonly used in Swift, so make sure you can read and write that code! Anonymous functions, in fact, are so common and so important, that some shortcuts for writing them are provided:

Omission of the return type

If the anonymous function’s return type is already known to the compiler, you can omit the arrow operator and the specification of the return type:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    () in
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }, completion: {
        (finished:Bool) in
        print("finished: \(finished)")
})
Omission of the in line when there are no parameters

If the anonymous function takes no parameters, and if the return type can be omitted, the in line itself can be omitted entirely:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }, completion: {
        (finished:Bool) in
        print("finished: \(finished)")
})
Omission of the parameter types

If the anonymous function takes parameters and their types are already known to the compiler, the types can be omitted:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }, completion: {
        (finished) in
        print("finished: \(finished)")
})
Omission of the parentheses

If the parameter types are omitted, the parentheses around the parameter list can be omitted:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }, completion: {
        finished in
        print("finished: \(finished)")
})
Omission of the in line even when there are parameters

If the return type can be omitted, and if the parameter types are already known to the compiler, you can omit the in line and refer to the parameters directly within the body of the anonymous function by using the magic names $0, $1, and so on, in order:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }, completion: {
        print("finished: \($0)")
})
Omission of the parameter names

If the anonymous function body doesn’t need to refer to a parameter, you can substitute an underscore for its name in the parameter list in the in line; in fact, if the anonymous function body doesn’t need to refer to any of the parameters, you can substitute one underscore for the entire parameter list:

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }, completion: {
        _ in
        print("finished!")
})

But note that if the anonymous function takes parameters, you must acknowledge them somehow. You can omit the in line and use the parameters by the magic names $0 and so on, or you can keep the in line and ignore the parameters with an underscore, but you can’t omit the in line altogether and not use the parameters by their magic names! If you do, your code won’t compile.

Omission of the function argument label

If, as will just about always be the case, your anonymous function is the last argument being passed in this function call, you can close the function call with a right parenthesis before this last argument, and then put just the anonymous function body without a label (this is called a trailing function):

UIView.animate(withDuration:0.4, animations: {
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
    }) {
        _ in
        print("finished!")
}
Omission of the calling function parentheses

If you use the trailing function syntax, and if the function you are calling takes no parameters other than the function you are passing to it, you can omit the empty parentheses from the call. This is the only situation in which you can omit the parentheses from a function call! To illustrate, I’ll declare and call a different function:

func doThis(_ f:()->()) {
    f()
}
doThis { // no parentheses!
    print("Howdy")
}
Omission of the keyword return

If the anonymous function body consists of exactly one statement and that statement consists of returning a value with the keyword return, the keyword return can be omitted. To put it another way, in a context that expects a function that returns a value, if an anonymous function body consists of exactly one statement, Swift assumes that this statement is an expression whose value is to be returned from the anonymous function:

func greeting() -> String {
    return "Howdy"
}
func performAndPrint(_ f:()->String) {
    let s = f()
    print(s)
}
performAndPrint {
    greeting() // meaning: return greeting()
}

When writing anonymous functions, you will frequently find yourself taking advantage of all the omissions you are permitted. In addition, you’ll often shorten the layout of the code (though not the code itself) by putting the whole anonymous function together with the function call on one line. Thus, Swift code involving anonymous functions can be extremely compact.

Here’s a typical example. We start with an array of Int values and generate a new array consisting of all those values multiplied by 2, by calling the map(_:) instance method. The map(_:) method of an array takes a function that takes one parameter of the same type as the array’s elements, and returns a new value; here, our array is made of Int values, and we are passing to the map(_:) method a function that takes one Int parameter and returns an Int. We could write out the whole function, like this:

let arr = [2, 4, 6, 8]
func doubleMe(i:Int) -> Int {
    return i*2
}
let arr2 = arr.map(doubleMe) // [4, 8, 12, 16]

That, however, is not very Swifty. We don’t need the name doubleMe for anything else, so this may as well be an anonymous function:

let arr = [2, 4, 6, 8]
let arr2 = arr.map ({
    (i:Int) -> Int in
    return i*2
})

Fine, but now let’s start shortening our anonymous function. Its parameter type is known in advance, so we don’t need to specify that. Its return type is known by inspection of the function body, so we don’t need to specify that. There’s just one parameter and we are going to use it, so we don’t need the in line as long we refer to the parameter as $0. Our function body consists of just one statement, and it is a return statement, so we can omit return. And map(_:) doesn’t take any other parameters, so we can omit the parentheses and follow the name directly with a trailing function:

let arr = [2, 4, 6, 8]
let arr2 = arr.map {$0*2}

It doesn’t get any Swiftier than that!

