DEV Community

Cover image for The Best Swift Books For Learning iOS Development
Selina
Selina

Posted on

The Best Swift Books For Learning iOS Development

Swift Books

Swift has been years in the making, and it continues to evolve with new features and capabilities. We can’t wait to see what you create with it.

swift-programmingbooks

Swift is a compiled programming language for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux applications.

Often referred to as “Objective-C, without the C,” Swift language is in many aspects superior to its predecessor.

Here you will get Best Swift Books For Learning iOS Development In 2020.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books for learning Swift.

1.Pro iPhone Development with Swift 5

Aspiring iOS app developers familiar with the Apple Swift programming language and/or the iOS SDK, but ready to move to the next level.

If you’ve already learned the basics of Swift and iOS programming, it’s time to take your skills to the next level. In this follow up work to the best-selling Beginning iPhone Development with Swift, you’ll learn tips for organizing and debugging Swift code, using multi-threaded programming with Grand Central Dispatch, passing data between view controllers, and designing apps for multiple languages.

Pro-iPhone-Development-with-Swift-5

View on Amazon

2.iOS 10 Programming Fundamentals with Swift: Swift, Xcode, and Cocoa Basics 1st Edition

Move into iOS development by getting a firm grasp of its fundamentals, including the Xcode IDE, the Cocoa Touch framework, and Swift 3—the latest version of Apple’s acclaimed programming language. With this thoroughly updated guide, you’ll learn Swift’s object-oriented concepts, understand how to use Apple’s development tools, and discover how Cocoa provides the underlying functionality iOS apps need to have.

If you're looking to make an iOS app, and you want to learn how to do it properly this is book the perfect foundation. That being said, it won't teach you how to make an app. The focus here is really learning Swift fundamentals (with some iOS basics), so that you can get a good grasp of the underlying language and then buy another book, etc, to actually learn how to build an app.

For what it's intended to be, this book does an amazing job.

iOS-10-Programming

View on Amazon

3.Learning Swift: Building Apps for macOS, iOS, and Beyond 3rd Edition

Get valuable hands-on experience with Swift, the open source programming language developed by Apple. With this practical guide, skilled programmers with little or no knowledge of Apple development will learn how to code with the latest version of Swift by developing a working iOS app from start to finish.

The book is well done, and the only reason it isn't 5-star for me is that 2/3 of the book shows how to write iOS apps. The book is written for the typical Apple app developer, and most of them are only interested in iOS development. If you want to learn many of the fine details of writing apps for your Mac, look someplace else. Five stars for iOS, three for MacOS, I'll compromise on four

Learning-Swiftv

View on Amazon

4.iOS 10 in Swift 3

iOS 10 in Swift 3 will take you from absolute beginner to functional iOS developer learning the concepts, techniques, and tools needed to build professional iOS applications using Xcode 8, iOS 10, and Swift 3. After completing this book, you will have the skills and confidence you need to to build and design your own iOS apps and apply for jr. iOS development jobs.

Good things I like about this book:

  1. The book is well written in easy language.
    If you have read until this part of my review, you would probably notice that I am not a native English speaker. But I have faced no difficulty in reading this book so far. The authors explain the concepts in layman terms and they are easy to understand. And I have zero background in coding. So, if I can read it, you guys can read it for sure.

  2. The paperback version is not heavy.
    I got the paperback version because I prefer highlighting and writing on the book as I read the book. Yes, the book is as thick as a dictionary. But it impressed me because it's not as heavy as a dictionary. You can bring this book to cafes and NO, you can't use it as a barbell for workout.

  3. Well organised and presented content
    Yes, there are 1000+ pages. But it doesn't give you a hard time to read. The text is double line spaced, and there are screenshots, pictures, diagrams to explain the content. Unlike most books that compress a lot of information into thick paragraphs, this book is a user-friendly one.

iOS-10-in-Swift-3

View on Amazon

5.Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (2nd Edition)

Through the authors' carefully constructed explanations and examples, you will develop an understanding of Swift grammar and the elements of effective Swift style. This book is written for Swift 3.0 and will also show you how to navigate Xcode 8 and get the most out of Apple's documentation.

There are a lot of new Swift books and authors, but this book has the backing of Big Nerd Ranch.

If you're not familiar with Big Nerd Ranch history, they have been involved in Cocoa (and before that AppKit) development and training for probably two decades. Their classes are legendary for the quality and what you bring away from them. This book is no different.

