Swift design patterns

Top Swift Design Patterns for iOS App Development

Swift is a powerful programming language that enables developers to construct adaptable programs for many operating systems (albeit most often used to make iOS applications).

Swift is a relatively new programming language, and as a result, many developers are unsure about which design patterns to utilize and how to apply them. To create effective, high-quality, and secure apps, it is necessary to be able to apply a pertinent design pattern.

What are Design Patterns

A software design pattern is a solution to a specific challenge encountered while creating the architecture of an application. In contrast to pre-packaged services or open-source libraries, however, you cannot just copy and paste a design pattern into your application since it is not a piece of code. Instead, it is a generic approach to problem-solving. A design pattern is a template that instructs you on how to create code. However, it is your responsibility to confirm your code to the template.

Design patterns have various benefits:

  • Proven solutions: Design patterns already give the optimal answer to a software development issue and explain how to apply it, so there is no need to spend time and recreate the wheel.
  • Code unification. Build patterns give standard solutions that have been evaluated for flaws and faults, allowing you to design your application architecture with fewer errors.
  • Common language. Instead of offering detailed explanations on how to address a particular software development challenge, you may state the design pattern you used, and other developers will quickly comprehend the solutions you applied.

iOS Swift Design Patterns

We will present just the most essential details about each software design pattern, namely:

Swift Design Patterns for iOS App

  • Builder

The Builder pattern is a creational design pattern that enables the incremental construction of complex items from basic ones. This design pattern allows you to create several object views with the same code.

Imagine a complicated object that requires the incremental initialization of several fields and nested objects. Typically, the initialization code for such objects is behind a monstrous constructor that accepts hundreds of inputs. Or, much worse, it may be dispersed across the client code.

The Builder design pattern requires separating an object’s creation from its class. Instead, this building delegates to particular objects known as builders and then divided into many phases. To generate an object, consecutive calls to builder methods are required. And you need to complete the steps necessary to create an object with the specified configuration.

  • Decorator

The Decorator pattern is a structural design pattern that enables dynamic attachment of additional functionality to an object by surrounding it in helpful wrappers.

This design pattern is appropriately known as the Wrapper design pattern. This term reflects more explicitly the fundamental concept behind this pattern: you put a target object within another wrapper object that activates the direct action of the target object and adds its behavior to the resulting object.

Both objects have the same interface. Hence it is irrelevant to the user whether they interact with a clean or wrapped object. You may use many wrappers concurrently and get the combined behavior of all of them.

  • Adapter

The adapter is a structural design pattern that enables the cooperation of objects having conflicting interfaces. In other words, it modifies an object’s interface to accommodate a different object.

An adapter envelops an item, entirely hiding it from another object. For instance, you might wrap a meter-managing object with an adaptor that translates data to feet.

  • Facade

The Facade design pattern is a structural pattern that gives a simple interface to a library, framework, or sophisticated class-based system.

Imagine that your code must interact with several sophisticated libraries or framework objects. It would be best to initialize each of these objects, maintain the correct sequence of dependencies, etc. Consequently, your classes’ business logic becomes entangled with the implementation details of other classes. This code is challenging to understand and maintain.

The Facade design offers an easy-to-use interface for extensive subsystems with several classes. The Facade design pattern provides a more straightforward interface with limited capacity that may be expanded by directly using a complicated component. This streamlined interface offers just the functions a user needs while hiding the rest.

  • Template Procedure

The Template Method pattern is a behavioral design pattern that establishes an algorithm’s skeleton and assigns responsibility for certain phases to subclasses. This pattern enables subclasses to modify specific algorithmic stages without altering the algorithm’s general structure.

This design pattern divides an algorithm into a series of stages, specifies each step in a distinct method, and calls them sequentially using a template method.

Wrapping up

We’ve looked at the five most common Swift design patterns. You may find examples of implementing more software architectural patterns in this repository.

The flexibility to choose an appropriate design pattern in Swift for a given project enables the development of fully functioning, secure, and easily maintained and upgraded apps. You should include design patterns in your skillset since they ease software development, improve the whole process.

For more information about Swift design patterns, connect with Aalpha mobile app development company!

Also check: Swift advantages and disadvantages | Swift vs. Objective C

Written by:

Muzammil K

Muzammil K is the Marketing Manager at Aalpha Information Systems, where he leads marketing efforts to drive business growth. With a passion for marketing strategy and a commitment to results, he's dedicated to helping the company succeed in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Muzammil K is the Marketing Manager at Aalpha Information Systems, where he leads marketing efforts to drive business growth. With a passion for marketing strategy and a commitment to results, he's dedicated to helping the company succeed in the ever-changing digital landscape.