Define-and-Call

A pattern that’s surprisingly common in Swift is to define an anonymous function and call it, all in one move:

{
    // ... code goes here
}()

Notice the parentheses after the curly braces. The curly braces define an anonymous function body; the parentheses call that anonymous function.

Why would anyone do such a thing? If you want to run some code, you can just run it; why would you embed it in a deeper level as a function body, only to turn around and run that function body immediately?

For one thing, an anonymous function can be a good way to make your code less imperative and more, well, functional: an action can be taken at the point where it is needed, rather than in a series of preparatory steps. Here’s a common Cocoa example: we create and configure an NSMutableParagraphStyle and then use it as an argument in a call to the NSMutableAttributedString method addAttribute(_:value:range:), like this:

let para = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
para.headIndent = 10
para.firstLineHeadIndent = 10
// ... more configuration of para ...
content.addAttribute( // content is an NSMutableAttributedString
    NSParagraphStyleAttributeName,
    value:para,
    range:NSRange(location:0, length:1))

I find that code ugly. We don’t need para except to pass it as the value: argument within the call to addAttribute(_:value:range:), so it would be much nicer to create and configure it right there within the call, as the value: argument. That sounds like an anonymous function — except that the value: parameter is not a function, but an NSMutableParagraphStyle object. We can solve the problem by providing, as the value: argument, an anonymous function that produces an NSMutableParagraphStyle object and calling it so that it does produce an NSMutableParagraphStyle object:

content.addAttribute(
    NSParagraphStyleAttributeName,
    value: {
        let para = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
        para.headIndent = 10
        para.firstLineHeadIndent = 10
        // ... more configuration of para ...
        return para
    }(),
    range:NSRange(location:0, length:1))

I’ll demonstrate some further uses of define-and-call in Chapter 3.

Closures

Swift functions are closures. This means they can capture references to external variables in scope within the body of the function. What do I mean by that? Well, recall from Chapter 1 that code in curly braces constitutes a scope, and this code can “see” variables and functions declared in a surrounding scope:

class Dog {
    var whatThisDogSays = "woof"
    func bark() {
        print(self.whatThisDogSays)
    }
}

In that code, the body of the function bark refers to a variable whatThisDogSays. That variable is external to the body of the function, because it is declared outside the body of the function. It is in scope for the body of the function, because the code inside the body of the function can see it. And the code inside the body of the function refers to it — it says, explicitly, whatThisDogSays.

So far, so good; but we now know that the function bark can be passed as a value. In effect, it can travel from one environment to another! When it does, what happens to that reference to whatThisDogSays? Let’s find out:

func doThis(_ f : (Void) -> Void) {
    f()
}
let d = Dog()
d.whatThisDogSays = "arf"
let barkFunction = d.bark
doThis(barkFunction) // arf

We run that code, and "arf" appears in the console.

Perhaps that result doesn’t seem very surprising to you. But think about it. We do not directly call d.bark(). We make a Dog instance and pass its bark function as a value into the function doThis. There, it is called. Now, whatThisDogSays is an instance property of a particular Dog. Inside the function doThis there is no whatThisDogSays. Indeed, inside the function doThis there is no Dog instance! Nevertheless the call f() still works. The function d.bark, as it is passed around, can still see that variable whatThisDogSays, declared outside itself, even though it is called in an environment where there is no longer any Dog instance and no longer any instance property whatThisDogSays.