Swift-Programming

View on Amazon

6.Swift: The Complete Guide for Beginners,Intermediate and Advanced Detailed Strategies To Master Swift Programming

Whether you are an experienced programmer or just starting out in iOS app design, this book takes you through all the steps of designing an iOS app. If you want to learn how to create outstanding apps that will beat your competitor, this book helps you discover the secret. From Xcode and Swift, the foundation of modern iOS development, you will learn the building blocks of designing a great app so that you can dig deep into the app development.

This book is a clear instruction that is broken into one with central issues on each. The book is somewhat more costly than most, yet it the best I have perused so far. This book has clear directions which are broken into areas with central matters on each. This book has clear guidelines which are broken into areas with primary concerns on each.

Swift

View on Amazon

7.Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift: Essential Techniques for Practicing Programmers 1st Edition

Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift deepens your Swift language skills by exploring foundational coding techniques and algorithms. As you work through examples in search, clustering, graphs, and more, you'll remember important things you've forgotten and discover classic solutions to your "new" problems. You'll appreciate author David Kopec's amazing ability to connect the core disciplines of computer science to the real-world concerns of apps, data, performance, and even nailing your next job interview!

There's a good blend of object-oriented, functional and protocol-oriented examples presented in the book. Building reusable framework code is reinforced throughout the book. There are numerous examples of advanced Swift features such as generics and protocol extensions. Playground code is provided for each chapter that is well-documented, easy to read and thoroughly explained in the book.

Classic-Computer-Science-Problems-in-Swift

View on Amazon

8.Swift in Depth 1st Edition

Swift in Depth guides you concept by concept through the skills you need to build professional software for Apple platforms, such as iOS and Mac; also on the server with Linux. By following the numerous concrete examples, enlightening explanations, and engaging exercises, you'll finally grok powerful techniques like generics, efficient error handling, protocol-oriented programming, and advanced Swift patterns. Author Tjeerd in 't Veen reveals the high-value, difficult-to-discover Swift techniques he's learned through his own hard-won experience.

This book is basicly the same as ObjcIO’s Advanced Swift or the Swift language book by Apple. It does not necessarily contain anything Cocoa[ Touch ], it’s Swift language centric book, and though I say it’s the same, it’s not, even though these books cover the same type of knowledge the point of view is subjective and each authors’. I have all these 3 books on my iPad together with a similar book by Paul Hudson, I forget the name at the moment. One thing that is reflected in each book is each author’s personal experience, and these different experiences make more of these books have a higher value combined as a synergy than the sum of all the books’ core knowledge alone.

Swift-in-Depth

View on Amazon

9.Beginning iOS 12 & Swift App Development: Develop iOS Apps with Xcode 10, Swift 4, Core ML 2, ARKit 2 and more Paperback – February 17, 2019

In this book, we take you on a fun, hands-on and pragmatic journey to learning iOS12 application development using Swift. You'll start building your first iOS app within minutes. Every section is written in a bite-sized manner and straight to the point as I don't want to waste your time (and most certainly mine) on the content you don't need. In the end, you will have the skills to create an app and submit it to the app store.

Greg's book is really THAT good. What I've been doing with the projects in this book, after working thru the chapter and creating the project, I then proceed to create additional iterations of the project, adding my own tweaks in the various iterations, and PROVING to myself that I really have mastered the material and can now move on.

Beginning-iOS-12

View on Amazon

10.Design Patterns in Swift 5: Learn how to implement the Gang of Four Design Patterns using Swift 5. Improve your coding skills. (Swift Clinic) Paperback – March 26, 2019

Design patterns are the result of a long evolution process. It all started with a book published in 1994 - yes, it’s that old! - called “Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.” That’s a quite tedious title, so we usually refer to it as “the book by the gang of four.” The gang consists of four renowned software engineers: Erich Gamma, Ralph Johnson, Richard Helm, and John Vlissides. They identified the most significant common issues that occurred in multiple projects and developed best practices to solve them.

This is the best book I have seen on design patterns for iOS and it's not afraid to discuss and show concurrency. The discussion is precise and compact, but discusses the most important things, like concurrent barrier queue to make the Singleton pattern thread safe.

Design-Patterns-in-Swift-5

View on Amazon

11.Mastering Swift 5: Deep dive into the latest edition of the Swift programming language, 5th Edition Paperback – April 30, 2019

Inside this book, you'll find the key features of Swift 5 easily explained with complete sets of examples. From the basics of the language to popular features such as concurrency, generics, and memory management, this definitive guide will help you develop your expertise and mastery of the Swift language.

