What’s the difference between a function and a method?
Swift version: 5.2
Some folks use “function” and “method” interchangeably, but there’s a small difference: both of them are reusable chunks of code, but methods belong to classes, structs, and enums, whereas functions do not.
So:
func thisIsAFunction() {
}
struct Person {
func thisIsAMethod() {
}
}Because methods always belong to a data type, they have a concept of self that functions do not. This is a special value passed in by Swift, and it refers to whatever instance the method was called on.
Swift uses the same keyword, func, for both functions and methods.
SPONSORED ViRE offers discoverable way of working with regex. It provides really readable regex experience, code complete & cheat sheet, unit tests, powerful replace system, step-by-step search & replace, regex visual scheme, regex history & playground. ViRE is available on Mac & iPad.
Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!
Available from iOS 9.0
Similar solutions…
- What’s the difference between a function and a closure?
- How to fix “argument of #selector refers to instance method that is not exposed to Objective-C”
- How to use the forEach method to loop over an array
- How to check for valid method input using the guard keyword
- What’s the difference between @ObservedObject, @State, and @EnvironmentObject?
About the Swift Knowledge Base
This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.
