What is Swift?

Swift is a general purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language for developing iOS and OS X tvOS, watchOS applications. It is developed by Apple Inc. It is powerful and intutive language which is easy to learn. Swift code is safe, precise and runs very fast.

Swift follows Objective-C runtime library which allows C, Objective-C, C++ and Swift code to run within one program. Swift is built with open source LLVM compiler and included in Xcode since version 6.

Swift 4

Swift 4 is the latest version of Swift which inbuilt the features of Swift 3 and also enhance the robustness and stability of the language. Swift 4 has improved standard library, extended features like smart key paths and serialization, shortening build times and reducing the size of app binaries.

Swift4 follows a modern programming pattern to overcome common programming errors:

• In Swift 4, variables are always initialized before use.
• Array indices are checked for out-of-bounds errors.
• Integers are checked for overflow.
• Optionals ensure that nil values are handled explicitly.
• Atomatic memory is management.
• Error handling allows controlled recovery from unexpected failures.

Swift 4 Features

Swift 4 adopts the features of C and Objective-C without having the complexity of C language.

• Swift 4 uses a safe programming approach. It is very easy to laern and precise to use.
• Swift 4 provides a enhanced set of modern programming features.
• Swift 4 follows the Objective-C like syntax.
• Swift 4 provides an easy way to write iOS and OS X apps.
• Swift 4 provides seamless access to existing Cocoa frameworks.
• Swift 4 unifies the procedural and object-oriented portions of the language.
• Swift 4 does not need a separate library import to support functionalities like input/output or string handling.

Newly added features in Swift 4

• Swift 4 is faster, easier to use Strings that provides Unicode correctness. It also adds support for creating, using and managing substrings.
• Provide smart key paths for type-safe, efficient, extensible key value coding for Swift types.
• Enhanced Dictionary and Set types.
• Enforced exclusive access to memory.