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Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide
Through the authors' carefully constructed explanations and examples, you will develop an understanding of Swift grammar and the elements of effective Swift style.
Throughout the book, the authors share their insights into Swift to ensure that you understand the hows and whys of Swift and can put that understanding to use in different contexts.
After working through the book, you will have the knowledge and confidence to develop your own solutions to a wide range of programming challenges using Swift.
Throughout the book, the authors share their insights into Swift to ensure that you understand the hows and whys of Swift and can put that understanding to use in different contexts.
After working through the book, you will have the knowledge and confidence to develop your own solutions to a wide range of programming challenges using Swift.
496 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2015
176 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 4, 2016
What this book covers, it does quite well - it's to the point, tends to shun repetition, the exercises are mostly appropriate if not terribly challenging, and is nearly perfectly edited. Figuring out who the audience is, is the issue.
It's an introduction to Swift 2 and framed well at the beginner end of programming... but certainly isn't attempting to teach programming. The approach is agnostic, only touching on iOS or OS X apps with a quick demo chapter each at the end - a definite plus - but the final, and truly most useful, chapter involves bridging between Obj-C and Swift and vice versa. Which requires at least a passing familiarity with iOS Obj-C development to complete. I'd guess the ideal reader had at some point taken a semester of programming, dipped a toe into iOS, and is interested in trying that again with Swift. Or is just someone who can pick things up quickly (think: sharp kid). I'd be fine handing this to a junior dev, but it's awfully light (though still useful) for anybody beyond that.
It's an introduction to Swift 2 and framed well at the beginner end of programming... but certainly isn't attempting to teach programming. The approach is agnostic, only touching on iOS or OS X apps with a quick demo chapter each at the end - a definite plus - but the final, and truly most useful, chapter involves bridging between Obj-C and Swift and vice versa. Which requires at least a passing familiarity with iOS Obj-C development to complete. I'd guess the ideal reader had at some point taken a semester of programming, dipped a toe into iOS, and is interested in trying that again with Swift. Or is just someone who can pick things up quickly (think: sharp kid). I'd be fine handing this to a junior dev, but it's awfully light (though still useful) for anybody beyond that.
September 9, 2017
I'm quite happy with this book. It explains the language well and walks you through most of it in a fashion that's understandable.
The only thing I dislike is that it's too beginner focused. I would have preferred if this book assumed I know more about programming and languages and doesn't try to explain the basic stuff in a lengthy way. Apart from that, it does a pretty solid job of covering the language.
The only thing I dislike is that it's too beginner focused. I would have preferred if this book assumed I know more about programming and languages and doesn't try to explain the basic stuff in a lengthy way. Apart from that, it does a pretty solid job of covering the language.
October 26, 2016
A great intro to Swift!
April 20, 2018
A must-read for those ones who want to learn Swift!
October 9, 2022
This review is of the 3rd edition (Oct 2020), principally written by Mikey Ward. it covers Swift version 5.3.
I decided to learn how to make an iPhone app and after working with a few other books, landed on this one. As a primer to teach you the essentials of how to write for the iPhone/iPad ecosystem, this seems to me to be pretty much peerless.
The structure of the book is clear and helpful, guiding you through the difficult principles of Swift development with just enough background explanation and plenty of interesting examples and exercises and practice projects to make the learning stick. At the end, I was indeed able to build my own rudimentary original app on my own (looking back over examples profusely!).
I decided to learn how to make an iPhone app and after working with a few other books, landed on this one. As a primer to teach you the essentials of how to write for the iPhone/iPad ecosystem, this seems to me to be pretty much peerless.
The structure of the book is clear and helpful, guiding you through the difficult principles of Swift development with just enough background explanation and plenty of interesting examples and exercises and practice projects to make the learning stick. At the end, I was indeed able to build my own rudimentary original app on my own (looking back over examples profusely!).
April 4, 2024
I never ended up finishing this book. I stopped somewhere in Part V Advanced Swift after Chapter 22 Protocol Extensions.
The book is well-written and I learned a lot about Swift. What was a bit frustrating was that there are no official solutions to the exercises. In some cases it was not clear what the question was asking or expecting and the forums echoed that confusion.
I later picked up Head First Swift and found its writing more attractive and fun.
The book is well-written and I learned a lot about Swift. What was a bit frustrating was that there are no official solutions to the exercises. In some cases it was not clear what the question was asking or expecting and the forums echoed that confusion.
I later picked up Head First Swift and found its writing more attractive and fun.
January 20, 2019
Good Intro to Swift
This was a pretty good intro to Swift. It does have a few chapters that assume a more Jr developer than I thought this was targeted to but if you’re experience and just looking for an intro to the Swift language and Protocol Oriented Programming, this is a good place to start
This was a pretty good intro to Swift. It does have a few chapters that assume a more Jr developer than I thought this was targeted to but if you’re experience and just looking for an intro to the Swift language and Protocol Oriented Programming, this is a good place to start
November 18, 2017
Awesome learning resource
I am not a beginner in Swift language yet I found this book very helpful and thorough. It's a must have resource if you want to learn Swift.
