When writing iOS apps, we regularly run into code that is asynchronous. Sometimes you know you're writing something that will run asynchronously and other times you're passing a completion handler to code that may or may not run asynchronously on a different dispatch queue. If you're familiar with using DispatchQueue.main, you have probably written code like this: DispatchQueue.main.async { // do something } And while writing this, you may have encountered a second method on DispatchQueue.main called sync. In this week's post I will explain the difference between sync and async, and you will learn when you might want to...

Every once in a while I look at a feature in Swift and I fall down a rabbit hole to explore it so I can eventually write about it. The OptionSet protocol is one of these Swift features. If you've ever written an animation and passed it a list of options like this, you have already used OptionSet: UIView.animate( withDuration: 0.6, delay: 0, options: [.allowUserInteraction, .curveEaseIn], animations: { myView.layer.opacity = 0 }, completion: { _ in }) You may not have realized that you weren't passing an array to the options parameter, and that's not surprising. After all, the options...

If you've ever wanted to decode a bunch of JSON data into NSManagedObject instances you've probably noticed that this isn't a straightforward exercise. With plain structs, you can conform your struct to Codable and you convert the struct from and to JSON data automatically. For an NSManagedObject subclass it's not that easy. If your Core Data data model is configured to automatically generate your entity class definitions for you (which is the default), you may have tried to write the following code to conform your managed object to Decodable: extension MyManagedObject: Decodable { } If you do this, the compiler...

Unit testing is an important skill in the toolbox of any engineer. Knowing how to write a reliable, robust test suite helps you write reliable and robust code. If you've followed my introduction to unit testing part one and part two, or if you're experienced with unit testing you know that your tests should run isolated from any other tests. You also know that you should make sure that your test relies on as few external dependencies as possible. When you want to test your Core Data code, it might not be immediately obvious how you can test your Core...

In WWDC2020's session Lists in UICollectionView a slide is shown where a UICollectionViewListCell's separator inset is updated by assigning a new leading anchor to separatorLayoutGuide.leadingAnchor. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in when you try to do it. To set the separator inset for a UICollectionViewListCell you can update the leading anchor constraint by overriding updateConstraints in a UICollectionViewListCell subclass. Setting the anchor in init will cause the system to override your custom anchor leaving you with the default inset. override func updateConstraints() { super.updateConstraints() separatorLayoutGuide.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: someOtherView.leadingAnchor, constant: 10).isActive = true } You can set the leadingAnchor constraint just like you would...

Apple provides several accessory types that you can use to apply certain affordances to a UICollectionViewListCell. However, sometimes these options don't suit your needs and you're looking for something more customizable. To add a custom accessory to a list cell instead of a standard one, you use the .custom accessory type. The initializer for this accessory takes a UICellAccessory.CustomViewConfiguration that describes how your accessory should look and where it's positioned. Let's dive right in with an example: // create the accessory configuration let customAccessory = UICellAccessory.CustomViewConfiguration( customView: UIImageView(image: UIImage(systemName: "paperplane")), placement: .leading(displayed: .always)) // add the accessory to the cell...

In iOS 14 Apple added the ability for developers to create collection views that look and feel like table views, except they are far, far more powerful. To do this, Apple introduced a new UICollectionViewCell subclass called UICollectionViewListCell. This new cell class allows us to implement several tableviewcell-like principles, including accessories. Adding accessories to a cell is done by assigning an array of UICellAccessory items to a UICollectionViewListCell's accessories property. For example, to make a UICollectionViewListCell show a disclosure indicator that makes it clear to a user that they will see more content if they tapp a cell, you would...

In iOS 14 Apple added the ability for developers to create collection views that look and feel like table views, except they are far, far more powerful. To do this, Apple introduced a new UICollectionViewCell subclass called UICollectionViewListCell. This new cell class allows us to implement several tableviewcell-like principles, including swipe actions. You can add both leading and trailing swipe actions to a cell by assigning a UISwipeActionsConfigurationProvider instance to the collection view's UICollectionLayoutListConfiguration object's leadingSwipeActionsConfigurationProvider and trailingSwipeActionsConfigurationProvider properties. This swipe actions provider is expected to return an instance of UISwipeActionsConfiguration. A UISwipeActionsConfiguration is created using an array of one...

In iOS 14 you can use the new UICollectionView.CellRegistration class to register and configure your UICollectionViewCell instances. So no more let cellIdentifier = "MyCell", no more collectionView.dequeueReusableCell(withReuseIdentifier: "MyCell", for: indexPath) and best of all, you no longer need to cast the cell returned by dequeueReusableCell(withReuseIdentifier:for:) to your custom cell class. Adopting UICollectionView.CellRegistration in your project is surprisingly straightforward. For demo purposes I created the following UICollectionViewCell subclass: class MyCollectionViewCell: UICollectionViewCell { let label = UILabel() required init?(coder: NSCoder) { fatalError("nope!") } override init(frame: CGRect) { super.init(frame: frame) contentView.addSubview(label) label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false label.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: contentView.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor, constant: 8).isActive = true label.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: contentView.safeAreaLayoutGuide.leadingAnchor, constant:...

A Double and Float are both used to represent decimal numbers, but they do so in slightly different ways. If you initialize a decimal number in Swift using as shown below, the Swift compiler will assume that you meant to create a Double: let val = 3.123 // val is inferred to be Double The reason for this is that Double is the more precise type when comparing it to Float. A Float holds a total of 8 positions, or 32 bits. Since Double is more precise, it can hold more positions. It uses 64 bits to do this. In...