dispatch_after – GCD in Swift?

Question or problem with Swift language programming:

I’ve gone through the iBook from Apple, and couldn’t find any definition of it:

Can someone explain the structure of dispatch_after?

dispatch_after(<#when: dispatch_time_t#>, <#queue: dispatch_queue_t?#>, <#block: dispatch_block_t?#>)

How to solve the problem:

Solution 1:

A clearer idea of the structure:

dispatch_after(when: dispatch_time_t, queue: dispatch_queue_t, block: dispatch_block_t?)

dispatch_time_t is a UInt64. The dispatch_queue_t is actually type aliased to an NSObject, but you should just use your familiar GCD methods to get queues. The block is a Swift closure. Specifically, dispatch_block_t is defined as () -> Void, which is equivalent to () -> ().

Example usage:

let delayTime = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, Int64(1 * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC)))
dispatch_after(delayTime, dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
    print("test")
}

EDIT:

I recommend using @matt’s really nice delay function.

EDIT 2:

In Swift 3, there will be new wrappers for GCD. See here: https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0088-libdispatch-for-swift3.md

The original example would be written as follows in Swift 3:

let deadlineTime = DispatchTime.now() + .seconds(1)
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: deadlineTime) {
    print("test")
}

Note that you can write the deadlineTime declaration as DispatchTime.now() + 1.0 and get the same result because the + operator is overridden as follows (similarly for -):

• func +(time: DispatchTime, seconds: Double) -> DispatchTime
• func +(time: DispatchWalltime, interval: DispatchTimeInterval) -> DispatchWalltime

This means that if you don’t use the DispatchTimeInterval enum and just write a number, it is assumed that you are using seconds.

Solution 2:

I use dispatch_after so often that I wrote a top-level utility function to make the syntax simpler:

func delay(delay:Double, closure:()->()) {
    dispatch_after(
        dispatch_time(
            DISPATCH_TIME_NOW,
            Int64(delay * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC))
        ),
        dispatch_get_main_queue(), closure)
}

And now you can talk like this:

delay(0.4) {
    // do stuff
}

Wow, a language where you can improve the language. What could be better?

---

Update for Swift 3, Xcode 8 Seed 6

Seems almost not worth bothering with, now that they’ve improved the calling syntax:

func delay(_ delay:Double, closure:@escaping ()->()) {
    let when = DispatchTime.now() + delay
    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: when, execute: closure)
}

Solution 3:

Swift 3+

This is super-easy and elegant in Swift 3+:

DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 4.5) {
    // ...
}

Older Answer:

To expand on Cezary’s answer, which will execute after 1 nanosecond, I had to do the following to execute after 4 and a half seconds.

let delay = 4.5 * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC)
let time = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, Int64(delay))
dispatch_after(time, dispatch_get_main_queue(), block)

Edit: I discovered that my original code was slightly wrong. Implicit typing causes a compile error if you don’t cast NSEC_PER_SEC to a Double.

If anyone can suggest a more optimal solution I’d be keen to hear it.

Solution 4:

matt’s syntax is very nice and if you need to invalidate the block, you may want to use this :

typealias dispatch_cancelable_closure = (cancel : Bool) -> Void

func delay(time:NSTimeInterval, closure:()->Void) ->  dispatch_cancelable_closure? {

    func dispatch_later(clsr:()->Void) {
        dispatch_after(
            dispatch_time(
                DISPATCH_TIME_NOW,
                Int64(time * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC))
            ),
            dispatch_get_main_queue(), clsr)
    }

    var closure:dispatch_block_t? = closure
    var cancelableClosure:dispatch_cancelable_closure?

    let delayedClosure:dispatch_cancelable_closure = { cancel in
        if closure != nil {
            if (cancel == false) {
                dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), closure!);
            }
        }
        closure = nil
        cancelableClosure = nil
    }

    cancelableClosure = delayedClosure

    dispatch_later {
        if let delayedClosure = cancelableClosure {
            delayedClosure(cancel: false)
        }
    }

    return cancelableClosure;
}

func cancel_delay(closure:dispatch_cancelable_closure?) {

    if closure != nil {
        closure!(cancel: true)
    }
}

Use as follow

let retVal = delay(2.0) {
    println("Later")
}
delay(1.0) {
    cancel_delay(retVal)
}

credits

Link above seems to be down. Original Objc code from Github

Solution 5:

Simplest solution in Swift 3.0 & Swift 4.0 & Swift 5.0

func delayWithSeconds(_ seconds: Double, completion: @escaping () -> ()) {
    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + seconds) { 
        completion()
    }
}

Usage

delayWithSeconds(1) {
   //Do something
}

Hope this helps!