But there’s more. I’ll move the line where we set d.whatThisDogSays to after we assign d.bark into our variable barkFunction:

func doThis(_ f : (Void) -> Void) {
    f()
}
let d = Dog()
let barkFunction = d.bark
d.whatThisDogSays = "arf" // *
doThis(barkFunction) // arf

Do you see what this proves? At the time we assigned d.bark to barkFunction, d.whatThisDogSays was "woof". We then changed d.whatThisDogSays to "arf", and passed barkFunction into doThis, where it was called — and we got "arf". This proves that barkFunction is maintaining its reference to this actual Dog, the one that we call d. The bark function, as it is passed around, is carrying its environment with it — including the instance of which it is an instance method (because it refers, in its body, to self). That environment is still there later when the bark function is called in some other environment. So, by “capture” I mean that when a function is passed around as a value, it carries along its internal references to external variables. That is what makes a function a closure.

How Closures Improve Code

Once you understand that functions are closures, you can take advantage of this fact to improve your code’s syntax. Closures can help make your code more general, and hence more useful. Here, once again, is my earlier example of a function that accepts drawing instructions and performs them to generate an image:

func imageOfSize(_ size:CGSize, _ whatToDraw:() -> ()) -> UIImage {
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, false, 0)
    whatToDraw()
    let result = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
    return result
}

We can call imageOfSize with a trailing anonymous function:

let image = imageOfSize(CGSize(width:45, height:20)) {
    let p = UIBezierPath(
        roundedRect: CGRect(x:0, y:0, width:45, height:20),
        cornerRadius: 8)
    p.stroke()
}

That code, however, contains an annoying repetition. This is a call to create an image of a given size consisting of a rounded rectangle of that size. We are repeating the size; the pair of numbers 45,20 appears twice. That’s silly. Let’s prevent the repetition by putting the size into a variable at the outset:

let sz = CGSize(width:45, height:20)
let image = imageOfSize(sz) {
    let p = UIBezierPath(
        roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
        cornerRadius: 8)
    p.stroke()
}

The variable sz, declared outside our anonymous function at a higher level, is visible inside it. Thus we can refer to it inside the anonymous function — and we do so. In the fourth line, we are not calling CGRect(origin:size:) and passing the value of sz to it now. Everything inside the curly braces is just a function body. It won’t be executed until imageOfSize calls it. Nevertheless, the value of sz persists. The anonymous function is a function. Therefore it is a closure. Therefore the anonymous function captures the reference to sz, and carries it on into the call to imageOfSize.

Now let’s go further. So far, we’ve been hard-coding the size of the desired rounded rectangle. Imagine, though, that creating images of rounded rectangles of various sizes is something we do often. It would make sense to package this code up as a function, where sz is not a fixed value but a parameter; the function will then return the image:

func makeRoundedRectangle(_ sz:CGSize) -> UIImage {
    let image = imageOfSize(sz) {
        let p = UIBezierPath(
            roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
            cornerRadius: 8)
        p.stroke()
    }
    return image
}

In the expression CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz), we refer to sz. This expression is part of an anonymous function to be passed to imageOfSize. The term sz refers to the sz parameter that arrives into the surrounding function makeRoundedRectangle. A parameter of the surrounding function is a variable external to and in scope within the anonymous function, and the anonymous function is a closure, so it captures the reference to that parameter as it is passed to imageOfSize.

Our code is becoming beautifully compact. To call makeRoundedRectangle, supply a size; an image is returned. Thus, I can perform the call, obtain the image, and put that image into my interface, all in one move, like this:

self.myImageView.image = makeRoundedRectangle(CGSize(width:45, height:20))

Function Returning Function

But now let’s go even further! Instead of returning an image, our function can return a function that makes rounded rectangles of the specified size. If you’ve never seen a function returned as a value from a function, you may now be gasping for breath. But a function, after all, can be used as a value. We have already passed a function into a function as an argument in the function call; now we are going to receive a function from a function call as its result:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> () -> UIImage { ❶
    func f () -> UIImage { ❷
        let im = imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: 8)
            p.stroke()
        }
        return im
    }
    return f ❸
}

Let’s analyze that code slowly:

The declaration is the hardest part. What on earth is the type (signature) of this function makeRoundedRectangleMaker? It is (CGSize) -> () -> UIImage. That expression has two arrow operators. To understand it, keep in mind that everything after each arrow operator is the type of a returned value. So makeRoundedRectangleMaker is a function that takes a CGSize parameter and returns a () -> UIImage. Okay, and what’s a () -> UIImage? We already know that: it’s a function that takes no parameters and returns a UIImage. So makeRoundedRectangleMaker is a function that takes a CGSize parameter and returns a function — a function that itself, when called with no parameters, will return a UIImage.

