These helper methods allow to use modifier methods in standard for SwiftUI short way.
extension View {
@inline(__always)
func modify(_ block: (_ view: Self) -> some View) -> some View {
block(self)
}
@inline(__always)
func modify<V : View, T>(_ block: (_ view: Self, _ data: T) -> V, with data: T) -> V {
block(self, data)
}
}
_
DISCUSSION
Suppose you have modifier methods:
func addBorder(view: some View) -> some View {
view.padding().border(Color.red, width: borderWidth)
}
func highlight(view: some View, color: Color) -> some View {
view.border(Color.red, width: borderWidth).overlay { color.opacity(0.3) }
}
_
Ordinar Decision
Your code may be like this:
var body: some View {
let image = Image(systemName: "globe")
let borderedImage = addBorder(view: image)
let highlightedImage = highlight(view: borderedImage, color: .red)
let text = Text("Some Text")
let borderedText = addBorder(view: text)
let highlightedText = highlight(view: borderedText, color: .yellow)
VStack {
highlightedImage
highlightedText
}
}
This code doesn't look like standard SwiftUI code.
_
Better Decision
Described above helper methods modify(:) and modify(:,with:) allow to write code in typical for SwiftUI short way:
var body: some View {
VStack {
Image(systemName: "globe")
.modify(addBorder)
.modify(highlight, with: .red)
Text("Some Text")
.modify(addBorder)
.modify(highlight, with: .yellow)
}
}
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Decrypting Data to String Conversion failure
Development environment: Xcode 15.4, macOS 14.7
Run-time configuration: iOS 15.8.1 & 16.0.1
DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM
We were using objective C implementation of CCCrypt(see below) in our app earlier which we migrated to swift implementation recently. We convert the byte array that CCCrypt returns into Data, and data to string to read the decrypted value. It works perfectly fine in Objective C, whereas with new swift implementation this conversion is failing, it looks like CCCrypt is returning byte array with few non UTF8 characters and that conversion is failing in swift since Objective C is more tolerant with this conversion and converts the byte array to Data and then to string even though there are few imperfect UTF characters in the array.
Objective C
CCCryptorStatus CCCrypt(
CCOperation op, /* kCCEncrypt, etc. /
CCAlgorithm alg, / kCCAlgorithmAES128, etc. /
CCOptions options, / kCCOptionPKCS7Padding, etc. */
const void *key,
size_t keyLength,
const void iv, / optional initialization vector */
const void dataIn, / optional per op and alg */
size_t dataInLength,
void dataOut, / data RETURNED here */
size_t dataOutAvailable,
size_t *dataOutMoved)
API_AVAILABLE(macos(10.4), ios(2.0));
Swift Code
CCCrypt(_ op: CCOperation,
_ alg: CCAlgorithm,
_ options: CCOptions,
_ key: UnsafeRawPointer!,
_ keyLength: Int, _ iv: UnsafeRawPointer!,
_ dataIn: UnsafeRawPointer!,
_ dataInLength: Int,
_ dataOut: UnsafeMutableRawPointer!,
_ dataOutAvailable: Int,
_ dataOutMoved: UnsafeMutablePointer!) -> CCCryptorStatus
Data to String Conversion
String(data: decryptedData, encoding: .utf8)
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Able to reproduce on below devices
iPhone - 7
OS Version 15.8.1
iPhone 14- Pro
OS Version 16.0.2
iPhone 15
iOS 18.0.1
**Decryption method return "Data" and converting into string using ".utf8" but String conversion is failing on above devices and some other devices as well. Decryption failure not occurring always.
**
Below code used for String conversion
String(data: decryptedData, encoding: .utf8)
I have the following TaskExecutor code in Swift 6 and is getting the following error:
//Error
Passing closure as a sending parameter risks causing data races between main actor-isolated code and concurrent execution of the closure.
May I know what is the best way to approach this?
This is the default code generated by Xcode when creating a Vision Pro App using Metal as the Immersive Renderer.
Renderer
@MainActor
static func startRenderLoop(_ layerRenderer: LayerRenderer, appModel: AppModel) {
Task(executorPreference: RendererTaskExecutor.shared) { //Error
let renderer = Renderer(layerRenderer, appModel: appModel)
await renderer.startARSession()
await renderer.renderLoop()
}
}
final class RendererTaskExecutor: TaskExecutor {
private let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "RenderThreadQueue", qos: .userInteractive)
func enqueue(_ job: UnownedJob) {
queue.async {
job.runSynchronously(on: self.asUnownedSerialExecutor())
}
}
func asUnownedSerialExecutor() -> UnownedTaskExecutor {
return UnownedTaskExecutor(ordinary: self)
}
static let shared: RendererTaskExecutor = RendererTaskExecutor()
}
Given the below code with Swift 6 language mode, Xcode 16.2
If running with iOS 18+: the app crashes due to _dispatch_assert_queue_fail
If running with iOS 17 and below: there is a warning: warning: data race detected: @MainActor function at Swift6Playground/PublishedValuesView.swift:12 was not called on the main thread
Could anyone please help explain what's wrong here?
import SwiftUI
import Combine
@MainActor
class PublishedValuesViewModel: ObservableObject {
@Published var count = 0
@Published var content: String = "NA"
private var cancellables: Set<AnyCancellable> = []
func start() async {
let publisher = $count
.map { String(describing: $0) }
.removeDuplicates()
for await value in publisher.values {
content = value
}
}
}
struct PublishedValuesView: View {
@ObservedObject var viewModel: PublishedValuesViewModel
var body: some View {
Text("Published Values: \(viewModel.content)")
.task {
await viewModel.start()
}
}
}
I have a relatively unique project layered with file types (top to bottom) SwiftUI, Swift, Objective C, and C. The purpose of this layering is that I have a C language firmware application framework for development of firmware on custom electronic boards.
