Day 05

About 10 min

Day 05 관련

Functions let us wrap up pieces of code so they can be used in lots of places. We can send data into functions to customize how they work, and get back data that tells us the result that was calculated.

Believe it or not, function calls used to be really slow. Steve Johnson, the author of many early coding tools for the Unix operating system, said this:

“Dennis Ritchie (the creator of the C programming language) encouraged modularity by telling all and sundry that function calls were really, really cheap in C. Everybody started writing small functions and modularizing. Years later we found out that function calls were still expensive, and our code was often spending 50% of its time just calling them. Dennis had lied to us! But it was too late; we were all hooked...”

Today you have 11 one-minute videos to watch, and you’ll meet things like variadic functions, throwing errors, and more. Once you’ve watched each video and optionally gone through the extra reading, there’s a short test to help make sure you’ve understood what was taught.

1. Writing functions

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 1. Writing functions

1. Writing functions

Functions let us re-use code, which means we can write a function to do something interesting then run that function from lots of places. Repeating code is generally a bad idea, and functions help us avoid doing that.

To start with, we’re going to write a function that prints help information for users of our app. We might need this anywhere in our app, so having it as a function is a good idea.

Swift functions start with the func keyword, then your function name, then open and close parentheses. All the body of your function – the code that should be run when the function is requested – is placed inside braces.

Let’s write the printHelp() function now:

func printHelp() {
    let message = """
Welcome to MyApp!

Run this app inside a directory of images and
MyApp will resize them all into thumbnails
"""

    print(message)
}

We can now run that using printHelp() by itself:

printHelp()

Running a function is often referred to as calling a function.

1. Writing functions - Additional

Optional: What code should be put in a function?open in new window
Test: Writing functionsopen in new window

2. Accepting parameters

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 2. Accepting parameters

2. Accepting parameters

Functions become more powerful when they can be customized each time you run them. Swift lets you send values to a function that can then be used inside the function to change the way it behaves. We’ve used this already – we’ve been sending strings and integers to the print() function, like this:

print("Hello, world!")

Values sent into functions this way are called parameters.

To make your own functions accept parameters, give each parameter a name, then a colon, then tell Swift the type of data it must be. All this goes inside the parentheses after your function name.

For example, we can write a function to print the square of any number:

func square(number: Int) {
    print(number * number)
}

That tells Swift we expect to receive an Int, and it should be called number. This name is used both inside the function when you want to refer to the parameter, but also when you run the function, like this:

square(number: 8)

2. Accepting parameters - Additional

3. Returning values

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 3. Returning values

3. Returning values

As well as receiving data, functions can also send back data. To do this, write a dash then a right angle bracket after your function’s parameter list, then tell Swift what kind of data will be returned.

Inside your function, you use the return keyword to send a value back if you have one. Your function then immediately exits, sending back that value – no other code from that function will be run.

We could rewrite our square() function to return a value rather than print it directly:

func square(number: Int) -> Int {
    return number * number
}

Now we can grab that return value when the function is run, and print it there:

let result = square(number: 8)
print(result)

If you need to return multiple values, this is a perfect example of when to use tuples.

3. Returning values - Additional

4. Parameter labels

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 4. Parameter labels

4. Parameter labels

We wrote our square() function like this:

func square(number: Int) -> Int {
    return number * number
}

That names its parameter number, so we can use number inside the function to refer to it, but we must also use the name when running the function, like this:

let result = square(number: 8)

Swift lets us provide two names for each parameter: one to be used externally when calling the function, and one to be used internally inside the function. This is as simple as writing two names, separated by a space.

To demonstrate this, here’s a function that uses two names for its string parameter:

func sayHello(to name: String) {
    print("Hello, \(name)!")
}

The parameter is called to name, which means externally it’s called to, but internally it’s called name. This gives variables a sensible name inside the function, but means calling the function reads naturally:

sayHello(to: "Taylor")

4. Parameter labels - Additional

Optional: Why does Swift use parameter labels?open in new window
Test: Parameter labelsopen in new window

5. Omitting parameter labels

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 5. Omitting parameter labels

5. Omitting parameter labels

You might have noticed that we don’t actually send any parameter names when we call print() – we say print("Hello") rather than print(message: "Hello").

You can get this same behavior in your own functions by using an underscore, _, for your external parameter name, like this:

func greet(_ person: String) {
    print("Hello, \(person)!")
}

You can now call greet() without having to use the person parameter name:

greet("Taylor")

This can make some code more natural to read, but generally it’s better to give your parameters external names to avoid confusion. For example, if I say setAlarm(5) it’s hard to tell what that means – does it set an alarm for five o’clock, set an alarm for five hours from now, or activate pre-configured alarm number 5?

5. Omitting parameter labels - Additional

6. Default parameters

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 6. Default parameters

6. Default parameters

The print() function prints something to the screen, but always adds a new line to the end of whatever you printed, so that multiple calls to print() don’t all appear on the same line.