Now here we are in the body of the function makeRoundedRectangleMaker, and our first step is to declare a function (a function-in-function, or local function) of precisely the type we intend to return, namely, one that takes no parameters and returns a UIImage. Here, we’re naming this function f. The way this function works is simple and familiar: it calls imageOfSize, passing it an anonymous function that makes an image of a rounded rectangle (im) — and then it returns the image.

Finally, we return the function we just made (f). We have thus fulfilled our contract: we said we would return a function that takes no parameters and returns a UIImage, and we do so.

But perhaps you are still gazing open-mouthed at makeRoundedRectangleMaker, wondering how you would ever call it and what you would get if you did. Let’s try it:

let maker = makeRoundedRectangleMaker(CGSize(width:45, height:20))

What is the variable maker after that code runs? It’s a function — a function that takes no parameters and that, when called, produces the image of a rounded rectangle of size 45,20. You don’t believe me? I’ll prove it — by calling the function that is now the value of maker:

let maker = makeRoundedRectangleMaker(CGSize(width:45, height:20))
self.myImageView.image = maker()

Now that you’ve gotten over your stunned surprise at the notion of a function that produces a function as its result, turn your attention once again to the implementation of makeRoundedRectangleMaker and let’s analyze it again, a different way. Remember, I didn’t write that function to show you that a function can produce a function. I wrote it to illustrate closures! Let’s think about how the environment gets captured:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> () -> UIImage {
    func f () -> UIImage {
        let im = imageOfSize(sz) { // *
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz), // *
                cornerRadius: 8)
            p.stroke()
        }
        return im
    }
    return f
}

The function f takes no parameters. Yet, twice within the function body of f (I’ve marked the places with asterisk comments), there are references to a size value sz. The body of the function f can see sz, the incoming parameter to the surrounding function makeRoundedRectangleMaker, because it is in a surrounding scope. The function f captures the reference to sz at the time makeRoundedRectangleMaker is called, and keeps that reference when f is returned and assigned to maker:

let maker = makeRoundedRectangleMaker(CGSize(width:45, height:20))

That is why maker is now a function that, when it is called, creates and returns an image of the particular size 45,20 even though it itself will be called with no parameters. We have baked the knowledge of what size of image to produce into maker.

Looking at it another way, makeRoundedRectangleMaker is a factory for creating a whole family of functions similar to maker, each of which produces an image of one particular size. That’s a dramatic illustration of the power of closures.

Before I leave makeRoundedRectangleMaker, I’d like to rewrite it in a Swiftier fashion. Within f, there is no need to create im and then return it; we can return the result of calling imageOfSize directly:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> () -> UIImage {
    func f () -> UIImage {
        return imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: 8)
            p.stroke()
        }
    }
    return f
}

But there is no need to declare f and then return it either; it can be an anonymous function and we can return it directly:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> () -> UIImage {
    return {
        return imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: 8)
            p.stroke()
        }
    }
}

But our anonymous function consists of just one statement, returning the result of the call to imageOfSize. (The anonymous function parameter to imageOfSize is consists of multiple statements, but the imageOfSize call itself is still just one Swift statement.) Thus there is no need to say return:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> () -> UIImage {
    return {
        imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: 8)
            p.stroke()
        }
    }
}

Closure Setting a Captured Variable

The power that a closure gets through its ability to capture its environment is even greater than I’ve shown so far. If a closure captures a reference to a variable outside itself, and if that variable is settable, the closure can set the variable.

