Swift Basics: Dictionaries
Learn about dictionaries in the Swift Programming Language
Let’s talk about Swift Dictionaries.
Imagine that you have a bunch of words and definitions written on index cards. You want to be able to quickly look up the definition of a word whenever you need to, so you put all of the index cards into a special box.
This special box is like a dictionary in the Swift programming language. It’s a way to store and organize information so that you can easily find what you’re looking for.
Each index card in the box has a word written on one side and a definition written on the other side. In a dictionary in Swift, each “index card” is called a key-value pair. The word is the “key” and the definition is the “value.”
To find the definition of a word in the box, you would look through the index cards until you find the one with the word you’re looking for written on it. Then, you would flip the index card over to see the definition.
In the same way, to find a value in a dictionary in Swift, you would use the key to look up the value. For example, if you have a dictionary with the keys “apple,” “banana,” and “cherry,” and you want to find the value for the key “banana,” you would look through the dictionary until you find the key “banana” and then you would get the value associated with it.
Here’s some example code to create and use a dictionary in Swift:
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