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How to add markers to the jump bar

Swift version: 5.6

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

Xcode’s jump bar – the popup menu describing all properties and methods in the current class, activated using Ctrl-6 – is a simple way to navigate around your file, particularly when you know you can just type a few letters to automatically filter the list.

However, if you’re finding the jump bar is getting messy, you should try to break it up by adding markers to your code. These come in a few flavors – MARK, TODO, and FIXME – but all help make your jump bar easier to read.

Try adding this special comment before any method:

// TODO: This isn’t finished yet

In the jump bar that will appear as a blue and white list icon so it sticks out. Now try adding this somewhere:

// FIXME: This code is awful.

That will show up in the jump bar with an orange bandaid – it really stands out!

The third option is MARK, which renders your text in bold – it’s great for splitting up the jump bar, and is commonly used to mark divisions in your file.. Try this:

// MARK: UITableViewDataSource methods

All of these markers can have dashes placed before or after the text to make separators. For example:

// FIXME: - This code is really broken -

That will appear in the jump bar with a dividing line before and after the marker. You can just create the separator if you want, like this:

// MARK: -

That just creates a dividing line with no accompanying text.

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Available from iOS 8.0

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