Category: Tutorials

What is a Dictionary?
The Dictionary is an unordered List that can be quickly accessed by key

Here is how you can declare an Empty Dictionary

var emptyDictionary = [String : Int]()

Dictionary with Predefined Key Pairs

var apps = ["Productivity" : "Keynote", "Social" : "Facebook", "Music" : "iTunes"]

Accessing the First Key Element of the Dictionary

var optionalApp = apps["Productivity"] // Keynote

Data Types in Swift Language

Integers i.e. Int:
1, 2, 3, 199, 1000
Float & Doubles:
3.14, 1.168, M_PI
Boolean Values like Bool:
true or false
Collection of Characters like Strings:
“iOS Development”, “Apple”, “1.2”

We can create our data type using the keywords Struct & Class.

All About Variables

Here is how we declare Variables in Swift:
First, we start with the ‘var’ keyword, then ‘Identifier Name’ & ‘Initial Value.’

Here is how to Declare Integer values: Int

var thisYear = 2017
var ourAge = 20

Here is how to Declare Empty Integer

var emptyInteger = Int()

Here is how to Declare a String

var courseName = "iOS Development"
var language = "Swift"
var software = "Xcode"

About Swift

Swift Programming Language is a new sensation, something happening, or the next paradigm in the computer programming world. Apple introduced Swift at WWDC, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, in 2014. Apple declared Swift an Open-Source Programming Language on December 3, 2015.

Swift is getting a warm welcome from the development community as a breath of fresh air for their daily programming job.

Swift natively supports Unicode Characters, Emojis, and Asian Languages like Devanagari Characters & Chinese Characters. Which was lacking in 30-year-old programming Languages like C & Objective-C

Here is what others say about Swift Programming Language from Apple to Wikipedia.

Here is a simple solution to create a single PDF by combining multiple files from various file types.

Assumption: I Assume you have 10 PNG files you want to combine into a single PDF file.

Note: It doesn’t matter if those ten files have different height & width dimensions.

Here is how to do this:

Step 01:
Locate & Open Preview in the Applications folder on your Macintosh

Step 02:
Select Preview. Now go to File > Open.

Step 03:
Select & Open all desired files in Preview

As per Wikipedia:

Disk Utility is a system utility for performing disk and disk volume-related tasks on the macOS.

Day-to-day functions supported by Disk Utility are:

• Creation, conversion, backup, compression and encryption of logical volume images from a wide range of formats read by Disk Utility to .dmg or, for CD/DVD images, .cdr
• Mounting, unmounting and ejecting external disk volumes
• Enabling or disabling journaling
• Verifying a disk’s integrity and repairing it if the disk is damaged
• Erasing, formatting, partitioning and cloning disks
• Secure deletion of free space or disk using a “zero out” data, a 7-pass DOD 5220-22 M standard, or a 35-pass Gutmann algorithm
• Adding or changing partition table between Apple Partition Table, GUID Partition Table and master boot record (MBR)
• Restoring volumes from Apple Software Restore (ASR) images
• Checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of a hard disk
• Disk Utility functions may also be accessed from the OS X command line with the diskutil and hdiutil commands.

Now, we will learn how to partition disks,

Important Note:

• Partitioning a disk erases all the data previously stored on it
• The disk utility’s partition feature divides the disk into partition sections, which appear on the desktop as separate disks.

Precaution: Before proceeding, backup all your computer data using Time Machine on a hard drive other than the one you are currently partitioning.

Here is how to Partition a disk

Step 01:
Connect the External Disk to your Mac using a USB / FireWire cable to partition it

Step 02:
Locate ‘Disk Utility App in Applications > Utilities

Here is how to transfer backups from a current backup drive to a new high-capacity backup drive

Step 01: First, check the format of your new backup drive

1. Connect your new backup drive to your Mac.
2. Open Disk Utility (located in the Utilities folder).
3. In Disk Utility, select the new drive’s icon to ensure it has a GUID partition and is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Reformat it with the Mac OSX Extended (Journaled) option with a GUID partition. At this stage, you can format your new backup drive with Mac OSX Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) to password-protect it and thus safeguard your data. Remember to write down the encryption password you set for your drive this time.

Step 02: Set permissions on your new backup drive

1. Open a new Finder window. In the sidebar, click the icon of the latest backup drive.
2. Choose Get Info from the File menu.
3. Make sure “Ignore ownership on this volume” is deselected (unchecked) at the bottom of the “Sharing & Permissions” section of the Get Info window.

If you are like mine, use safe macOS default settings to allow the system to run & open apps only from third-party Identified App Developers.

You may face a problem with something like this. Your Mac’s Security & Privacy preferences will not allow you to open the app from an unidentified macOS App Developer.

If you navigate to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General tab, you will see something like this:

So, how will you open that particular app blocked by the Security & Privacy Settings?

Solution 01:
You can change the settings available in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General tab under Allow apps downloaded to Anywhere

Important Note:
This solution may not be the safest for the health of your operating system security & privacy settings.