How to request a user's location only once using requestLocation

Swift version: 5.1

Paul Hudson @twostraws May 28th 2019

iOS has a simple way to request a user's location just once, and it's called requestLocation(). Calling this method returns immediately (meaning that your code carries on executing) but when iOS has managed (or failed) to get a fix on the user's location you will be told. Below is a complete example:

import CoreLocation
import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, CLLocationManagerDelegate {
    let manager = CLLocationManager()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        manager.delegate = self
        manager.requestLocation()
    }

    func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didUpdateLocations locations: [CLLocation]) {
        if let location = locations.first {
            print("Found user's location: \(location)")
        }
    }

    func locationManager(_ manager: CLLocationManager, didFailWithError error: Error) {
        print("Failed to find user's location: \(error.localizedDescription)")
    }
}

Available from iOS 9.0