What'sASwift?

(Full Audio of the event, some useful video available here: https://youtu.be/6r7Je0Zq9iU)

(All things in “quotes” are genuine quotes - I was taking notes

This was the one in Bristol yesterday.

I don't support Smith, but it's important to hear all sides of an argument, in their own words, in person if possible. I'll compare this to the Corbyn speech/Momentum meetings I've been to as I go.

For those wanting the tl;dr - about what you would expect from business style politician, around 100 people I’d guess from places including Gloucester, Exeter and Somerset, saying reason people aren’t voting Labour is because they don’t think it’s a competent party (regardless of swing to Greens, Lib Dems and UKIP), high use of divisive language such as “Tories”, “Libs”, voting Leave not being British values , policy ideas mostly the same as Corbyn’s (but with Trident and wanting to build a Nuclear Power Station in Hinkley) but few implementation ideas, leading to a moment where he kept ignoring a repeated question about that over the course of an hour, which right at the end ended up with the crowd yelling and jeering at a man as Smith did nothing, before he got in the man’s face (within 2 feet) leaning down, gesturing and almost shouting at him as the crowd applauded - it was as unsettling as it sounds.)

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First, it was pretty poorly signposted, the bit where the bus stops were, which seemed the obvious entry to the venue, had no Owen Smith/Labour posters on its noticeboard. We wandered around the building, and when we got there, there was a Security Guard outside. Bit intimidating, and not something I'd seen before (and I don't think I need to say, turned out to be about as unnecessary as you'd expect). Got inside and you had to put your name on a list (to keep track of numbers apparently). They had leaflets, which for someone like me who's been reading Corbyn's policies made familiar reading, if a little less detailed. Then there were also Bag Checks. Seriously, not kidding, bag checks and a security guard.

Going in it was like a sauna, stuffy with a lot of people fanning their leaflets rather than reading. Probably just over a hundred people present (some from further afield like Gloucester, Exeter and Somerset) but maybe more, I'm bad at estimating. Only half the chairs had been laid out in the hall, so a lot of people ended up standing, even though you could see the chairs stacked up there like water in a desert. Funnily enough it seemed less organised than the Momentum meetings, but then they have practice so I shouldn’t be too harsh.

We waited a bit and then a video was played on a projector of Owen Smith - guessing this was the default 'I'm running for Leadership one', which for a moment made me think it was all going to be video conference, as why do both. A speaker introduced him and he entered the area.

His speech was mostly what you expect of bog-standard politician speech but also a tad...unsettling? He constantly talked about getting 'power', (said with great emphasis each time, like it was in italics) and had a big line of “the job of the Labour Party is to win power” (one would hope it goes beyond that). You know the bit in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, the line "There is no good and evil. Only power, and those too weak to seek it." Like that. Also talked about Labour being "weak, /weak/“, “teetering on the brink of a precipice” etc. And used the word 'fear' a lot, as in 'fear UKIP' - “this is why we should be so frightened” (as in their getting Labour voters). As you can guess, or maybe not, this was very different to the positive sort of thing I've experienced in Momentum meetings and from Corbyn's speeches. It really threw me off. I’m not overstating it, I promise. But I’m not really used to the more negative kind of campaigns, so that’s probably it. Some seemed to be a bit, counter to the Labour Party. He talked about the ideas of owning houses, cars and holidays “have disappeared in a generation”, and several times referred to how things had downtrended in the last 20 years, in which the Labour Party was in power for a good chunk of, so that was odd. He said he’d been apparently feeling that something needed to be done for 20 years, begging the question why now rather than a more appropriate time. Another bit where he somewhat threw Labour under the bus was saying that “Some of us have to fess up” about things being Labour’s fault, but then gestured to himself when talking about a new generation - “we need to do something”, so clearly discounting himself as part of the fallible group. And the guy is 46 - we’re not talking some youthful, post-Blair age candidate, he was in the generation of a lot of the ‘faults’.