For example, let’s say I’ve declared this simple function. All it does is to accept a function that takes an Int parameter, and to call that function with an argument of 100:

func pass100 (_ f:(Int)->()) {
    f(100)
}

Now, look closely at this code and try to guess what will happen when we run it:

var x = 0
print(x)
func setX(newX:Int) {
    x = newX
}
pass100(setX)
print(x)

The first print(x) call obviously produces 0. The second print(x) call produces 100! The pass100 function has reached into my code and changed the value of my variable x! That’s because the function setX that I passed to pass100 contains a reference to x; not only does it contain it, but it captures it; not only does it capture it, but it sets its value. That x is my x. Thus, pass100 was able to set my x just as readily as I would have set it by calling setX directly.

Closure Preserving Its Captured Environment

When a closure captures its environment, it preserves that environment even if nothing else does. Here’s an example calculated to blow your mind — a function that modifies a function:

func countAdder(_ f: @escaping ()->()) -> () -> () {
    var ct = 0
    return {
        ct = ct + 1
        print("count is \(ct)")
        f()
    }
}

The function countAdder accepts a function as its parameter and returns a function as its result. (I’ll explain the @escaping attribute in the next section.) The function that it returns calls the function that it accepts, with a little bit added: it increments a variable and reports the result. So now try to guess what will happen when we run this code:

func greet () {
    print("howdy")
}
let countedGreet = countAdder(greet)
countedGreet()
countedGreet()
countedGreet()

What we’ve done here is to take a function greet, which prints "howdy", and pass it through countAdder. What comes out the other side of countAdder is a new function, which we’ve named countedGreet. We then call countedGreet three times. Here’s what appears in the console:

count is 1
howdy
count is 2
howdy
count is 3
howdy

Clearly, countAdder has added to the functionality of the function that was passed into it the ability to report how many times it is called. Now ask yourself: Where on earth is the variable that maintains this count? Inside countAdder, it was a local variable ct. But it isn’t declared inside the anonymous function that countAdder returns. That’s deliberate! If it were declared inside the anonymous function, we would be setting ct to 0 every time countedGreet is called — we wouldn’t be counting. Instead, ct is initialized to 0 once and then captured by the anonymous function. Thus, this variable is preserved as part of the environment of countedGreet — it is outside countedGreet in some mysterious environment-preserving world, so that it can be incremented every time countedGreet is called.

Escaping Closures

If a function passed as parameter to a function will be preserved for later execution, rather than being called directly, its type must be marked @escaping, to signal that this is a closure that captures and preserves its environment. The compiler will detect violations of this rule, so if you find the rule confusing, don’t worry about it; just let the compiler enforce it for you.

So, for example, this function is legal because it receives a function and calls it directly:

func funcCaller(f:()->()) {
    f()
}

And this function is legal, even though it returns a function to be executed later, because it also creates that function internally:

func funcMaker() -> () -> () {
    return { print("hello world") }
}

But this function is illegal. It returns a function to be executed later, and it acquires that function as a parameter:

func funcPasser(f:()->()) -> () -> () { // compile error
    return f
}

The solution is to mark the type of the incoming parameter f as @escaping, and the compiler will prompt you to do so:

func funcPasser(f:@escaping ()->()) -> () -> () {
    return f
}

A secondary consequence of this distinction is that if an anonymous function passed as an @escaping parameter refers to a property or method of self, the compiler will insist that you say self explicitly. That’s because such a reference captures self, and the compiler wants you to acknowledge this fact by saying self.

Curried Functions

Return once more to makeRoundedRectangleMaker:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> () -> UIImage {
    return {
        imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: 8)
            p.stroke()
        }
    }
}

There’s something I don’t like about this method: the size of the rounded rectangle that it creates is a parameter (sz), but the cornerRadius of the rounded rectangle is hard-coded as 8. I’d like the ability to specify a value for the corner radius as well. I can think of two ways to do it. One is to give makeRoundedRectangleMaker itself another parameter:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize, _ r:CGFloat) -> () -> UIImage {
    return {
        imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: r)
            p.stroke()
        }
    }
}

And we would then call it like this:

let maker = makeRoundedRectangleMaker(CGSize(width:45, height:20), 8)

But there’s another way. The function that we are returning from makeRoundedRectangleMaker takes no parameters. Instead, it could take the extra parameter:

func makeRoundedRectangleMaker(_ sz:CGSize) -> (CGFloat) -> UIImage {
    return {
        r in
        imageOfSize(sz) {
            let p = UIBezierPath(
                roundedRect: CGRect(origin:CGPoint.zero, size:sz),
                cornerRadius: r)
            p.stroke()
        }
    }
}

