Swift Standard Library

Swift has 74 built-in functions but only seven of them are documented in the Swift book (“The Swift Programming Language”). The rest remain undocumented.

This article lists all built-in Swift functions – both documented and undocumented ones. The definition used for “built-in function” used in this article is a function available in Swift withoutimporting any modules (such as Foundation, etc.) or referencing any classes.

Let’s start with the seven documented built-in functions mentioned in the Swift book along with the page number on which the function was first mentioned:

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. // assert mentioned on page 55  
2. assert(true)  
3. // countElements mentioned on page 79  
4. countElements("foo") == 3  
5. // enumerate mentioned on page 94  
6. for (i, j) in enumerate(["A", "B"]) {  
7.     // "0:A", "1:B" will be printed  
8.     println("\(i):\(j)")  
9. }  
10. // min mentioned on page 246  
11. min(8, 2, 3) == 2  
12. // print mentioned on page 85  
13. print("Hello ")  
14. // println mentioned on page 4  
15. println("World")  
16. // sort mentioned on page 14  
17. for i in sort(["B", "A"]) {  
18.     // "A", "B" will be printed  
19.     println(i)  
20. }  

Now on to the most useful undocumented functions …

abs(signedNumber): Returns the absolute value of a given signed number. Trivial but not documented.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. abs(-1) == 1  
2. abs(-42) == 42  
3. abs(42) == 42  

contains(sequence, element) : Returns true if a given sequence (such as an array) contains the specified element.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. contains(languages, "Swift") == true  
3. contains(languages, "Java") == false  
4. contains([29, 85, 42, 96, 75], 42) == true  

dropFirst(sequence) : Returns a new sequence (such as an array) without the first element of the sequence.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. var oldLanguages = dropFirst(languages)  
3. equal(oldLanguages, ["Objective-C"]) == true  

dropLast(sequence) : Returns a new sequence (such as an array) without the last element of the sequence passed as argument to the function.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. var newLanguages = dropLast(languages)  
3. equal(newLanguages, ["Swift"]) == true  

dump(object): Dumps the contents of an object to standard output.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. dump(languages)  
3. // Prints:  
4. // ▿ 2 elements  
5. //   - [0]: Swift  
6. //   - [1]: Objective-C  

equal(sequence1, sequence2): Returns true if sequence1 and sequence2 contain the same elements.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. equal(languages, ["Swift", "Objective-C"]) == true  
3. var oldLanguages = dropFirst(languages)  
4. equal(oldLanguages, ["Objective-C"]) == true  

filter(sequence, includeElementClosure) : Returns a the elements from sequence that evaluate to true by includeElementClosure.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. for i in filter(1...100, { $0 % 10 == 0 }) {  
2.     // 10, 20, 30, ...  
3.     println(i)  
4.     assert(contains([10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100], i))  
5. }  

find(sequence, element) : Return the index of a specified element in the given sequence. Or nil if the element is not found in the sequence.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. find(languages, "Objective-C") == 1  
3. find(languages, "Java") == nil  
4. find([29, 85, 42, 96, 75], 42) == 2  

indices(sequence) : Returns the indices (zero indexed) of the elements in the given sequence.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. equal(indices([29, 85, 42]), [0, 1, 2])  
2. for i in indices([29, 85, 42]) {  
3.     // 0, 1, 2  
4.     println(i)  
5. }  

join(separator, sequence) : Returns the elements of the supplied sequence separated by the given separator.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. join(":", ["A", "B", "C"]) == "A:B:C"  
2. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
3. join("/", languages) == "Swift/Objective-C"  

map(sequence, transformClosure): Returns a new sequence with the transformClosure applied to all elements in the supplied sequence.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. equal(map(1...3, { $00 * 5 }), [5, 10, 15])  
2. for i in map(1...10, { $00 * 10 }) {  
3.     // 10, 20, 30, ...  
4.     println(i)  
5.     assert(contains([10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100], i))  
6. }  