Specifically, I use the standard C preprocessor in specific ways to make data driven structures, not code. There are header files shared between the firmware project and the Xcode iPhone app to set things like the BLE protocol and communication command/reply protocols, etc. The app is forced to adhere to that defined by the firmware, rather than rely a design to get it right.
The Objective C code is mainly to utilize the Bluetooth stack provided by iOS. I specifically use this approach to allow C files to be compiled. Normally, everything has worked perfectly, but a serious and obtuse problem just surfaced a couple days ago.
My important project was created long ago. More recently, I started a new project using most of the same technology, but its project is newer. Ironically, it continues to work perfectly, but ironically the older project stopped working. (Talking about the Xcode iOS side.)
Essentially, the Objective C handling of the C preprocessor is not fully adhering to the standard C preprocessing in one project. It's very confusing because there is no code change. It seems Xcode was updated, but looks like the project was not updated, accordingly? I'm guessing there is some setting that forces Objective C to adhere to the standard C preprocessor rules.
I did see a gnu compiler version that did not get updated compared to the newer project, but updating that in the Build Settings did not fix the problem.
The error is in the title:
Token is not a valid binary operator in a preprocessor subexpression.
The offending macro appears in a header file, included in several implementation files. Compiling a single implementation files isolates the issue somewhat. An implementation with no Objective C objects compiles just fine. If there are Objective C objects then I get the errors. Both cases include the same header.
It seems like the Objective C compiler, being invoked, uses a different C preprocessor parser, rather than the standard. I guess I should mention the bridging header file where these headers exist, as well. The offending header with the problem macro appears as an error in the bridging header if a full build is initiated.
Is there an option somewhere, that forces the Objective C compiler to honor the standard C processor? Note, one project seems to.
#define BLE_SERVICE_BLANK( enumTag, uuid, serviceType )
#define BLE_CHARACTERISTIC_BLANK( enumTag, uuid, properties, readPerm, writePerm, value)
#define BLE_SERVICE_ENUM_COUNTER( enumTag, uuid, serviceType) +1
#define BLE_CHARACTERISTIC_ENUM_COUNTER( enumTag, uuid, properties, readPerm, writePerm, value) +1
#if 0 BLE_SERVICE_LIST(BLE_SERVICE_ENUM_COUNTER, BLE_CHARACTERISTIC_BLANK) > 0
#define USING_BLE_SERVICE
...
#if 0 BLE_SERVICE_LIST(BLE_SERVICE_BLANK, BLE_CHARACTERISTIC_ENUM_COUNTER) > 0
#define USING_BLE_CHARACTERISTIC
...
token is not a valid binary operator in a preprocessor subexpression
refers to the comparison. BLE_SERVICE_LIST() does a +1 for each item in the list. There is no further expansion. One counts services. The other counts characteristics. The errors are associated with the comparisons.
We want to do below addition to iOS Mobile App.
Airpod announces Push notification = which is workking
now we want to use voice command that "Reply to this" and sending Reply to that notification but it is saying it is not supported in your app.
So basically we need to use feature - Listen and respond to messages with AirPods
Do we need to add any integration inside app for this or it will directly worked with Siri settings ?
Is it possible to do in non messaging App?
Is it possible to do without syncing contacts ?
I have been recently getting the following error seemingly randomly, when an event handler of a SwiftUI view accesses a relationship of a SwiftData model the view holds a reference to. I haven't yet found a reliable way of reproducing it:
SwiftData/BackingData.swift:866: Fatal error: This model instance was invalidated
because its backing data could no longer be found the store.
PersistentIdentifier(id: SwiftData.PersistentIdentifier.ID(url: COREDATA_ID_URL),
implementation: SwiftData.PersistentIdentifierImplementation)
What could cause this error? Could you suggest me a workaround?
I'm primarily an AppleScript writer and only a novice programmer, using ChatGPT to help me with the legwork. It has helped me to write a functioning app that builds a menu structure based on the scripts I have in the Scripts directory used in the script menu and then runs the applescripts. When I distribute the app to my desktop and run it, the scripts that access other apps, like InDesign will cause it to launch, but not actually do anything. I included the ids for each app in the entitlements dictionary and have given the app full disk access in system settings, but it's not functioning as I'd expect.
I know there are apps like Alfred that allow you to run scripts from a keystroke, but I'm building this for others I work with so they can also access info about each script, what it does, and how to use it from the menu, as well as key commands to run them.
Not sure what else to say, but if this sounds like a simple fix to anyone, please let me know.
Hi, I'm relatively new to iOS development and kindly ask for some feedback on a strategy to achieve this desired behavior in my app.