The best thing about this book is it is written to teach the Swift language itself and is not solely focused on iOS programming so 99% of the material can be applied to iOS development, MacOS Development and also Server Side Swift.

Mastering-Swift-5

View on Amazon

12.iOS 12 Programming for Beginners: An introductory guide to iOS app development with Swift 4.2 and Xcode 10, 3rd Edition Paperback – December 24, 2018

If you're already an experienced programmer, you can jump right in and learn the latest iOS 12 features. For beginners, this book starts by introducing you to iOS development as you learn Xcode and Swift. You'll also study advanced iOS design topics, such as gestures and animations, to give your app the edge. You'll explore the latest Swift 4.2 and iOS 12 developments by incorporating new features, such as the latest in notifications, custom-UI notifications, maps, and the recent additions in Sirikit. The book will guide you in using TestFlight to quickly get to grips with everything you need to get your project on the App Store.

iOS-12-Programming-for-Beginners

View on Amazon

13.From Zero to iOS Hero: Swift Development for Kids and Teens

This product was amazing! I enjoyed the extent to which the author went to explain the examples, and the concepts behind the language and projects. I really feel as though the book did a lot to help me develop some working knowledge of xCode and Swift.

This book is so easy to follow, and understand. It teaches you the interface, the tools, and builds on your base of knowledge and gets harder as you go. It includes pictures, and code examples that allow everyone to succeed.

From-Zero-to-iOS-Hero

View on Amazon

14.High Performance iOS Apps: Optimize Your Code for Better Apps 1st Edition

Ready to build mobile apps that out-perform the rest? If you’re an iOS developer with app-building experience, this practical guide provides tips and best practices to help you solve many common performance issues. You’ll learn how to design and optimize iOS apps that deliver a smooth experience even when the network is poor and memory is low.

High-Performance-iOS-Apps

View on Amazon

15.Swift Development Documentation

Swift is friendly to new programmers. It’s an industrial-quality programming language that’s as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language. Writing Swift code in a playground lets you experiment with code and see the results immediately, without the overhead of building and running an app.

Xcode---Swift

View Documentation

16.Beginning iPhone Development with Swift 5: Exploring the iOS SDK 5th ed. Edition

Beginning iPhone Development with Swift 5 covers the basic information you need to get up and running quickly to turn your great ideas into working iOS apps. Once you’re ready, move on to Pro iPhone Development with Swift 5 to learn more of the really unique aspects of iOS programming and the Swift language.

Beginning-iPhone-Development

View on Amazon

17.iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (6th Edition) (Big Nerd Ranch Guides) 6th Edition

Throughout the book, the authors explain what's important and share their insights into the larger context of the iOS platform. You get a real understanding of how iOS development works, the many features that are available, and when and where to apply what you've learned.

Best programming book I've ever learned from. I've purchased a few books in the past for learning Java, but none were written as fluently and as effectively as this one.

iOS-Programming

View on Amazon

18.iOS Apprentice: Beginning iOS development with Swift 4.2

In this book, you will learn how to make your own iPhone and iPad apps, through four engaging, epic-length tutorials.

These hands-on tutorials describe in full detail how to build a new app from scratch. Four tutorials, four apps. Each new app will be a little more advanced than the one before, and together they cover everything you need to know to make your own apps.

This is a perfect book for beginners. Writer walks you through step by step and tries his best to explain all the concepts cover in a detailed manner. What I like most about this book is that writer is kind enough to repeat or emphasize some important concepts. I loved this book and would recommend to anyone starting ios journey.

iOS-Apprentice

View on Amazon

19.Swift Apprentice: Beginning programming with Swift 4.2

In this book, you'll learn the basics of Swift from getting started with playgrounds to simple operations to building your own types. Everything you'll learn is platform-neutral; you'll have a firm understanding of Swift by the end of this book, and you'll be ready to move on to whichever app platform you're interested in.

Swift-Apprentice

View on Amazon

20.Advanced iOS App Architecture (First Edition): Real-world app architecture in Swift

This book is for intermediate iOS developers who already know the basics of iOS and are looking to build apps using defined architectures, making apps cleaner and easier to maintain.

Advanced-iOS-App-Architecture

View on Amazon

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
pavermakov profile image
Pavel Ermakov

Have you read any of these?