The rest of the speech was going through some general ideas, and specific policies, both that mirrored Corbyn’s, like “ask(ing) the rich to pay a little more”, that there should be an “Investment Program”. That ‘Leave’ and UKIP voters had done so largely because of economic situation rather than racism. Also Wage Council (specifically re: women), Collective Bargaining and investing in re-Industrialisation of ex-Industry areas, the workplace plan he worked on (that Corbyn’s policy is to apply an extended version thereof), his line on assistance for Self-Employed, Small and Small-Med Business, Zero Hour Contract abolition. All of which Corbyn shares, in fact I’m pretty sure he didn’t mention a single policy that they don’t share/have equivalents of except for Trident and saying that he intends for the Nuclear Power Station to be built. The summing up of which was saying “If I’m leader, that’s what I’ll do”, while getting applause of course, didn’t feel quite genuine to me, as many of the things wouldn’t actually be able to be fully implemented without also winning a general election.

Some bits he also contradicted things he’s said before, like that he “knows it’s wrong to have Austerity in Britain” when not even a month ago he said “I’m going to argue that austerity is right”.  On Iraq said “I was opposed to it at the time” despite being on record at the time as saying he didn’t know how he would have voted. When he talked about PFI later he said “It was wrong” and yet previously said “If PFI works, let’s do it”.

There was a lot of focus on the NHS and on the  ‘Tories’. One bit where he seemed to be trying to get the crowd a bit more fired up (as in exclaiming, here here’s, and spontaneous applause, that sort of thing) he talked about how the ‘Tories’ targeting the NHS “hate it” and hate “what it stands for”, as in shared risk, shared reward.

Also the Brexit vote was brought up, him saying how staunchly European he was and that isolationist values are not our, British values. There was a lot of pro-Europe and anti-Leave sentiment rolled up in that and said if he was chosen he’d want, if there were grounds, a second referendum to “put it to the people once again”.

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So, questions were done in lots of three or four. They were (unofficially) answered in order of ‘difficulty’ so least to most. Many times Smith said that these would be the last questions, and while it may be cynical of me to suggest, it seemed like he allowed another set, each time it didn’t end up with him ‘on top’ of the questions. Quite a lot he mis-answered, either by not answering fully, or by changing the issue to something else for example bringing up the Tories scrapping Bursaries for Nurses when asked a different question about the NHS. None was worse than what can only be called THE QUESTION, which snowballed into the most unsettling event of the evening.

But we also had the standard ones. Someone asking about PMQ’s and what Smith would say as first question to Theresa May, suggesting that wit was needed and implied lacking under Corbyn. Smith got a bit hyped at this, and while he couldn’t answer the question and said he didn’t know what it would be, but that it would be witty and in response to the situation. Personally I don’t care much about witty ad-libbing and prefer the carefully chosen clever, reasoned, polite questions without the snark, I don’t watch PMQ’s to be entertained (just to be appalled at how we do government with people braying and shouting). I have no doubt he would look more the part than Corbyn at the current style of PMQ’s, but I don’t think I can say that that would be a good thing.

Someone asked on behalf of someone else about his connection to Pfizer being a stumbling block. He brought up his other jobs as working under BBC and in Amgen, said that he thought it was a good thing for someone to have worked in the Private as well as Public sector, and that they “need people not in politics all their lives”. I’m not sure that really answered the question as working for HIV-patents-so-no-cheap-drugs Pfizer, or Amgen as PR manager while they’re being sued for selling drugs misleadingly and killing a lot of people is a little different from, say, running a bakery or a garden centre.

About Prepositional Representation he said he was yet to be convinced and that despite being a better measure of what the public feel, says you would lose connection with your local representative. I’m not sure how many lay people know their local representative but there you go.

Asked if they good give money to the NHS and paying for the investment things he wants to do by scrapping £200b Trident and the £300b Hinkley Nuclear Power Station, he replied that he wants the Nuclear Power Station to be built (a fact that I, and I think a lot of the audience didn’t know, as there was a sudden sense of stillness) but has questions about the private investment, and “making it China ironic”. Regarding Trident, he said he used to feel that way in his late teens, early 20’s (implying it’s a thought of youth rather than realism), that now the world is “feeling more volatile” (regardless of statistical evidence that suggests otherwise - but hey, feelings) and that every time you turn on the news there’s always something going on. He said “the Labour party need to be serious” in regards to defending the British Public (implying those who disagree with Nuclear Weapons and their use, therefore Corbyn are not) and that, and remember this is a direct quote “I don’t think we’ll make the world safer by getting rid of ours first”.