My Question:
What would be the best strategy for sound effect playback when an app is in the background with precise timing? Is this even possible?
Context:
I created a basic countdown timer app (targeting iOS 17 with Swift/SwiftUI.). Countdown sessions can last up to 30-60 mins. When the timer is started it progresses through a series of sub-intervals and plays a short sound for each one. I used AVAudioPlayer and everything works fine when the app is in the foreground. I'm considering switching to AVAudioEngine b/c precise timing is very important and the AIs tell me this would have better precision.
I'm already setting "App plays audio or streams audio/video using AirPlay" in my Plist, and have configured:
AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: .mixWithOthers)
Curiously, when testing on my iPhone 13 mini, sounds sometimes still play when the app is in the background, but not always.
What I've considered:
Background Tasks: Would they make any sense for this use-case? Seems like not if the allowed time is short & limited by the system.
Pre-scheduling all Sounds: Not sure this would even work and seems like a lot of memory would be needed (could be hundreds of intervals).
ActivityKit Alerts: works but with a ~50ms delay which is too long for my purposes.
Pre-Render all SFX to 1 large audio file: Seems like a lot of work and processing time and probably not worth it. I hope there's a better solution.
I'd really appreciate any feedback.
Hi There,
I have a iOS App which has been published and purely managing data by SwiftData. I use following simple codes everywhere in Views:
...
@Query var items: [Item]
....
if let firstItem = items.first( where: {...}) {
...
Then I encountered crash at Query that _items.wrapperdValue has some errors.
Then I tried to split first(where...) into ordinary way:
let filteredItems = items.filter(...)
if let firstItem = filteredItems.first {
...
It runs OK.
Is it a bug in SwiftData in 18.2 or I missed some steps to facilitate SwiftData macros?
Issue:
During app execution, the intended method is not being called; instead, the method preceding (written above the intended method) is being executed.
For Example:
//In my case the ViewController class is at 3rd level of inheritance.
class ViewController: UIViewController {
func methodA() {
print("methodA")
}
func methodB() {
print("methodB")
}
}
let vc = ViewController()
vc.methodB()
Output: //"methodA"
Expected: //"methodB"
Observations:
Recent code changes have revealed that enabling the below Swift-6 flag leads to this linking issue. When this flag is commented out, the problem disappears.
.enableUpcomingFeature("InternalImportsByDefault")
Additionally, moving the intended method into an extension of the same class resolves the issue when the flag is enabled.
Conclusion:
To resolve the issue:
Comment out the Swift-6 flag.
Alternatively, move the method into an extension of the same class, which addresses the issue for this specific case.
I had similar issue in other class where it crashes with message "method not found", but actually the method is there. When moving the method into an extension of same class resolve this issue.
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanking you..
Hello,
I have a problem with Xcode, in C++ language. When I create a new project, I put my program in a file and click Build. It works correctly and without any problems, but when I enter a second file in the same project and click build, it says build failed. In the log it says, duplicate symbols appear.
I want to know how to format doubles. In the program I have 4.3333 I just want to print 4 to the screen. I just want to print whole numbers. I'm using Swiftui with xcode. Please help. Thank you.
Topic:
Programming Languages
SubTopic:
Swift
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/768776
Swift concurrency is an important part of my day-to-day job. I created the following document for an internal presentation, and I figured that it might be helpful for others.
If you have questions or comments, put them in a new thread here on DevForums. Use the App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency topic area and tag it with both Swift and Concurrency.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Swift Concurrency Proposal Index
This post summarises the Swift Evolution proposals that went into the Swift concurrency design. It covers the proposal that are implemented in Swift 6.2, plus a few additional ones that aren’t currently available.
The focus is here is the Swift Evolution proposals. For general information about Swift concurrency, see the documentation referenced by Concurrency Resources.
Swift 6.0
The following Swift Evolution proposals form the basis of the Swift 6.0 concurrency design.
SE-0176 Enforce Exclusive Access to Memory
link: SE-0176
notes: This defines the “Law of Exclusivity”, a critical foundation for both serial and concurrent code.
SE-0282 Clarify the Swift memory consistency model ⚛︎
link: SE-0282
notes: This defines Swift’s memory model, that is, the rules about what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to concurrent memory access.
SE-0296 Async/await
link: SE-0296
introduces: async functions, async, await
SE-0297 Concurrency Interoperability with Objective-C
link: SE-0297
notes: Specifies how Swift imports an Objective-C method with a completion handler as an async method. Explicitly allows @objc actors.
SE-0298 Async/Await: Sequences
link: SE-0298
introduces: AsyncSequence, for await syntax
notes: This just defines the AsyncSequence protocol. For one concrete implementation of that protocol, see SE-0314.
SE-0300 Continuations for interfacing async tasks with synchronous code
link: SE-0300
introduces: CheckedContinuation, UnsafeContinuation
notes: Use these to create an async function that wraps a legacy request-reply concurrency construct.
SE-0302 Sendable and @Sendable closures
link: SE-0302
introduces: Sendable, @Sendable closures, marker protocols
SE-0304 Structured concurrency
link: SE-0304
introduces: unstructured and structured concurrency, Task, cancellation, CancellationError, withTaskCancellationHandler(…), sleep(…), withTaskGroup(…), withThrowingTaskGroup(…)
notes: For the async let syntax, see SE-0317. For more ways to sleep, see SE-0329 and SE-0374. For discarding task groups, see SE-0381.
