7 Swift Hacks You Wish You Knew Sooner

You know that feeling when you write a code, only to realize later, there was a one-liner that could’ve done the same job? Yeah, me too.

Swift is full of underrated gems.

So here are 7 Swift hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner.

1. Format Numbers Without the Extra Work

Manually formatting numbers? Nope. Swift has a built-in way:

let formatted = NumberFormatter.localizedString(from: 1234567, number: .decimal)
print(formatted) // "1,234,567"

Works for currency, percentages, and scientific notation too.

2. The 'One-Liner' if let Trick

Before:

if let username = username {
    print(username)
}

Now:

username.map { print($0) }

Why? Cleaner, more functional, and no unnecessary nesting.

3. Force a SwiftUI View to Refresh Instantly

SwiftUI sometimes just… doesn’t refresh when you expect it to. Instead of overcomplicating state management, do this:

someStateVariable.toggle() // Forces view to re-render

No extra logic, no unnecessary bindings. Just works.

4. Auto-Resizing Text Fields Without Extra Code

Tired of writing logic for resizing text fields? Here’s the fix:

TextField("Enter text", text: $text)
    .frame(minHeight: 40)
    .padding()
    .background(Color.gray.opacity(0.1))
    .cornerRadius(10)

What happens? The field grows/shrinks dynamically. No extra logic needed.

5. Turn a Dictionary into a URL Query String Instantly

No need to manually construct query strings. This one-liner handles it:

let params = ["search": "Swift Hacks", "limit": "10"]
let query = params.map { "\($0.key)=\($0.value)" }.joined(separator: "&")
print(query) // "search=Swift Hacks&limit=10"

Time saved. Code cleaner.

6. Ditch the Long if Statements with switch

Instead of multiple conditions, simplify it like this:

switch value {
case 1...10: print("Low")
case 11...20: print("Medium")
case 21...: print("High")
default: print("Unknown")
}

Easier to read. Faster to debug.

7. Lazy-Load Expensive Functions

Instead of executing an expensive function right away, delay it:

func fetchData(_ loader: @autoclosure () -> String) {
    print("Fetching Data: \(loader())")
}

fetchData(expensiveFunctionCall()) // Runs only when needed

Performance boost, especially in bigger apps.

That’s it—7 Swift hacks to simplify your code and speed up your workflow.

Hope this helps!