Re: TTIP he said he was pleased at efforts to mean it wouldn’t effect the NHS but was worried.

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So, THE QUESTION was asked by a person saying first, thank you for being here, they were from Exeter, then saying that we lost the last election because of the Conservatives, and “How, if you win, you’ll be able to do all the things you’ve been promising?”

Well, when the three questions had been taken, he talked about Exeter and patriotism and them being fighters (nothing to do with what the person had said) and then tried to move on - very heavy-handedly, and the person (rightly in my opinion) spoke up and said that Smith hadn’t answered the question. Smith said repeatedly and very pushily, that he had, and then moved on again, ignoring the person’s protests. This was rather horrible to watch, but what made my heart go was later, a person at the front, rather angrily, brought up the fact that Smith hadn’t answered THE QUESTION and added his own bit about the economy - wanting details rather than just ‘we’ll have a plan to-’ which was a recurring theme, to which Smith said he thought he’d talked about the economy enough, but ok. Three other questions were taken, all answered, but his ignored. Smith moved on, about to do another set, the man spoke up asking for THE QUESTION to be answered and Smith said he’d do his at the end. A few sets later, the man angrily asked again, was being brushed off with another non-answer - saying “I’ve answered” - Smith for the fourth time now not answering THE QUESTION, and then the man stood up, appealing to the crowd - asking them to listen (to what Smith was/was not saying) but they jeered loudly at him, shouting at him to ’sit down’, it was really alarming, especially as Smith just stood there, smirking - and I’m not making that up, he was smiling, not intervening or telling people that wasn’t appropriate - contrast that with Corbyn’s handling of the heckler at SOAS where the person yelled “where were you!”, the crowd reacted in much the same way and Corbyn told them to stop and “let our friend speak” and then answered them. Then, with the crowd still shouting as the man sat, starting talking loudly as they grew quiet, making chopping motions and getting slowly closer until he got within two feet of him, bending down and gesturing and almost shouting in his face that they would have a plan to do this, and a plan to do the other - which as you’ll notice, doesn’t answer the question of how to actually enact it. I felt so sorry for him, it must have been awful, and he was right, Smith didn’t answer THE QUESTION, even when he was all up in his face. Say what you like about Corbyn, but he would never, never have acted like that.

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At first glance he appeared to be not attacking Corbyn, saying thank you for “helping my generation feel able to talk”, “rediscovering radicals”, and getting people “energised to get involved”. While saying that Corbyn had been speaking truth about a “structural set of problems” and “gross inequality”, he also had a few sly digs at Corbyn, one of which was shoehorning him into a question about how to make Labour feel like the patriotic party (rather than UKIP) in which he said that Corbyn never seems to feel proud of our history or accomplishments citing that when asked about whether he’d like to give Andy Murray congratulations, he said yes, and he’d also like to give congratulations to Serena Williams, who Smith reminded us, was American. He mentioned her being black and a leading figure but that he still felt it was unpatriotic. It seemed… wrong somehow. I think he knew it, as he did back-peddle a little, but still. He also encouraged the idea that Corbyn hadn’t tried hard enough by emphasising how hard he would try, every day. He brought a question that was about having people from all walks of life participate in debates in colleges to turn into something about anti-semitism (perhaps he misheard?), that he “(didn’t) think it was just about Jeremy” - I see that leading ‘just’, and that if he was leader, if anyone was found guilty of racism, sexism, against beliefs, faiths etc. they should be out of the Labour Party, though admitting he hadn’t read the report. And there are the numerous other bits I’ve mentioned as I’ve gone through, such as implying the refusal to use Nuclear Weapons means he is not serious about protecting the British Public. His argument against Corbyn, came back to the same ‘feelings’ argument as Trident did earlier - “for all sorts of reasons” (re: Corbyn winning a General Election) “I don’t feel it” and “If I’m wrong I’ll be the first to shake his hand”.