SE-0306 Actors
link: SE-0306
introduces: actor syntax
notes: For actor-isolated parameters and the nonisolated keyword, see SE-0313. For global actors, see SE-0316. For custom executors and the Actor protocol, see SE-0392.
SE-0311 Task Local Values
link: SE-0311
introduces: TaskLocal
SE-0313 Improved control over actor isolation
link: SE-0313
introduces: isolated parameters, nonisolated
SE-0314 AsyncStream and AsyncThrowingStream
link: SE-0314
introduces: AsyncStream, AsyncThrowingStream, onTermination
notes: These are super helpful when you need to publish a legacy notification construct as an async stream. For a simpler API to create a stream, see SE-0388.
SE-0316 Global actors
link: SE-0316
introduces: GlobalActor, MainActor
notes: This includes the @MainActor syntax for closures.
SE-0317 async let bindings
link: SE-0317
introduces: async let syntax
SE-0323 Asynchronous Main Semantics
link: SE-0323
SE-0327 On Actors and Initialization
link: SE-0327
notes: For a proposal to allow access to non-sendable isolated state in a deinitialiser, see SE-0371.
SE-0329 Clock, Instant, and Duration
link: SE-0329
introduces: Clock, InstantProtocol, DurationProtocol, Duration, ContinuousClock, SuspendingClock
notes: For another way to sleep, see SE-0374.
SE-0331 Remove Sendable conformance from unsafe pointer types
link: SE-0331
SE-0337 Incremental migration to concurrency checking
link: SE-0337
introduces: @preconcurrency, explicit unavailability of Sendable
notes: This introduces @preconcurrency on declarations, on imports, and on Sendable protocols. For @preconcurrency conformances, see SE-0423.
SE-0338 Clarify the Execution of Non-Actor-Isolated Async Functions
link: SE-0338
note: This change has caught a bunch of folks by surprise and there’s a discussion underway as to whether to adjust it.
SE-0340 Unavailable From Async Attribute
link: SE-0340
introduces: noasync availability kind
SE-0343 Concurrency in Top-level Code
link: SE-0343
notes: For how strict concurrency applies to global variables, see SE-0412.
SE-0374 Add sleep(for:) to Clock
link: SE-0374
notes: This builds on SE-0329.
SE-0381 DiscardingTaskGroups
link: SE-0381
introduces: DiscardingTaskGroup, ThrowingDiscardingTaskGroup
notes: Use this for task groups that can run indefinitely, for example, a network server.
SE-0388 Convenience Async[Throwing]Stream.makeStream methods
link: SE-0388
notes: This builds on SE-0314.
SE-0392 Custom Actor Executors
link: SE-0392
introduces: Actor protocol, Executor, SerialExecutor, ExecutorJob, assumeIsolated(…)
notes: For task executors, a closely related concept, see SE-0417. For custom isolation checking, see SE-0424.
SE-0395 Observation
link: SE-0395
introduces: Observation module, Observable
notes: While this isn’t directly related to concurrency, it’s relationship to Combine, which is an important exising concurrency construct, means I’ve included it in this list.
SE-0401 Remove Actor Isolation Inference caused by Property Wrappers
link: SE-0401, commentary
availability: upcoming feature flag: DisableOutwardActorInference
SE-0410 Low-Level Atomic Operations ⚛︎
link: SE-0410
introduces: Synchronization module, Atomic, AtomicLazyReference, WordPair
SE-0411 Isolated default value expressions
link: SE-0411, commentary
SE-0412 Strict concurrency for global variables
link: SE-0412
introduces: nonisolated(unsafe)
notes: While this is a proposal about globals, the introduction of nonisolated(unsafe) applies to “any form of storage”.
SE-0414 Region based Isolation
link: SE-0414, commentary
notes: To send parameters and results across isolation regions, see SE-0430.
SE-0417 Task Executor Preference
link: SE-0417, commentary
introduces: withTaskExecutorPreference(…), TaskExecutor, globalConcurrentExecutor
notes: This is closely related to the custom actor executors defined in SE-0392.
SE-0418 Inferring Sendable for methods and key path literals
link: SE-0418, commentary
availability: upcoming feature flag: InferSendableFromCaptures
notes: The methods part of this is for “partial and unapplied methods”.
SE-0420 Inheritance of actor isolation
link: SE-0420, commentary
introduces: #isolation, optional isolated parameters
notes: This is what makes it possible to iterate over an async stream in an isolated async function.
SE-0421 Generalize effect polymorphism for AsyncSequence and AsyncIteratorProtocol
link: SE-0421, commentary
notes: Previously AsyncSequence used an experimental mechanism to support throwing and non-throwing sequences. This moves it off that. Instead, it uses an extra Failure generic parameter and typed throws to achieve the same result. This allows it to finally support a primary associated type. Yay!
SE-0423 Dynamic actor isolation enforcement from non-strict-concurrency contexts
link: SE-0423, commentary
introduces: @preconcurrency conformance
notes: This adds a number of dynamic actor isolation checks (think assumeIsolated(…)) to close strict concurrency holes that arise when you interact with legacy code.
