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HomeBlogProgrammingSwift vs Objective C - Differences Explained in Detail
Do you have an iOS application to be made? Are you confused about the language to choose for iOS app development? Don’t worry, we have got you covered. Stick around through this article to explore the burning question of iOS developers - “swift vs objective c” and make a great choice for yourself. “Swift vs objective C” is the first question that every IOS Development Course taker ever asks. Swift and Objective C are the languages for iOS mobile app development. While swift was developed by Apple in 2014, objective C has been there since time immemorial and was the first choice of iOS developers for a long time. Let’s explore the two languages and know more about their pros and cons.
| Basis Of Comparison | Swift | Objective C |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Designed by Apple to develop robust Apple operating systems | It was designed keeping C++ in mind and the objective of being Object Oriented. |
| Paradigm | It declares type-level methods to call the implemented functionalities | It uses messages to call the implemented functionalities as it was implemented based on Smalltalk messaging |
| Classes | Swift Supports only classes. | Structs and classes, both are supported in Objective C. |
| Type | It is static and strongly typing | It is dynamic typing |
| Polymorphism | Polymorphism can be implemented by typecasting, but it does not exist directly. | Parametric polymorphism in Objective C is checked at compile time |
| Boolean Operators | Swift uses true and false values | Objective C uses YES, NO values |
| Templates & Libraries | Swift has multiple library supports along with Objective C | Objective C lacks template libraries |
Starting with Swift, it is a programming language developed by Apple in 2014 for the development of the iOS app development. It is an open-source language and emphasizes modern programming methodology. It is a programming language that supports development in iOS, macOS, pdOS, tvOS, and watchOS environments. Being an apple supported language, swift has gained popularity quickly and comes with more native development in OS platforms. The main features of Swift programming language are:-
These features make Swift popular among developers.
Objective C is another popular language for the development of iOS applications. Objective C was released in the 1980s by Stepstone Company and as the name suggests, it has based on the C programming language. As it has the base of C, C concepts like pointers are applicable in objective C and it is closer to the Operating Systems than modern languages. Even now, a Computer Programming course in C or C++ does well and that mostly accounts for the popularity of C and the love of the developers for being closer to the operating systems. Objective C has a dynamic nature and also supports Object Oriented programming making it even more universal to use. Let’s have a look at the main features of Objective C:-
Let's have a comparison between them to settle the debates like swift vs objective c performance, speed and other parameters. Here is the point-to-point comparison:-
Swift allows you to write variables without specifying the data types while you have to mention the data types in Objective C. Moreover, the ability of the Swift program to behave as per the situation makes it more robust as compared to Objective C. Objective C allows variables to hold the value of any type while Swift has some fixed data types that it supports. Moreover, as Objective C supports pointers, it also supports the referencing of variables while swift handles the variables by values.
The speed of coding is faster in Swift than in Objective C. Due to the syntactical complexities of Objective C, it is hard to write code in Objective C making it slower for a developer to write code in Objective C. Lesser imports and strict rules for writing code in Swift make it a very fast programming language to write and learn.
Speed of performance is faster in Swift than in Objective C. Swift, due to its highly efficient structures and tools are 2.6x times more rapid than Objective C. Objective C, on the other hand, is also quite fast but is slower by a margin than Swift.
Objective C seems to be a better programming language than Swift and Objective C. With a legacy of over 30 years, Objective C has grown a community of many developers and experts. Almost all the answers of Objective C have been answered to date and it gives a huge amount of support and free resources for the new and upcoming developers. Swift, being a new language seems to lack on this front.
Objective C is much more stable in its usage across platforms. It is compatible with all versions of iOS and doesn't require constant changes with every new version. Swift on the other hand is not stable as it jumps from one version to other as it doesn’t support backward compatibility.
Objective C is more mature than Swift due to the amount of time it has been in the industry. Swift is growing fast to achieve that maturity but a lot of use cases are still to be seen for Swift.
There is almost equal pay for the Swift developers and Objective C developers as of now. But, as the market of Swift is growing, the demand skill disparity is going to increase the salary of a Swit developer more than an Objective C developer.
You can always take a Swift Programming Training to know more about the pros and cons of the language, some of it is given below:
Now, let’s have a look at the pros and cons of Objective C.
Keeping all the factors in mind, I think it would be fair to say that Swift is the language to go. It is backed by apple, it is easier to learn, and is now adapted by companies globally. Objective C is more reliable but there is a strong case of Swift supporting backward compatibility with its growth making it even more acceptable to the industry. Though Objective C is still here to stay due to legacy issues and its backward compatibility, it is going to be a diminishing market.
No, you need not learn Objective C to learn Swift as it is a completely different programming language.
Swift is faster than Objective C by a considerable margin due to its great build in tools.
Swift doesn't support backward compatibility making it difficult to manage across versions.
Swift is strongly type because it supports limited data types and must check if a datatype is lying within its scope.
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