Swift 2 (Swift 2.2), Xcode7

When you’re using Xcode to make your app, you’ll see errors and warnings pop up in the gutter of your code, letting you know where problems are, or could be in the future. But sometimes we run the app in Simulator and it crashes, even if the code looks fine. Broadly speaking, this is the difference between ‘Compiler Errors’ (errors that need to be fixed before the code can be run) and ‘Runtime Errors’ (errors that occur when we are running the app).

When this happens we open our debugger. At the top right of Xcode are the buttons shaped like rectangles with lines in them, which we use to show or hide the Navigator (left) and Utilities (right). The button with the line at the bottom shows the Debug area.

When our app crashes, it should come up with an error message in the right of the debug menu. These error messages, as you’ve probably got used to with Xcode, come in a wide range of usefulness, from telling you what the problem is, to spitting out gibberish and leaving you on your own.

We’re going to cover one of those confusing errors today. Specifically a thing called an ‘Orphan Outlet’. These are reasonably common, and cause your pretty top-tier crashes, before it even seems to be touching the code that you’ve written.

It might look something like: Terminating app due to uncaught exception ’NSUnknownKeyException’, reason: [insert specific for you information here]: this class is not key value coding-compliant for the key [name of Orphaned Outlet].

So, what is an ‘Orphaned Outlet’, and why do they happen so frequently?

Well when we make things in Main.storyboard (that’s our visual app interface), we get used to making Labels and Buttons and those sorts of things, pulling up the Assistant Editor (the bit that pulls your code up alongside) and ctrl-dragging one of these elements into our code, connecting them. All well and good.

However sometimes we think, ‘Actually, I don’t need that Label connected anymore’ or ‘I don’t really need that code’ and delete the lines of code that that process added.

This creates the ‘Orphaned Outlet’, because behind the scenes it’s still all connected, and the app gets cranky when trying to put things together that aren’t in the code anymore.

How do we check for them and get rid of them then?

We can use the ‘Connection Inspector’ (6th tab in your right-hand Utilities, or alt-cmd-6) to show all of our connections when we click on each element. It will be pretty obvious if the element has a connection - it will be ringed in darker grey. These tell you what it is known as in the code e.g. myLabel, and the section it relates to, e.g. View Controller. This means you should be able to fairly easily search through your code and see if it’s used if you’re not sure.

If you find an OO, then you can delete it. This means going to that grey ring and clicking the little grey X next to the section label.

Or you can right-click (/two-finger click) on the element in your app display (e.g. main.storyboard) and do all of that from there, without the Connection Inspector. Either’s good.

If you know you’ve been doing a lot of connecting, deleting and messing around with elements, and you’re getting a confusing sounding crash, then it might be worth having a check for some ‘Orphaned Outlets’.

Swift 2.0 (Swift 2.2), Xcode7

I’m following a tutorial to make an iPhone app. But the labels don’t wrap text even when set to 0 lines and word wrap. Why isn’t it working the same as in the video?

- Me, 1 week ago.

Related to: WAS? Buttons and Labels in Wrong Place When Run

This question I actually had at the same time as the last one, and the resolution is much the same - Xcode7 seems to need more constraints than it used to.

So, how to make a label wrap onto multiple lines in Xcode7. Different from previously I gather, with the extra constraints, or else maybe the internet thought that this bit was obvious when they were saying how to fix the problem. But that’s why I’m here, to state the obvious, when frankly, I don’t think it is.

Step 1: Set your Lines to 0

Click on your label. In the ‘Attributes Inspector’ (alt-cmd-4 or in your right hand ‘Utilities’ menu, the 4th tab along at the top, like a shield shape ), in your ‘Label’ section (the top one), there will be a bit called ‘Lines’ and it will be set to a number. Set this number to 0. This will mean the app will try to wrap the text in your label when it overfills to whatever number of lines seems appropriate. If you’re not dealing with changing text you could set the number of lines manually to whatever looks right to you.

Step 2: Set Line Breaks to Word Wrap

In the same menu, keep reading down and you’ll find a section called ‘Line Breaks’. Set this to ‘Word Wrap’ and it will wrap based on the end/beginning of words. ‘Character Wrap’ would do it on individual characters, like you might see in a book sometimes with a dash and the word continuing in the next line.

