Numbers

Number types and literals

Swift’s built-in numeric types are:

Word-sized (architecture-dependent) signed Int and unsigned UInt.
Fixed-size signed integers Int8, Int16, Int32, Int64, and unsigned integers UInt8, UInt16, UInt32, UInt64.
Floating-point types Float32/Float, Float64/Double, and Float80 (x86-only).

Literals

A numeric literal’s type is inferred from context:

let x = 42    // x is Int by default
let y = 42.0  // y is Double by default

let z: UInt = 42     // z is UInt
let w: Float = -1    // w is Float
let q = 100 as Int8  // q is Int8

Underscores (_) may be used to separate digits in numeric literals. Leading zeros are ignored.

Floating point literals may be specified using significand and exponent parts («significand» e «exponent» for decimal; 0x «significand» p «exponent» for hexadecimal).

Integer literal syntax

let decimal = 10               // ten
let decimal = -1000            // negative one thousand
let decimal = -1_000           // equivalent to -1000
let decimal = 42_42_42         // equivalent to 424242
let decimal = 0755             // equivalent to 755, NOT 493 as in some other languages
let decimal = 0123456789

let hexadecimal = 0x10         // equivalent to 16
let hexadecimal = 0x7FFFFFFF
let hexadecimal = 0xBadFace
let hexadecimal = 0x0123_4567_89ab_cdef

let octal = 0o10               // equivalent to 8
let octal = 0o755              // equivalent to 493
let octal = -0o0123_4567             

let binary = -0b101010         // equivalent to -42
let binary = 0b111_101_101     // equivalent to 0o755
let binary = 0b1011_1010_1101  // equivalent to 0xB_A_D

Floating-point literal syntax

let decimal = 0.0
let decimal = -42.0123456789
let decimal = 1_000.234_567_89

let decimal = 4.567e5               // equivalent to 4.567×10⁵, or 456_700.0
let decimal = -2E-4                 // equivalent to -2×10⁻⁴, or -0.0002
let decimal = 1e+0                  // equivalent to 1×10⁰, or 1.0

let hexadecimal = 0x1p0             // equivalent to 1×2⁰, or 1.0
let hexadecimal = 0x1p-2            // equivalent to 1×2⁻², or 0.25
let hexadecimal = 0xFEEDp+3         // equivalent to 65261×2³, or 522088.0
let hexadecimal = 0x1234.5P4        // equivalent to 0x12345, or 74565.0
let hexadecimal = 0x123.45P8        // equivalent to 0x12345, or 74565.0
let hexadecimal = 0x12.345P12       // equivalent to 0x12345, or 74565.0
let hexadecimal = 0x1.2345P16       // equivalent to 0x12345, or 74565.0
let hexadecimal = 0x0.12345P20      // equivalent to 0x12345, or 74565.0

Convert one numeric type to another

func doSomething1(value: Double) { /* ... */ }
func doSomething2(value: UInt) { /* ... */ }

let x = 42               // x is an Int
doSomething1(Double(x))  // convert x to a Double
doSomething2(UInt(x))    // convert x to a UInt

Integer initializers produce a runtime error if the value overflows or underflows:

Int8(-129.0) // fatal error: floating point value cannot be converted to Int8 because it is less than Int8.min
Int8(-129)   // crash: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION / SIGILL
Int8(-128)   // ok
Int8(-2)     // ok
Int8(17)     // ok
Int8(127)    // ok
Int8(128)    // crash: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION / SIGILL
Int8(128.0)  // fatal error: floating point value cannot be converted to Int8 because it is greater than Int8.max

Float-to-integer conversion rounds values towards zero:

Int(-2.2)  // -2
Int(-1.9)  // -1
Int(-0.1)  //  0
Int(1.0)   //  1
Int(1.2)   //  1
Int(1.9)   //  1
Int(2.0)   //  2

Integer-to-float conversion may be lossy:

Int(Float(1_000_000_000_000_000_000))  // 999999984306749440

Convert numbers to/from strings

Use String initializers for converting numbers into strings:

String(1635999)                              // returns "1635999"
String(1635999, radix: 10)                   // returns "1635999"
String(1635999, radix: 2)                    // returns "110001111011010011111"
String(1635999, radix: 16)                   // returns "18f69f"
String(1635999, radix: 16, uppercase: true)  // returns "18F69F"
String(1635999, radix: 17)                   // returns "129gf4"
String(1635999, radix: 36)                   // returns "z2cf"

Or use string interpolation for simple cases:

let x = 42, y = 9001
"Between \(x) and \(y)"  // equivalent to "Between 42 and 9001"

Use initializers of numeric types to convert strings into numbers:

if let num = Int("42") { /* ... */ }                // num is 42
if let num = Int("Z2cF") { /* ... */ }              // returns nil (not a number)
if let num = Int("z2cf", radix: 36) { /* ... */ }   // num is 1635999
if let num = Int("Z2cF", radix: 36) { /* ... */ }   // num is 1635999
if let num = Int8("Z2cF", radix: 36) { /* ... */ }  // returns nil (too large for Int8)

Rounding

round

Rounds the value to the nearest whole number with x.5 rounding up (but note that -x.5 rounds down).

round(3.000) // 3
round(3.001) // 3
round(3.499) // 3
round(3.500) // 4
round(3.999) // 4

round(-3.000) // -3
round(-3.001) // -3
round(-3.499) // -3
round(-3.500) // -4  *** careful here ***
round(-3.999) // -4

ceil

Rounds any number with a decimal value up to the next larger whole number.

ceil(3.000) // 3
ceil(3.001) // 4
ceil(3.999) // 4

ceil(-3.000) // -3
ceil(-3.001) // -3
ceil(-3.999) // -3

floor

Rounds any number with a decimal value down to the next smaller whole number.

floor(3.000) // 3
floor(3.001) // 3
floor(3.999) // 3

floor(-3.000) // -3
floor(-3.001) // -4
floor(-3.999) // -4

Int

Converts a Double to an Int, dropping any decimal value.

Int(3.000) // 3
Int(3.001) // 3
Int(3.999) // 3

Int(-3.000) // -3
Int(-3.001) // -3
Int(-3.999) // -3

Notes

round, ceil and floor handle both 64 and 32 bit architecture.

Random number generation

arc4random_uniform(someNumber: UInt32) -> UInt32

This gives you random integers in the range 0 to someNumber - 1.

The maximum value for UInt32 is 4,294,967,295 (that is, 2^32 - 1).

Examples:

Coin flip

  let flip = arc4random_uniform(2) // 0 or 1

Dice roll

  let roll = arc4random_uniform(6) + 1 // 1...6

Random day in October

  let day = arc4random_uniform(31) + 1 // 1...31

Random year in the 1990s

  let year = 1990 + arc4random_uniform(10)

General form:

let number = min + arc4random_uniform(max - min + 1)

where number, max, and min are UInt32.

Notes

There is a slight modulo bias with arc4random so arc4random_uniform is preferred.
You can cast a UInt32 value to an Int but just beware of going out of range.

Exponentiation

In Swift, we can exponentiate Doubles with the built-in pow() method:

pow(BASE, EXPONENT)

In the code below, the base (5) is set to the power of the exponent (2) :

let number = pow(5.0, 2.0) // Equals 25