I am not a beginner in Swift language yet I found this book very helpful and thorough. It's a must have resource if you want to learn Swift.
May 30, 2018
Many of the samples have to be modified, but other than that nuisance it was a good introduction to the language.
October 17, 2018
Good for complete beginners; not much value addition otherwise.
May 7, 2021
This was a good book. It walks through the Swift Programming language and also gets into some advanced topics. I would recommend the book to someone that wants to learn.
May 5, 2025
A nice foundation for iOS programming assuming you understand basic programming fundamentals. Some things I did have to look up using other sources though for further clarity.
December 30, 2018
I used this book to get up to speed with Swift in order to start building a hobby app for iOS.
THE GOOD. This is not a super long book. It is pretty readable and has tons of examples. If you want to gain a reasonable knowledge of Swift in order to get going, this is a great book to do so (it goes without saying that programming iOS apps requires significantly more knowledge beyond just the language, so reading just this book will not make you an app developer).
This book also has a pretty broad coverage, going from basics to fairly advanced topics like protocol extensions and interfacing with Objective-C.
THE BAD. I think the authors aimed at a very broad audience with this book - from novice programmers to experienced ones. I found the long-winded explanations of rather elementary concepts (OOP, data structures, etc) rather boring. Given the breadth (and relative depth) of material, I don't think this book would be an ideal first book for an aspiring future programmer. Given that, those gentle intros are really wasted on experienced developers (like myself). I also didn't find more depth where I would appreciate it (like discussion around clearly redundant language features - guard/if case/if let, class vars/static vars, computed properties/get accessors - it would be great to have some discussion about the reason for such perceived redundancy and guidelines on using the right tool).
This brings me to another issue I have with the style. Every feature is explained starting with an elementary example and then generally describing it in a more generic way. Personally, I would prefer a concise description of the feature before demonstrating it by an example - I find it easier to understand the feature this way rather then trying to decipher what it would be by going through the example first. But that might be a personal preference.
Bottom line: shortcomings notwithstanding, the book delivered what it promised and it was pretty readable at that. Unless a better choice emerges, definitely recommended as an overview of Swift.
THE GOOD. This is not a super long book. It is pretty readable and has tons of examples. If you want to gain a reasonable knowledge of Swift in order to get going, this is a great book to do so (it goes without saying that programming iOS apps requires significantly more knowledge beyond just the language, so reading just this book will not make you an app developer).
This book also has a pretty broad coverage, going from basics to fairly advanced topics like protocol extensions and interfacing with Objective-C.
THE BAD. I think the authors aimed at a very broad audience with this book - from novice programmers to experienced ones. I found the long-winded explanations of rather elementary concepts (OOP, data structures, etc) rather boring. Given the breadth (and relative depth) of material, I don't think this book would be an ideal first book for an aspiring future programmer. Given that, those gentle intros are really wasted on experienced developers (like myself). I also didn't find more depth where I would appreciate it (like discussion around clearly redundant language features - guard/if case/if let, class vars/static vars, computed properties/get accessors - it would be great to have some discussion about the reason for such perceived redundancy and guidelines on using the right tool).
This brings me to another issue I have with the style. Every feature is explained starting with an elementary example and then generally describing it in a more generic way. Personally, I would prefer a concise description of the feature before demonstrating it by an example - I find it easier to understand the feature this way rather then trying to decipher what it would be by going through the example first. But that might be a personal preference.
Bottom line: shortcomings notwithstanding, the book delivered what it promised and it was pretty readable at that. Unless a better choice emerges, definitely recommended as an overview of Swift.
June 12, 2016
This is actually a very good book to learn Swift 2.x taking the reader up a very steep learning curve but structured in a way that allows a focuses and determined beginner to make progress skip certain aspects and likely return later having progressed. As well as offering enough depth and separate paths through this book to seasoned programmers familiar with other languages to make a successful transition to Swift.
But... (And it's a big but - hence only one star)
Swift 3.0 Beta has been released by Apple and will be a major release that is *not* source-compatible with Swift 2.2. It contains fundamental changes to the language and Swift Standard Library.
Not only does Swift 3.0 break Swift 2.x it also breaks this book! Which is a nuisance for experienced programmers who can adapt with a bit of pain, but for beginners?
But... (And it's a big but - hence only one star)
Swift 3.0 Beta has been released by Apple and will be a major release that is *not* source-compatible with Swift 2.2. It contains fundamental changes to the language and Swift Standard Library.
Not only does Swift 3.0 break Swift 2.x it also breaks this book! Which is a nuisance for experienced programmers who can adapt with a bit of pain, but for beginners?
February 11, 2018
Good book to learn Swift programming language. Swift is one of the most loved languages on the Stack Overflow. But this book teaches only Swift 3. The language is evolving, so the Swift 4 is out there some time.
December 26, 2016
A great overview of the language — from types to protocols to generics. It's light on specifics, and prefers to give an overview of the language's features than to walk through a real use-case.
August 28, 2020
Great introduction into Swift. With practical exercises to learn better.
May 1, 2017
This book is a comprehensive introduction to Swift and programming for macOS and iOS. It will not make you an elite programmer, but it will give you the foundation work to start.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews