Swift World: New in Swift 3.1 - Availability by Swift Version

Swift is moving on. To support different incompatible versions, we use #if swift(>= N) before Swift 3.1. For example the following simple code snippet, we print different information in different versions.

#if swift(>=3.1)
    print("Hello Swift 3.1!")
#elseif swift(>=3.0)
    print("Hello Swift 3.0!")
#endif

In Swift 3.1, we use available attributes to make it more flexible. If you don’t familiar with attribute, the official document is a good reference. This article Availability Attributes in Swift from raywenderlich.com explains the availability attributes clearly.

Let’s get started with a simple example.

@available(swift 3.1)
func isSwift31() -> Bool{
    return true
}

Then make it a little more complex.

@available(swift, introduced: 3.0, obsoleted: 3.1)
func isSwift30() -> Bool{
    return true
}

Obviously, it means isSwift30() was introduced in Swift 3.0 and is obsoleted in Swift 3.1. Call isSwift30() in Swift 3.1 context will lead to error note: 'isSwift30()' was obsoleted in Swift 3.1.

Finally, the motivation and design details are in SE-0141 . Dive in if you want to learn more.

Thanks for your time.

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