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You're reading from  Learning Swift Second Edition - Second Edition

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Published inMar 2016
Reading LevelBeginner
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ISBN-139781785887512
Edition2nd Edition
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Andrew J Wagner
Andrew J Wagner
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Andrew J Wagner

Contacted on 5 Aug 16 Andrew J Wagner is a software developer who concentrates on iOS development and backend web services. He has a degree in computer engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York. Currently, he works for a development shop based in Denver, CO named Chronos Interactive. He has experience working with and for large-scale companies and small-scale companies as well as running his own contracting and app companies. He is passionate about using computers as a creative outlet and writing software that is beautiful in implementation, functionality, and experience. When he isn't working or spending time with friends and family, he writes for his blog at http://drewag.me. I would like to thank my friends and family for being there for me as support for both my troubles and triumphs. Without their encouragement, I would not have finished this book or achieved any of the other things in my life that make me proud. An especially big thanks to my parents, Fern and Joe, for continually providing me the the tools I need to do the things I love.
Read more about Andrew J Wagner

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Now that we understand the different ways in which data is represented in Swift, we can look into how we can manage the memory better. Every instance that we create takes up memory. Naturally, it wouldn't make sense to keep all data around forever. Swift needs to be able to free up memory so that it can be used for other purposes, once our program doesn't need it anymore. This is the key to managing memory in our apps. We need to make sure that Swift can free up all the memory that we no longer need, as soon as possible.

The way that Swift knows it can free up memory is when the code can no longer access an instance. If there is no longer any variable or constant referencing an instance, it can be repurposed for another instance. This is called "freeing the memory" or "deleting the object".

In Chapter 3, One Piece at a Time – Types, Scopes, and Projects we already discussed when a variable is accessible or not in the section about scopes. This makes memory management...

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Learning Swift Second Edition - Second Edition
Published in: Mar 2016Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781785887512

Author (1)

author image
Andrew J Wagner

Contacted on 5 Aug 16 Andrew J Wagner is a software developer who concentrates on iOS development and backend web services. He has a degree in computer engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York. Currently, he works for a development shop based in Denver, CO named Chronos Interactive. He has experience working with and for large-scale companies and small-scale companies as well as running his own contracting and app companies. He is passionate about using computers as a creative outlet and writing software that is beautiful in implementation, functionality, and experience. When he isn't working or spending time with friends and family, he writes for his blog at http://drewag.me. I would like to thank my friends and family for being there for me as support for both my troubles and triumphs. Without their encouragement, I would not have finished this book or achieved any of the other things in my life that make me proud. An especially big thanks to my parents, Fern and Joe, for continually providing me the the tools I need to do the things I love.
Read more about Andrew J Wagner