SE-0424 Custom isolation checking for SerialExecutor
link: SE-0424, commentary
introduces: checkIsolation()
notes: This extends the custom actor executors introduced in SE-0392 to support isolation checking.
SE-0430 sending parameter and result values
link: SE-0430, commentary
introduces: sending
notes: Adds the ability to send parameters and results between the isolation regions introduced by SE-0414.
SE-0431 @isolated(any) Function Types
link: SE-0431, commentary, commentary
introduces: @isolated(any) attribute on function types, isolation property of functions values
notes: This is laying the groundwork for SE-NNNN Closure isolation control. That, in turn, aims to bring the currently experimental @_inheritActorContext attribute into the language officially.
SE-0433 Synchronous Mutual Exclusion Lock 🔒
link: SE-0433
introduces: Mutex
SE-0434 Usability of global-actor-isolated types
link: SE-0434, commentary
availability: upcoming feature flag: GlobalActorIsolatedTypesUsability
notes: This loosen strict concurrency checking in a number of subtle ways.
Swift 6.1
Swift 6.1 has the following additions.
Vision: Improving the approachability of data-race safety
link: vision
SE-0442 Allow TaskGroup’s ChildTaskResult Type To Be Inferred
link: SE-0442, commentary
notes: This represents a small quality of life improvement for withTaskGroup(…) and withThrowingTaskGroup(…).
SE-0449 Allow nonisolated to prevent global actor inference
link: SE-0449, commentary
notes: This is a straightforward extension to the number of places you can apply nonisolated.
Swift 6.2
Xcode 26 beta has two new build settings:
Approachable Concurrency enables the following feature flags: DisableOutwardActorInference, GlobalActorIsolatedTypesUsability, InferIsolatedConformances, InferSendableFromCaptures, and NonisolatedNonsendingByDefault.
Default Actor Isolation controls SE-0466
Swift 6.2, still in beta, has the following additions.
SE-0371 Isolated synchronous deinit
link: SE-0371, commentary
introduces: isolated deinit
notes: Allows a deinitialiser to access non-sendable isolated state, lifting a restriction imposed by SE-0327.
SE-0457 Expose attosecond representation of Duration
link: SE-0457
introduces: attoseconds, init(attoseconds:)
SE-0461 Run nonisolated async functions on the caller’s actor by default
link: SE-0461
availability: upcoming feature flag: NonisolatedNonsendingByDefault
introduces: nonisolated(nonsending), @concurrent
notes: This represents a significant change to how Swift handles actor isolation by default, and introduces syntax to override that default.
SE-0462 Task Priority Escalation APIs
link: SE-0462
introduces: withTaskPriorityEscalationHandler(…)
notes: Code that uses structured concurrency benefits from priority boosts automatically. This proposal exposes APIs so that code using unstructured concurrency can do the same.
SE-0463 Import Objective-C completion handler parameters as @Sendable
link: SE-0463
notes: This is a welcome resolution to a source of much confusion.
SE-0466 Control default actor isolation inference
link: SE-0466, commentary
availability: not officially approved, but a de facto part of Swift 6.2
introduces: -default-isolation compiler flag
notes: This is a major component of the above-mentioned vision document.
SE-0468 Hashable conformance for Async(Throwing)Stream.Continuation
link: SE-0468
notes: This is an obvious benefit when you’re juggling a bunch of different async streams.
SE-0469 Task Naming
link: SE-0469
introduces: name, init(name:…)
SE-0470 Global-actor isolated conformances
link: SE-0470
availability: upcoming feature flag: InferIsolatedConformances
introduces: @SomeActor protocol conformance
notes: This is particularly useful when you want to conform an @MainActor type to Equatable, Hashable, and so on.
SE-0471 Improved Custom SerialExecutor isolation checking for Concurrency Runtime
link: SE-0471
notes: This is a welcome extension to SE-0424.
SE-0472 Starting tasks synchronously from caller context
link: SE-0472
introduces: immediate[Detached](…), addImmediateTask[UnlessCancelled](…),
notes: This introduces the concept of an immediate task, one that initially uses the calling execution context. This is one of those things where, when you need it, you really need it. But it’s hard to summary when you might need it, so you’ll just have to read the proposal (-:
In Progress
The proposals in this section didn’t make Swift 6.2.
SE-0406 Backpressure support for AsyncStream
link: SE-0406
availability: returned for revision
notes: Currently AsyncStream has very limited buffering options. This was a proposal to improve that. This feature is still very much needed, but the outlook for this proposal is hazy. My best guess is that something like this will land first in the Swift Async Algorithms package. See this thread.
SE-NNNN Closure isolation control
link: SE-NNNN
introduces: @inheritsIsolation
availability: not yet approved
notes: This aims to bring the currently experimental @_inheritActorContext attribute into the language officially. It’s not clear how this will play out given the changes in SE-0461.
Revision History
2025-09-02 Updated for the upcoming release Swift 6.2.
2025-04-07 Updated for the release of Swift 6.1, including a number of things that are still in progress.
2024-11-09 First post.
Hello,
Im developing an app entirely with C++, and I need to call various swift functions because it requires the Swift library.
