Swift

If you are like me and have ever found yourself wondering, "what is the exact syntax on how completion handlers are setup in closures?" Then this tutorial is for you.  I wrote this tutorial with the idea in mind that sometimes it is nice to have a resource to reference when writing and defining completion handlers in your Swift project.  I also wanted to provide a quick reference on how to setup a completion handler as a function and as declared constant.  So all you have to do is make the decision about what makes the most sense in your project.

Have you ever found yourself trying to remember the syntax on how to grab the first few characters from the start or end a string in Swift 4.  Well, I certainly have from time to time and that is why I wanted to write this tutorial. To show you the reader how to grab the first few characters from the start or the end of a Swift string using only two Swift Standard library methods, and from there show one more slightly advanced technique.  So by the end of this tutorial you should be able to get the first few characters from the start or the end of a string in either Swift 3 or 4.

If you are like me and sometimes you forget the syntax on how to sort an object by a custom property then this tutorial is aimed at you.  The goal for this tutorial is to show you how to sort custom objects in Swift by a date property.  But that's not it!  One of the major reasons why the API used in this tutorial is so versatile is because it can also be extended out to other properties on a custom object like a string property, for example.  So by the end of this tutorial you should be able to sort collections of objects by either date or string properties in either Swift 3 or 4.

One of the nice new feature enhancements in Swift 4 this year is Proposal 172 for One-sided Ranges. Proposal 172, in Swift Evolution, now simplifies collection manipulation by giving developers the option to pick from using the verbosity of the start and endIndex or using the newly implemented syntax that infers the start and end index for you.

Swift 4 is packed with all kinds of great updates to the Swift Standard Library's Dictionary type thanks to the great work put in by Nate Cook to enhance the Dictionary and Set types in proposal 165 of Swift Evolution.