How should I design async APIs in Swift for readability?

Designing asynchronous APIs in Swift requires a focus on readability and ease of use. By utilizing modern Swift features, you can create clear, efficient, and type-safe APIs that are easy for developers to understand and work with. Below are some guidelines and an example to illustrate an effective approach.

Key Design Principles

  • Use async/await for clarity in asynchronous code.
  • Provide clear and concise method signatures.
  • Utilize Swift's type system to return meaningful results or errors.
  • Consider using enum cases for error handling.
  • Document your APIs thoroughly.

Example of an Async API

// Swift Example of an Async API import Foundation enum DataError: Error { case networkError case parsingError } struct DataModel: Codable { let id: Int let name: String } class DataService { func fetchData(from url: String) async throws -> DataModel { guard let url = URL(string: url) else { throw DataError.networkError } let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.data(from: url) let decodedData = try JSONDecoder().decode(DataModel.self, from: data) return decodedData } } // Usage let dataService = DataService() Task { do { let model = try await dataService.fetchData(from: "https://api.example.com/data") print("Fetched Data: \(model)") } catch { print("Error fetching data: \(error)") } }

async APIs Swift readability async/await error handling