Ive seen several posts on forums about C++ callbacks and honestly I dont understand how its done exactly. I get the general idea but I am not able to understand it and make it work. I feel like people throw vague ideas and weird function names and everything gets confusing.
Could anyone give me the smallest example that works please ?
Just to make sure you know what I mean, here is an example of what I want to do, but you dont have to generate the code exactly for this, I want an example that I can understand please, but the swift code has to depend on a swift library. I dont want to simply call a swift function that returns x*2 ...
{1} notif.swift file : coded in swift language
include <UserNotifications/UserNotifications.h>
function A that show notification in swift code.
{2} mainwindow.cpp file : coded in C++ language
import notif.swift ??
button connected to slot/function mybuttonclicked.
MainWindow::mybuttonclicked(){
std::string my_result = call function A_from_swift_file(argument_1);
}
--The end ---
I wrote the notif.swift with '?' because I dont know how you include the swift file from your cpp code and I could not find that anywhere. Maybe it is obvious, but I would really appreciate getting some help on this, Thank you everyone
Topic:
Programming Languages
SubTopic:
General
Everyone knows that dictionaries in swift are unordered collections, there is no problem with that.
I've noticed some behavior that I can't explain and hope someone can help me.
The first variant
We have a very simple code:
struct Test {
let dict = [1: “1”, 2: “2”, 3: “3”, 4: “4”, 5: “5”]
func test() {
for i in dict {
print(i)
}
}
}
If you call test() several times in a row, the output to the console on my computer looks something like this:
(key: 5, value: “5”)
(key: 1, value: “1”)
(key: 2, value: “2”)
(key: 3, value: “3”)
(key: 4, value: “4”)
(key: 2, value: “2”)
(key: 3, value: “3”)
(key: 1, value: “1”)
(key: 4, value: “4”)
(key: 5, value: “5”)
(key: 1, value: “1”)
(key: 3, value: “3”)
(key: 2, value: “2”)
(key: 5, value: “5”)
(key: 4, value: “4”)
At each new for loop we get a random order of elements
It seemed logical to me, because a dictionary is an unordered collection and this is correct behavior.
However
The second variant
the same code on my colleague's computer, but in the console we see something like this:
(key: 2, value: “2”)
(key: 3, value: “3”)
(key: 1, value: “1”)
(key: 4, value: “4”)
(key: 5, value: “5”)
(key: 2, value: “2”)
(key: 3, value: “3”)
(key: 1, value: “1”)
(key: 4, value: “4”)
(key: 5, value: “5”)
(key: 2, value: “2”)
(key: 3, value: “3”)
(key: 1, value: “1”)
(key: 4, value: “4”)
(key: 5, value: “5”)
always, within the same session, we get the same order in print(i)
We didn't use Playground, within which there may be differences, but a real project.
swift version 5+
we tested on Xcode 14+, 15+ (at first I thought it was because the first version had 14 and the second version had 15, but then a third colleague with Xcode 15 had the behavior from the first scenario)
we did a lot of checks, several dozens of times and always got that on one computer random output of items to the console, and in another case disordered only in the first output to the console
Thanks
A few years ago [1] Xcode added new warnings that help detect a nasty gotcha related to the lifetime of unsafe pointers. For example:
Initialization of 'UnsafeMutablePointer<timeval>' results in a dangling pointer
Inout expression creates a temporary pointer, but argument 'iov_base' should be a pointer that outlives the call to 'init(iov_base:iov_len:)'
I’ve seen a lot of folks confused by these warnings, and by the lifetime of unsafe pointers in general, and this post is my attempt to clarify the topic.
If you have questions about any of this, please put them in a new thread in the Programming Languages > Swift topic.
Finally, I encourage you to watch the following WWDC presentations:
WWDC 2020 Session 10648 Unsafe Swift
WWDC 2020 Session 10167 Safely manage pointers in Swift
These cover some of the same ground I’ve covered here, and a lot of other cool stuff as well.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"
[1] Swift 5.2.2, as shipped in Xcode 11.4. See the discussion of SR-2790 in Xcode 11.4 Release Notes.
Basics
In Swift, the ampersand (&) indicates that a parameter is being passed inout. Consider this example:
func addVarnish(_ product: inout String) {
product += " varnish"
}
var waffle = "waffle"
addVarnish(&waffle) // line A
print(waffle)
// printed: waffle varnish
On line A, the ampersand tells you that waffle could be modified by addVarnish(_:).
However, there is another use of ampersand that was designed to help with C interoperability. Consider this code:
var tv = timeval()
gettimeofday(&tv, nil)
print(tv)
// printed: timeval(tv_sec: 1590743104, tv_usec: 77027)
The first parameter to gettimeofday is an UnsafeMutablePointer<timeval>. Here the ampersand denotes a conversion from a timeval to an UnsafeMutablePointer<timeval>. This conversion makes it much easier to call common C APIs from Swift.
This also works for array values. For example:
var hostName = [CChar](repeating: 0, count: 256)
gethostname(&hostName, hostName.count)
print(String(cString: hostName))
// printed: slimey.local.
In this code the ampersand denotes a conversion from [CChar] to an UnsafeMutablePointer<CChar> that points to the base of the array.
