Using Swift in VS Code

You can write and build Swift code in index. Make sure to download the official Swift extension inside of VS Code.

Use Cases

• Expanding Swift macros in VS Code

Demo

• Video - Building Swift Packages in VSCode - Tim Condon - Swift Heroes 2022

Docs

• Swift.org - Configuring VS Code for Swift Development

• Tasks in Visual Studio Code The VS Code Swift extension uses SourceKit-LSP to power language features. SourceKit-LSP provides the following features in the editor. Use these links to see the VS Code documentation for each topic:

• Code completion

• Go to definition

• Find all references

• Rename refactoring

• Diagnostics

• Quick Fixes

Must use swift build before you can use language features

Before language features can be used you must perform a swift build command on your project either on the command line or using a task in VS Code. This populates the index in SourceKit-LSP.

How to build

To build Swift code in Visual Studio Code, you need to set up a task that will run the Swift compiler. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open the Command Palette with Cmd+Shift+P.
2. Type “Tasks: Configure Default Build Task” and select it.
3. Select “Create tasks.json file from template”, and then “Others”.
4. Replace the content of the generated tasks.json file with the following:

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "swift build",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "swift build",
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "always"
            },
            "problemMatcher": []
        }
    ]
}

This task will run the swift build command whenever you run the Build Task (Cmd+Shift+B).