Now makeRoundedRectangleMaker returns a function that, itself, takes one parameter, so we must remember to supply that when we call it:

let maker = makeRoundedRectangleMaker(CGSize(width:45, height:20))
self.myImageView.image = maker(8)

If we don’t need to conserve maker for anything, we can of course do all that in one line — a function call that yields a function which we immediately call to obtain our image:

self.myImageView.image = makeRoundedRectangleMaker(CGSize(width:45, height:20))(8)

Tip

When a function returns a function that takes a parameter in this way, it is called a curried function (after the computer scientist Haskell Curry).

Function References and Selectors

Throughout this chapter, wherever I wanted to refer to a function by name — for example, in order to pass it as argument to another function — I’ve been using its bare name, like this:

func whatToAnimate() { // self.myButton is a button in the interface
    self.myButton.frame.origin.y += 20
}
func whatToDoLater(finished:Bool) {
    print("finished: \(finished)")
}
UIView.animate(withDuration:
    0.4, animations: whatToAnimate, completion: whatToDoLater) // *

A bare name like whatToAnimate or whatToDoLater is a function reference. Use of the bare name as a function reference is legal because it’s unambiguous in this particular context: thus, there’s only one function called whatToDoLater in scope, and I’m using its name as argument in a function call where the parameter type is known (namely, (Bool) -> Void).

But now consider the following situation. Just as I can pass a function as an argument, I can assign a function as a value to a variable. And suppose I have two functions with the same name, one that takes a parameter, and one that doesn’t:

class Dog {
    func bark() {
        print("woof")
    }
    func bark(_ loudly:Bool) {
        if loudly {
            print("WOOF")
        } else {
            self.bark()
        }
    }
    func test() {
        let barkFunction = bark // compile error
        // ...
    }
}

That code won’t compile, because the bare name bark is ambiguous in this context: which bark method does it refer to? To solve this problem, Swift 2.2 introduced a more elaborate notation allowing you to refer to a function more precisely. This notation has two parts:

Full name

The full name of a Swift function is the name that precedes the parentheses, plus parentheses containing the external names of its parameters, each followed by colon. If the external name of a parameter is suppressed, we can represent its external name as an underscore.

For example, a function declared func say(_ s:String, times:Int) has the full name say(_:times:).

Signature

The signature of a Swift function may be specified explicitly by appending it to its bare name or full name with the keyword as.

For example, a function declared func say(_ s:String, times:Int) may be referred to as say as (String,Int) -> Void.

In our bark example, use of the full name solves the problem if the function to which we want a reference is the one that takes a parameter:

class Dog {
    func bark() {
        // ... as before ...
    }
    func bark(loudly:Bool) {
        // ... as before ...
    }
    func test() {
        let barkFunction = bark(_:) // fine
    }
}

But use of the full name doesn’t solve the problem if the function to which we want a reference is the one that takes no parameters, because in that case the full name is the bare name, which is exactly what’s ambiguous in this context. Use of the signature solves the problem:

class Dog {
    func bark() {
        // ... as before ...
    }
    func bark(loudly:Bool) {
        // ... as before ...
    }
    func test() {
        let barkFunction = bark as (Void) -> Void // fine
    }
}

Obviously, an explicit signature is needed also when a function is overloaded. For example:

class Dog{
    func bark() {
    }
    func bark(_ loudly:Bool) {
    }
    func bark(_ times:Int) {
    }
    func test() {
        let barkFunction = bark(_:) // compile error
    }
}

Here, we have said that we want the bark that takes one parameter, but there are two such bark functions, one whose parameter is a Bool, the other whose parameter is an Int. The signature disambiguates (and we can use the bare name):

let barkFunction = bark as (Int) -> Void // "times", not "loudly"

Function Reference Scope

In the foregoing examples of function references, there was no need to tell the compiler where the function is defined. That’s because the function is already in scope at the point where the function reference appears. If you would be able to call the function without supplying further information, you can form the function reference without supplying further information.