While this is convenient, it’s potentially misleading, especially if you come from a C background. In C-based languages, using ampersand in this way yields a pointer to the value that’s valid until the value gets deallocated. That’s not the case in Swift. Rather, the pointer generated by the ampersand syntax is only valid for the duration of that function call.
To understand why that’s the case, consider this code:
struct TimeInTwoParts {
var sec: time_t = 0
var usec: Int32 = 0
var combined: timeval {
get { timeval(tv_sec: sec, tv_usec: usec) }
set {
sec = newValue.tv_sec
usec = newValue.tv_usec
}
}
}
var time = TimeInTwoParts()
gettimeofday(&time.combined, nil) // line A
print(time.combined)
// printed: timeval(tv_sec: 1590743484, tv_usec: 89118)
print(time.sec)
// printed: 1590743484
print(time.usec)
// printed: 89118
Here combined is a computed property that has no independent existence in memory. Thus, it simply makes no sense to take the address of it.
So, how does ampersand deal with this? Under the covers the Swift compiler expands line A to something like this:
var tmp = time.combined
gettimeofday(&tmp, nil)
time.combined = tmp
Once you understand this it’s clear why the resulting pointer is only valid for the duration of the call: As soon as Swift cleans up tmp, the pointer becomes invalid.
A Gotcha
This automatic conversion can be a nasty gotcha. Consider this code:
var tv = timeval()
let tvPtr = UnsafeMutablePointer(&tv) // line A
// ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
// Initialization of 'UnsafeMutablePointer<timeval>' results in a dangling pointer
gettimeofday(tvPtr, nil) // line B
This results in undefined behaviour because the pointer generated by the ampersand on line A is no longer valid when it’s used on line B. In some cases, like this one, the later Swift compiler is able to detect this problem and warn you about it. In other cases you’re not so lucky. Consider this code:
guard let f = fopen("tmp.txt", "w") else { … }
var buf = [CChar](repeating: 0, count: 1024)
setvbuf(f, &buf, _IOFBF, buf.count) // line A
let message = [UInt8]("Hello Crueld World!".utf8)
fwrite(message, message.count, 1, f) // line B
fclose(f) // line C
This uses setvbuf to apply a custom buffer to the file handle. The file handle uses this buffer until after the close on line C. However, the pointer created by the ampersand on line A only exists for the duration of the setvbuf call. When the code calls fwrite on line B the buffer pointer is no longer valid and things end badly.
Unfortunately the compiler isn’t able to detect this problem. Worse yet, the code might actually work initially, and then stop working as you change optimisation settings, update the compiler, change unrelated code, and so on.
Another Gotcha
There is another gotcha associated with the ampersand syntax. Consider this code:
class AtomicCounter {
var count: Int32 = 0
func increment() {
OSAtomicAdd32(1, &count)
}
}
This looks like it’ll implement an atomic counter but there’s no guarantee that the counter will be atomic. To understand why, apply the tmp transform from earlier:
class AtomicCounter {
var count: Int32 = 0
func increment() {
var tmp = count
OSAtomicAdd32(1, &tmp)
count = tmp
}
}
So each call to OSAtomicAdd32 could potentially be operating on a separate copy of the counter that’s then assigned back to count. This undermines the whole notion of atomicity.
Again, this might work in some builds of your product and then fail in other builds.
Note The above discussion is now theoretical because Swift 6 added a Synchronization module that includes comprehensive support for atomics. That module also has a Mutex type (if you need a mutex on older platforms, check out OSAllocatedUnfairLock). These constructs use various different mechanisms to ensure that the underlying value has a stable address.
Summary
So, to summarise:
Swift’s ampersand syntax has very different semantics from the equivalent syntax in C.
When you use an ampersand to convert from a value to a pointer as part of a function call, make sure that the called function doesn’t use the pointer after it’s returned.
It is not safe to use the ampersand syntax for functions where the exact pointer matters.
It’s Not Just Ampersands
There’s one further gotcha related to arrays. The gethostname example above shows that you can use an ampersand to pass the base address of an array to a function that takes a mutable pointer. Swift supports two other implicit conversions like this:
From String to UnsafePointer<CChar> — This allows you to pass a Swift string to an API that takes a C string. For example:
let greeting = "Hello Cruel World!"
let greetingLength = strlen(greeting)
print(greetingLength)
// printed: 18
From Array<Element> to UnsafePointer<Element> — This allows you to pass a Swift array to a C API that takes an array (in C, arrays are typically represented as a base pointer and a length). For example:
let charsUTF16: [UniChar] = [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 32, 67, 114, 117, 101, 108, 32, 87, 111, 114, 108, 100, 33]
print(charsUTF16)
let str = CFStringCreateWithCharacters(nil, charsUTF16, charsUTF16.count)!
print(str)
// prints: Hello Cruel World!
Note that there’s no ampersand in either of these examples. This technique only works for UnsafePointer parameters (as opposed to UnsafeMutablePointer parameters), so the called function can’t modify its buffer. As the ampersand is there to indicate that the value might be modified, it’s not used in this immutable case.
However, the same pointer lifetime restriction applies: The pointer passed to the function is only valid for the duration of that function call. If the function keeps a copy of that pointer and then uses it later on, Bad Things™ will happen.
