Debugging and Reflection

Fortify your code with runtime checks, and examine your values' runtime representation.

Topics

Printing and Dumping

func print(Any, separator: String, terminator: String)

Writes the textual representations of the given items into the standard output.

func print<Target>(Any, separator: String, terminator: String, to: inout Target)

Writes the textual representations of the given items into the given output stream.

func debugPrint(Any, separator: String, terminator: String)

Writes the textual representations of the given items most suitable for debugging into the standard output.

func debugPrint<Target>(Any, separator: String, terminator: String, to: inout Target)

Writes the textual representations of the given items most suitable for debugging into the given output stream.

func dump<T>(T, name: String?, indent: Int, maxDepth: Int, maxItems: Int) -> T

Dumps the given object’s contents using its mirror to standard output.

func dump<T, TargetStream>(T, to: inout TargetStream, name: String?, indent: Int, maxDepth: Int, maxItems: Int) -> T

Dumps the given object’s contents using its mirror to the specified output stream.

Testing

func assert(() -> Bool, () -> String, file: StaticString, line: UInt)

Performs a traditional C-style assert with an optional message.

func assertionFailure(() -> String, file: StaticString, line: UInt)

Indicates that an internal sanity check failed.

func precondition(() -> Bool, () -> String, file: StaticString, line: UInt)

Checks a necessary condition for making forward progress.

Exiting a Program

func fatalError(() -> String, file: StaticString, line: UInt) -> Never

Unconditionally prints a given message and stops execution.

enum Never

The return type of functions that do not return normally, that is, a type with no values.

Querying Runtime Values

struct Mirror

A representation of the substructure and display style of an instance of any type.

struct ObjectIdentifier

A unique identifier for a class instance or metatype.

func type<T, Metatype>(of: T) -> Metatype

Returns the dynamic type of a value.

func == (Any.Type?, Any.Type?) -> Bool

Returns a Boolean value indicating whether two types are identical.

func != (Any.Type?, Any.Type?) -> Bool

Returns a Boolean value indicating whether two types are not identical.

Customizing Your Type's Reflection

Provide a custom reflection for your types using these protocols.

protocol CustomReflectable

A type that explicitly supplies its own mirror.

protocol CustomLeafReflectable

A type that explicitly supplies its own mirror, but whose descendant classes are not represented in the mirror unless they also override customMirror.

protocol CustomPlaygroundDisplayConvertible

A type that supplies a custom description for playground logging.

typealias PlaygroundQuickLook

The sum of types that can be used as a Quick Look representation.

Deprecated

See Also

Programming Tasks

Input and Output

Print values to the console, read from and write to text streams, and use command line arguments.

Key-Path Expressions

Use key-path expressions to access properties dynamically.

Manual Memory Management

Allocate and manage memory manually.

Type Casting and Existential Types

Perform casts between types or represent values of any type.

C Interoperability

Use imported C types or call C variadic functions.

Operator Declarations

Work with prefix, postfix, and infix operators.