You can change that behavior if you want, so you could use spaces rather than line breaks. Most of the time, though, folks want new lines, so print() has a terminator parameter that uses new line as its default value.

You can give your own parameters a default value just by writing an = after its type followed by the default you want to give it. So, we could write a greet() function that can optionally print nice greetings:

func greet(_ person: String, nicely: Bool = true) {
    if nicely == true {
        print("Hello, \(person)!")
    } else {
        print("Oh no, it's \(person) again...")
    }
}

That can be called in two ways:

greet("Taylor")
greet("Taylor", nicely: false)

6. Default parameters - Additional

7. Variadic functions

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 7. Variadic functions

7. Variadic functions

Some functions are variadic, which is a fancy way of saying they accept any number of parameters of the same type. The print() function is actually variadic: if you pass lots of parameters, they are all printed on one line with spaces between them:

print("Haters", "gonna", "hate")

You can make any parameter variadic by writing ... after its type. So, an Int parameter is a single integer, whereas Int... is zero or more integers – potentially hundreds.

Inside the function, Swift converts the values that were passed in to an array of integers, so you can loop over them as needed.

To try this out, let’s write a square() function that can square many numbers:

func square(numbers: Int...) {
    for number in numbers {
        print("\(number) squared is \(number * number)")
    }
}

Now we can run that with lots of numbers just by passing them in separated by commas:

square(numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

7. Variadic functions - Additional

Optional: When to use variadic functionsopen in new window
Test: Variadic functionsopen in new window

8. Writing throwing functions

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 8. Writing throwing functions

8. Writing throwing functions

ometimes functions fail because they have bad input, or because something went wrong internally. Swift lets us throw errors from functions by marking them as throws before their return type, then using the throw keyword when something goes wrong.

First we need to define an enum that describes the errors we can throw. These must always be based on Swift’s existing Error type. We’re going to write a function that checks whether a password is good, so we’ll throw an error if the user tries an obvious password:

enum PasswordError: Error {
    case obvious
}

Now we’ll write a checkPassword() function that will throw that error if something goes wrong. This means using the throws keyword before the function’s return value, then using throw PasswordError.obvious if their password is “password”.

Here’s that in Swift:

func checkPassword(_ password: String) throws -> Bool {
    if password == "password" {
        throw PasswordError.obvious
    }

    return true
}

8. Writing throwing functions - Additional

9. Running throwing functions

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 9. Running throwing functions

9. Running throwing functions

Swift doesn’t like errors to happen when your program runs, which means it won’t let you run an error-throwing function by accident.

Instead, you need to call these functions using three new keywords: do starts a section of code that might cause problems, try is used before every function that might throw an error, and catch lets you handle errors gracefully.

If any errors are thrown inside the do block, execution immediately jumps to the catch block. Let’s try calling checkPassword() with a parameter that throws an error:

do {
    try checkPassword("password")
    print("That password is good!")
} catch {
    print("You can't use that password.")
}

When that code runs, “You can’t use that password” is printed, but “That password is good” won’t be – that code will never be reached, because the error is thrown.

9. Running throwing functions - Additional

10. inout parameters

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 10. inout parameters

10. inout parameters

All parameters passed into a Swift function are constants, so you can’t change them. If you want, you can pass in one or more parameters as inout, which means they can be changed inside your function, and those changes reflect in the original value outside the function.

For example, if you want to double a number in place – i.e., change the value directly rather than returning a new one – you might write a function like this:

func doubleInPlace(number: inout Int) {
    number *= 2
}

To use that, you first need to make a variable integer – you can’t use constant integers with inout, because they might be changed. You also need to pass the parameter to doubleInPlace using an ampersand, &, before its name, which is an explicit recognition that you’re aware it is being used as inout.

In code, you’d write this:

var myNum = 10 
doubleInPlace(number: &myNum)

10. inout parameters - Additional

Optional: When should you use inout parameters?open in new window
Test: inout parametersopen in new window

11. Functions summary

100 Days of Swift - Day 5 - 11. Functions summary

11. Functions summary

You’ve made it to the end of the fifth part of this series, so let’s summarize:

Functions let us re-use code without repeating ourselves.
Functions can accept parameters – just tell Swift the type of each parameter.
Functions can return values, and again you just specify what type will be sent back. Use tuples if you want to return several things.
You can use different names for parameters externally and internally, or omit the external name entirely.
Parameters can have default values, which helps you write less code when specific values are common.
Variadic functions accept zero or more of a specific parameter, and Swift converts the input to an array.
Functions can throw errors, but you must call them using try and handle errors using catch.
You can use inout to change variables inside a function, but it’s usually better to return a new value.

11. Functions summary - Additional

Test: Testopen in new window

Do you remember the two rules of this series? You’re already being awesome at the first one because you keep coming back for more (you rock!), but don’t forget the second: post your progress online, so you can benefit from all the encouragement.

이찬희 (MarkiiimarK)

Never Stop Learning.