Consider this code:
func printAfterDelay(_ str: UnsafePointer<CChar>) {
print(strlen(str))
// printed: 18
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 1.0) {
print(strlen(str))
// printed: 0
}
}
let greeting = ["Hello", "Cruel", "World!"].joined(separator: " ")
printAfterDelay(greeting)
dispatchMain()
The second call to strlen yields undefined behaviour because the pointer passed to printAfterDelay(_:) becomes invalid once printAfterDelay(_:) returns. In this specific example the memory pointed to by str happened to contain a zero, and hence strlen returned 0 but that’s not guaranteed. The str pointer is dangling, so you might get any result from strlen, including a crash.
Advice
So, what can you do about this? There’s two basic strategies here:
Extend the lifetime of the pointer
Manual memory management
Extending the Pointer’s Lifetime
The first strategy makes sense when you have a limited number of pointers and their lifespan is limited. For example, you can fix the setvbuf code from above by changing it to:
let message = [UInt8]("Hello Crueld World!".utf8)
guard let f = fopen("tmp.txt", "w") else { … }
var buf = [CChar](repeating: 0, count: 1024)
buf.withUnsafeMutableBufferPointer { buf in
setvbuf(f, buf.baseAddress!, _IOFBF, buf.count)
fwrite(message, message.count, 1, f)
fclose(f)
}
This version of the code uses withUnsafeMutableBufferPointer(_:). That calls the supplied closure and passes it a pointer (actually an UnsafeMutableBufferPointer) that’s valid for the duration of that closure. As long as you only use that pointer inside the closure, you’re safe!
There are a variety of other routines like withUnsafeMutableBufferPointer(_:), including:
The withUnsafeMutablePointer(to:_:) function
The withUnsafeBufferPointer(_:), withUnsafeMutableBufferPointer(_:), withUnsafeBytes(_:), and withUnsafeMutableBytes(_:) methods on Array
The withUnsafeBytes(_:) and withUnsafeMutableBytes(_:) methods on Data
The withCString(_:) and withUTF8(_:) methods on String.
Manual Memory Management
If you have to wrangle an unbounded number of pointers — or the lifetime of your pointer isn’t simple, for example when calling an asynchronous call — you must revert to manual memory management. Consider the following code, which is a Swift-friendly wrapper around posix_spawn:
func spawn(arguments: [String]) throws -> pid_t {
var argv = arguments.map { arg -> UnsafeMutablePointer<CChar>? in
strdup(arg)
}
argv.append(nil)
defer {
argv.forEach { free($0) }
}
var pid: pid_t = 0
let success = posix_spawn(&pid, argv[0], nil, nil, argv, environ) == 0
guard success else { throw NSError(domain: NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code: Int(errno), userInfo: nil) }
return pid
}
This code can’t use the withCString(_:) method on String because it has to deal with an arbitrary number of strings. Instead, it uses strdup to copy each string to its own manually managed buffer. And, as these buffers are manually managed, is has to remember to free them.
Change History
2024-12-11 Added a note about the Synchronization module. Made various editorial changes.
2021-02-24 Fixed the formatting. Added links to the WWDC 2021 sessions. Fixed the feedback advice. Minor editorial changes.
2020-06-01 Initial version.
I make some small program to make dots. Many of them.
I have a Generator which generates dots in a loop:
//reprat until all dots in frame
while !newDots.isEmpty {
virginDots = []
for newDot in newDots {
autoreleasepool{
virginDots.append(
contentsOf: newDot.addDots(in: size, allDots: &result, inSomeWay))
}
newDots = virginDots
}
counter += 1
print ("\(result.count) dots in \(counter) grnerations")
}
Sometimes this loop needs hours/days to finish (depend of inSomeWay settings), so it would be very nice to send partial result to a View, and/or if result is not satisfying — break this loop and start over.
My understanding of Tasks and Concurrency became worse each time I try to understand it, maybe it's my age, maybe language barier. For now, Button with {Task {...}} action doesn't removed Rainbow Wheel from my screen. Killing an app is wrong because killing is wrong.
How to deal with it?
I'm using xcode 16.1 withSwift. I want to know how to call a function passing in an array. Also I need to know how to declare the function receiving the array. I currently have:
func myfunc(costa: [Double]) {
}
I call it like this:
myfunc(costa:[ ])
It's an array of Doubles. I don't get any errors but the array is always empty. Please help. Thank you.
Topic:
Programming Languages
SubTopic:
Swift
We are Java application developers and we have a question regarding camera access via WebRTC on iPadOS. Specifically, on iPadOS 17.1, we are encountering an issue when trying to access the camera via the WKWebView API in the Chrome browser, where an error occurs and the camera capture fails. Our investigation suggests that device access through the navigator.mediaDevices property via the WKWebView API may not work in Chrome. However, it works as expected in the Safari browser, leading us to wonder if this is a Chrome-specific limitation, or if it's due to an iPadOS setting or specification.
At this point, we are unsure if this issue is related to the WKWebView and WebRTC specifications on iPadOS 17.1, or if there are specific limitations in Chrome. We would appreciate any insights or solutions regarding camera access in iPadOS 17.1 with WKWebView and WebRTC, especially in relation to Chrome.