max(comparable1, comparable2, etc.): Returns the largest of the arguments given to the function.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. max(0, 1) == 1  
2. max(8, 2, 3) == 8  

maxElement(sequence): Returns the largest element in a supplied sequence of comparable elements.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. maxElement(1...10) == 10  
2. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
3. maxElement(languages) == "Swift"  

minElements(sequence) : Returns the smallest element in a supplied sequence of comparable elements.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. minElement(1...10) == 1  
2. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
3. minElement(languages) == "Objective-C"  

reduce(sequence, initial, combineClosure): Recursively reduce the elements in sequence into one value by running the combineClosure on them with starting value of initial.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
2. reduce(languages, "", { $0 + $1 }) == "SwiftObjective-C"  
3. reduce([10, 20, 5], 1, { $00 * $1 }) == 1000  

reverse(sequence): Returns the elements of the given sequence reversed.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. equal(reverse([1, 2, 3]), [3, 2, 1])  
2. for i in reverse([1, 2, 3]) {  
3.     // 3, 2, 1  
4.     println(i)  
5. }  

startsWith(sequence1, sequence2): Return true if the starting elements sequence1 are equal to the of sequence2.

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. startsWith("foobar", "foo") == true  
2. startsWith(10..100, 10..15) == true  
3. var languages = ["Swift", "Objective-C"]  
4. startsWith(languages, ["Swift"]) == true  

Below is the full list of all 74 built-in functions in Swift. The functions covered above are the ones I think are useful on a day-to-day basis, but perhaps I’ve missed some functions from the list below that deserves coverage. If so, let me know in the comments section and please include a short code snippet to show how to use the function.

Happy Swifting!

[objc]  view plain copy print ?

1. abs(...)  
2. advance(...)  
3. alignof(...)  
4. alignofValue(...)  
5. assert(...)  
6. bridgeFromObjectiveC(...)  
7. bridgeFromObjectiveCUnconditional(...)  
8. bridgeToObjectiveC(...)  
9. bridgeToObjectiveCUnconditional(...)  
10. c_malloc_size(...)  
11. c_memcpy(...)  
12. c_putchar(...)  
13. contains(...)  
14. count(...)  
15. countElements(...)  
16. countLeadingZeros(...)  
17. debugPrint(...)  
18. debugPrintln(...)  
19. distance(...)  
20. dropFirst(...)  
21. dropLast(...)  
22. dump(...)  
23. encodeBitsAsWords(...)  
24. enumerate(...)  
25. equal(...)  
26. filter(...)  
27. find(...)  
28. getBridgedObjectiveCType(...)  
29. getVaList(...)  
30. indices(...)  
31. insertionSort(...)  
32. isBridgedToObjectiveC(...)  
33. isBridgedVerbatimToObjectiveC(...)  
34. isUniquelyReferenced(...)  
35. join(...)  
36. lexicographicalCompare(...)  
37. map(...)  
38. max(...)  
39. maxElement(...)  
40. min(...)  
41. minElement(...)  
42. numericCast(...)  
43. partition(...)  
44. posix_read(...)  
45. posix_write(...)  
46. print(...)  
47. println(...)  
48. quickSort(...)  
49. reduce(...)  
50. reflect(...)  
51. reinterpretCast(...)  
52. reverse(...)  
53. roundUpToAlignment(...)  
54. sizeof(...)  
55. sizeofValue(...)  
56. sort(...)  
57. split(...)  
58. startsWith(...)  
59. strideof(...)  
60. strideofValue(...)  
61. swap(...)  
62. swift_MagicMirrorData_summaryImpl(...)  
63. swift_bufferAllocate(...)  
64. swift_keepAlive(...)  
65. toString(...)  
66. transcode(...)  
67. underestimateCount(...)  
68. unsafeReflect(...)  
69. withExtendedLifetime(...)  
70. withObjectAtPlusZero(...)  
71. withUnsafePointer(...)  
72. withUnsafePointerToObject(...)  
73. withUnsafePointers(...)  
74. withVaList(...)