Get started fast with Swift programming for iOS and OS X

Learning Swift Programming is a fast-paced, hands-on introduction to writing production-quality iOS and OS X apps with Apple’s new programming language. Written for developers with previous experience in any other modern language, this book explains Swift simply and clearly, using relevant examples that solve realistic problems.

Author Jacob Schatz’s popular Skip Wilson video tutorials on YouTube have already helped thousands of Apple developers get started with Swift. Now, he helps you take full advantage of Swift’s advanced design, remarkable performance, and streamlined development techniques.

Step-by-step, you’ll move from basic syntax through advanced features such as closures and generics–discovering helpful tips and tricks along the way. After you’ve mastered Swift’s building blocks and learned about its key innovations, a full section of case studies walks you through building complete apps from scratch.

• Compare Swift with Objective-C, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and C
• Collect data with arrays and dictionaries, and store it with variables and constants
• Group commonly-used code into functions for easy reuse
• Structure your code with enums, structs, and classes
• Use generics to get more done with less code
• Write closures to share small blocks of functionality
• Use optionals to write more robust, crash-resistant, and cleaner code
• Integrate existing Objective-C code into new Swift apps
• Program on the bit and byte level with advanced operators
• Implement efficient design patterns with protocols and delegates
• Create animated 2D games with SpriteKit, and 3D games with SceneKit

Contents at a Glance

1 Getting Your Feet Wet
    Building Blocks of Swift
    Optionals: A Gift to Unwrap
    Tuples
    Number Types and Converting Between Them
    Coming to Swift from Objective-C and C

2 Collecting Data
    Using Arrays
    Modifying Arrays
    Using Dictionaries

3 Making Things Happen: Functions
    Defining Functions
    More on Parameters

4 Structuring Code: Enums, Structs, and Classes
    Enums
    Structs

5 Making a Game
    Building a User Interface (UI)
    The Action-Packed View Controller

6 Reusable Code: Closures
    What Are Closures?
    Closures in Other Languages
    How Closures Work and Why They’re Awesome

7 Subscripts and Advanced Operators
    Writing Your First Subscript
    Bits and Bytes with Advanced Operators
    Customizing Operators
    Making Your Own Operators
    Bits and Bytes in Real Life

8 Protocols
    Writing Your First Protocol
    Animizable and Humanizable
    Delegation
    Protocols as Types
    Protocols in Collections
    Optional Chaining

9 Becoming Flexible with Generics
    The Problem That Generics Solve

10 Games with SpriteKit
     Setting Up the Project
     The Start Screen
     Dangerous Ground
     A Hero to the Rescue
     Enemies in Motion
     Spawned Obstacles
     Smashing Physics

11 Games with SceneKit
     Creating DAE Files
     Creating a New SceneKit Project
     Your SceneKit Files
     Making the Game
     Bridging the Gap to Objective-C

12 Apps with UIKit
     Application Types
     Loading a Table View
     Loading Data from a URL