However, a function reference can supply further information about where a function is defined; and sometimes it must do so. Therefore, you can prefix an instance or class to the function reference, using dot-notation. For example, there are situations where the compiler would force you to use self to call a function; in those situations, you will have to use self to refer to the function as well:

class Dog {
    func bark() {
    }
    func bark(_ loudly:Bool) {
    }
    func test() {
        let f = {
            return self.bark(_:) // self required here
        }
    }
}

To form a function reference to an instance method of another type, you have two choices. If you have on hand an instance of that type, you can use dot-notation with a reference to that instance:

class Cat {
    func purr() {
    }
}
class Dog {
    let cat = Cat()
    func test() {
        let purrFunction = cat.purr
    }
}

The other possibility is to use the type with dot-notation (this works even if the function is an instance method):

class Cat {
    func purr() {
    }
}
class Dog {
    func bark() {
    }
    func test() {
        let barkFunction = Dog.bark // legal but not necessary
        let purrFunction = Cat.purr
    }
}

Selectors

In Objective-C, a selector is a kind of method reference. In iOS programming, you’ll often have to supply a Cocoa method with a selector as one of its parameters; very typically, this parameter will be named either selector: or action:. To call such a method requires you to pass a selector to Cocoa, along with a target (an object reference); later, the runtime can call the method by turning the selector into a message and sending that message to that target.

This architecture is the most prolific source of runtime errors (also known as crashes) in iOS programming. The reason is that it is all too easy to get the selector wrong. To form the selector, it is necessary to construct a literal string representing a method’s Objective-C name. If you construct that name incorrectly, then when the time comes to send the message to the target, the runtime will find that the target can’t handle that message, because it has no such method, and the app comes to a violent and premature halt, dumping the dreaded phrase “unrecognized selector” into the console.

For example, here’s a typical recipe for failure:

class ViewController : UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet var b : UIButton!
    func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.b.addTarget( // prepare to crash!
            self, action: "buttonPressed", for: .touchUpInside)
    }
    func buttonPressed(_ sender: Any) {
        // ...
    }
}

In that code, self.b is a button in the interface, and we are configuring it by calling addTarget(action:for:), so that when the button is tapped, our buttonPressed method will be called. But we are configuring it incorrectly! Unfortunately, "buttonPressed" is not the Objective-C name of our buttonPressed method; the correct name would have been "buttonPressed:", with a colon. (I’ll explain why in Appendix A. C, Objective-C, and Swift.) Therefore, our app will crash when the user taps that button. If you don’t know the rules for forming a selector string — or even if you do, but you make a typing mistake — an “unrecognized selector” crash is likely to be in your future.

Thankfully, there is a solution to the problem: #selector syntax. To form an Objective-C selector, you use #selector(...) with a function reference inside the parentheses. Thus, we would rewrite our button action example like this:

class ViewController : UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet var button : UIButton!
    func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.b.addTarget(
            self, action: #selector(buttonPressed), for: .touchUpInside)
    }
    func buttonPressed(_ sender: Any) {
        // ...
    }
}

When you use that notation, two wonderful things happen:

The compiler validates the function reference
If your function reference isn’t valid, your code won’t even compile. The compiler also checks that this function is exposed to Objective-C; there’s no point forming a selector for a method that Objective-C can’t see, as your app would crash if Objective-C were to try to call such a method. (For a method to be exposed to Objective-C, either the class must be an NSObject subclass or the method must be marked with the @objc attribute.)
The compiler forms the Objective-C selector for you
If your code compiles, the actual selector that will be passed into this parameter is guaranteed to be correct. You might form the selector incorrectly, but the compiler won’t! Thus, it is impossible that the resulting selector should fail to match the method, and there is no chance of an “unrecognized selector” crash.

Very rarely, you still might need to create a selector manually. You can use a literal string, or you can instantiate Selector with the literal method name as argument — for example, Selector("woohoo:").

Warning

You can still crash, even with #selector syntax, by sending an action message to the wrong target. In the preceding example, if you changed self, the first argument of the addTarget call, to self.b, you’d crash at runtime with “unrecognized selector.” The compiler won’t help you with this kind of mistake.