Step 3: Add (More) Constraints

Without enough constraints, the app isn’t going to know when it needs to wrap text, and might continue in one line off the screen. So if it’s still not working, add extra constraints - like to the right edge of your screen, so the app knows not to go beyond it when rendering (making and putting on screen) the text.

In your Main.Storyboard (the bit where you see what your screen might look like), hold ctrl and click on the thing you want to add constraints to and then drag that point to where you want to constrain it to. So if you want a button to be so-high from the bottom edge of the screen, you ctrl-drag from the button, to the bottom edge of the screen.

Step 4: Run it and Check

Press the play button in the top left to run the simulation, or cmd-R. If it’s still not working, check you’ve done enough constraints (cover at least 3 sides), but there are other things you can try. So for example you can try setting the number of lines to a set high number that you think you’re unlikely to go over, and see if that works. You can also go into ‘Size Inspector’ (next tab along or alt-cmd-5) and set your ‘Preferred Width’ (top option) to an Explicit size - just type in the box. You can also check to see if WAS?: Changing the Size of the View Controller helps.

If you’re still having trouble, it’s probably worth asking someone directly. And remember, there are always going to be multiple ways to do this - that’s code for you, so if you find another way of doing it, then good job! And if anyone tells you there’s only one way to do pretty much anything to do with coding, they’re probably lacking imagination.

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Swift 2.0 (Swift 2.2), Xcode7

I’m following a tutorial to make an iPhone app. I’ve set the constraints as shown in the video, but the buttons and labels are still in the wrong place - too far to the left. Why isn’t it working the same as in the video?

- Me, 1 week ago

This one took a while, an the internet wasn’t too helpful. So what do we do when documentation, and the internet fails us? Well the next thing is to keep messing around with things we may not understand and see what happens. 

In this case, it seems to be a case of constraints. Now Swift-Code (Swift and/or Xcode) moves along at a reasonably ready pace - what works in a video from a year ago, might not work now, because they’re both still in that fast-paced early development when they shift things around. One of those things appears to be constraints. It seems like you needed less of them for the app to be able to guess what you meant, but now it wants a few more.

So, let’s add some more constraints.

In your Main.Storyboard (the bit where you see what your screen might look like), hold ctrl and click on the thing you want to add constraints to and then drag that point to where you want to constrain it to. So if you want a button to be so-high from the bottom edge of the screen, you ctrl-drag from the button, to the bottom edge of the screen.

I found most things needed to be constrained on at least 3 sides.

I screwed up, how do you delete a constraint in Xcode7?

Weirdly no x pops up when you click on it, or an option when you right/2-finger click on it. No, to delete a constraint, you click on the constraint in the ‘Size Inspector’ (next tab along or alt-cmd-5) and press backspace as if you were deleting some text. to remove all of them, you can go into Editor>Resolve Auto Layout Issues>Clear Constraints. Remember to make sure you’ve clicked on the right element (button label etc.) before you begin though.

If avoiding constraints, because you’re following a demo and haven’t seen them used yet, but are having the same sort of issue, see if WAS?: Changing the Size of the View Controller helps.

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Swift 2.0, (Swift 2.2), Xcode7

Labels in XCode View are positioned differently in Simulator. I’m following a tutorial and in XCode 7, on a Swift 2 project, when I place a label onto the View, why is the label centred in XCode, but in the Simulator it's shown off to the right? This is just playing at the moment, where I don't want to play with constraints just yet (to be used later).

- Me, about a month ago.

Finally getting around to writing this little annoyance up. Was working through a demo (a Team Treehouse one), and found this little discrepancy between old Xcode and Xcode7. 

Try using the 4.7 inch size view controller:

Step 1: Look in the middle left hand menu (the ‘Document Outline’), if not shown it’s under Editor>Hide Document Outline (a misnomer, clicking it will Show or Hide it).

Step 2: Click on the View Controller so it's highlighted.

Step 3: Click on the 4th tab of the right hand menu (Utilities: the Attributes Inspector). If not shown it’s under View>Utilities>Show Attributes Inspector.

