Swift Tutorial - Swift Dictionaries






A dictionary stores key-value pair.

Arrays keep items in the order in which you put the items into the array, while dictionaries don't guarantee any order at all.

Example

To create a new dictionary, specify both the data type for the key and the data type for the value. 

var d1:Dictionary<String, Int>

d1 is declared as a dictionary that requires String keys and Int values.

Before you add any items, you will need to initialize d1

d1 = Dictionary()

A dictionary literal is an constant dictionary that is filled with an immutable collection of keys and values. 

var myDictionary = [1:"a",2:"b", 3:"c"]

The code above creates a dictionary called myDictionary that uses integers as keys and stores web page addresses as string values.





Referencing Dictionary Items

To reference a dictionary item, supply the key enclosed in square brackets [], after the dictionary name. 

var myDictionary = [1:"a", 2:"b", 3:"c"]

let blogPage = myDictionary[2]

Updating Dictionary Items

You can update the value of a mutable dictionary by getting a reference to the item and using the assignment operator to supply the new value. 

myDictionary[1] = "new value"

The following code shows how to use String and Float Keys 

var d2:Dictionary = ["a":"AAAA", "b":"BBBB"]
var d3:Dictionary = [1.1:"AAAA", 1.2:"BBBB"]

d2["a"] = "string"
d3[1.2] = "string"

To remove an item from a dictionary, simply update the item with the nil value or use the removeValueForKey() function. 

d2["b"] = nil
d2.removeValueForKey("a")




Iterating Over Dictionary Items

To iterate over dictionary items, use the for in loop.

You will get a reference to each key and item in the loop. 

for (key, value) in d3{
   println("key:\(key), value:\(value)")
}

To iterate through the keys, access the key property on the dictionary. 

for key in d3.keys{
   println("key:\(key)")
}