Step 4: Under Simulated Metrics is a Size option to change from “Inferred” to “iPhone 4.7-inch”.

Step 5: You'll need to realign things again, but now these should look central in the View and in the Simulator.

Constraints, when you get to them, will be more helpful in this regard.

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Swift 2.0 (Swift 2.2), XCode7

I just started making my first app on Xcode, opened up the simulation and got a big black screen. Why’s Xcode simulator not working?

Once I left it and the Xcode Simulator was showing a black screen and changed to white. It still didn’t show the app or go to the size of an iPhone though.

- Me, 1 week ago.

This wasn’t too hard to find the answer for, but let’s cut through 20 minutes of searching and big words and sum up the result.

First question to ask yourself:

“What device am I running this on?”

Around the top banner of Xcode7, on the left, is a play button, a stop button, and then a long button with your app name, ‘>’ and something like “iPhone 6 Plus” next to it (if you wanted to change what device your app is being simulated on, you can simply click and hold on that button).

So where’s the issue? It all comes down to pixels, the smallest possible bits of colour that make up a screen. Have you heard the phrase “Retina Display”? This is a term that Apple made up, that means the display has a high enough resolution (that’s the number of horizontal and vertical pixels on the display), and pixel density (the amount of pixels per “measurement” e.g. cm or in.) that means that a person is unable to see the individual pixels at a normal distance. Unless you do something like drop a blob of water on the screen and look through it to magnify them. But just a drop of water, if you’re testing this, please don’t immerse it. That’s next gen.

But what’s that got to do with the price of mealworms. Well, if your screen that you’re coding on is not a similar kind of display, then Xcode is going to make that simulator super big to get all the pixels in it. Potentially meaning you’re only seeing a small corner of the actual display.

You see a black screen (going to white screen) because when an app is loading in the simulator, it shows the standard Apple iOS (iPhone/Pad etc. Operating System ) booting up screen. Black, with an Apple logo in the centre with a loading bar underneath. It changes to white when the sim iDevice opens the app - if you’re making your first App, you’ve probably just put a label or button on it so far, with a white background.

“Just tell me how to fix it already.”

Fair enough. When the Simulator’s open and has focus (is the last thing you clicked on), at the top of your computer is the menu bar, go across to Window and open its menu, go to Scale, and click one of the options. So for example, for the iPhone 6 Plus I need to have a 33% scale on my MacBook.

And you should have an iDevice about the right proportions showing everything on your screen.

Maybe some day it’ll automatically resize it so Xcode newbies like us don’t get stuck, but not today I guess.

Of course if it’s still a black screen and you have definitely opened the Simulator before and don’t have any screaming red error warnings in your code then uh… maybe we’ll get to that later.

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Swift 2.0 (2.2), Xcode7

How can you see if a value is in an array and preferably get its actual value? 

- Me, yesterday

Well, Me from yesterday, I’m glad you asked and weren’t instead stumped for several hours, nearly breaking your hand when you hit the table in frustration.

One way is to use `.contains()`.

This can tell you if the value exists in the array by returning a boolean value (true or false).

Another way to see if a value is in an array, but also get the specific value out of an array like you want, is to use `.indexOf()`.

This will return `nil` if the value searched for is not in the array, or will return the index number of the value in question. If you just want to check it’s there or not, then `contains()` is the way to go, but if you definitely want the Value, then it’s just one small step to get the value once you’ve got the index number.

So, let’s say we have an array like so:

   var fruitArray: [String] = ["Apple", "Banana", "Kiwi"]

We could test to see if the value “Apple” appears in the string. `.contains()` uses dot notation, where you put the value you’re looking for in parenthesis after it.

   fruitArray.contains(“Apple")

And `.indexOf()` works the same, like so:

   fruitArray.indexOf(“Apple")

So if we just want to do something simple like get a true/false response for if the value is in the array, we can use `.contains()`:

   var fruitArray: [String] = ["Apple", "Banana", "Kiwi"]

   fruitArray.contains("Apple")    //returns true

Of course this doesn’t allow us to actually get the value itself though - if we try to print it for example, we’ll only get `true` or `false`.

   var fruitArray: [String] = ["Apple", "Banana", "Kiwi"]

   print (fruitArray.contains(“Apple”))

   //prints true

This is where `.indexOf()` comes in handy instead. With indexOf you return the index number of the array, rather than a boolean true/false. So you can do what you like with the array’s index number you receive. Like showing its value. We can do that in the same way we would in any other array - using `array[index_number]`:

   var fruitArray: [String] = ["Apple", "Banana", "Kiwi"]

   if let fruitIndex = fruitArray.indexOf("Banana") {

   print(fruitArray[fruitIndex])

   }

   //prints ‘Banana’

Or we can do something like this, where we can use `.contains()` to search two different arrays for the same value:

   var fruitArray: [String] = ["Apple", "Banana", "Kiwi"]

   var berryArray: [String] = ["Blueberry", "Strawberry", "Banana"]

   var sneakyFruit = "Banana"

   if fruitArray.contains(sneakyFruit) && berryArray.contains(sneakyFruit) {

       print(sneakyFruit)

   }

   //prints ‘Banana’

You can use `.contains()` in a function, like this easy one for checking if the entered value is in the array:

   func fruitExists (name: String) -> Bool {

       return fruitArray.contains(name)

   }

   fruitExists("Kiwi")        //‘true’

   fruitExists("Rhubarb")     //‘false’

Or use a function with like this one using both - `.contains` to check the value exists and `.indexOf()` to then edit it:

   func shopListEdit (name: String) {

       if fruitArray.contains(name) {

          let fruitIndex = fruitArray.indexOf(name)

          fruitArray[fruitIndex!] = ("\(name) and Custard")

       }

   }

   shopListEdit("Banana")

   fruitArray                               //["Apple", "Banana and Custard", "Kiwi"]

   shopListEdit(“Rhubarb”)      

   fruitArray                             //["Apple", "Banana and Custard", "Kiwi"]

There you go, Me from yesterday, persevere and remember that no question’s too stupid to deserve an answer.

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According to Wikipedia:

“Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language created for iOS, OS X, watchOS, tvOS and Linux development by Apple Inc. Swift is designed to work with Apple's Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the large body of existing Objective-C code written for Apple products.”

The answer to our question seems to be: Something complicated.

If you understood that, then this blog ain’t for you. It isn’t really for anybody specific, but rather an indexable (meaning search engines can find it) blog, for the questions that dare not speak their name - the really stupid ones.

You can call me WAS. I am a professional Asker-Of-Stupid-Questions, and I’m learning to code. 

If you ask Apple, they’ll tell you “Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language...Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast“. 

So of course what I heard was ‘Hey, look here, this is relatively easy-to-do-code’ and me with my zero coding experience just kind of barrelled on in here.

Swift code is... not the hardest thing, but far from easy. Maybe it’s intuitive if you already know how to code, but not necessarily for us non-coders. Concise expressive syntax (basically grammar for computers)? Well it’s relatively short, so concise is a yes, but if I’m supposed to know what expressive means here, then I don’t. But is it fun?

Yes. Surprisingly. BUT (and it’s a big ‘But’) only if you can work out how to actually do things with it. 

Swift’s Documentation (that’s the manual) was written by coders, for coders. There aren’t many useful but easy-to-understand examples of code, in that or online in general. Error messages from Xcode (the free program you’d probably use to write Swift) are confusing or just plain lie to you about the problem. Answers to easy questions are hard to find because most people writing Swift now, came over from a language called Objective C or otherwise and have coded for a long time. Not to mention it’s really hard to Google an answer when you don’t know all the technical jargon to explain what you mean, or to get an answer from Stack Overflow when you’re too embarrassed to admit that you don’t know what the heck they’re talking about.

So. Back to why I’m here. This is a blog where I will write down the stupid questions I have, and the answers I found to them, using as little tech-speak as possible. Lots of examples and copy-pastable code. Of course, I can’t promise my answers are the best - just that they work. If I could, then I wouldn’t have been able to ask the stupid question in the first place. But if I can spare one person a minor breakdown because they had to spend 5 hours looking up something that is apparently too stupid for anyone else on the entire internet to have asked, then I’ve hopefully done some good.