Kotlin Vs Swift - All Differences You Ever Wanted to Know

Kotlin Vs Swift - All Differences You Ever Wanted to Know

Both Kotlin and Swift are the most popular programming languages in the Android and​ ​iOS app development​ ​domain respectively.

In 2019 Google I/O, Kotlin has been marked as the preferred language for building Android applications by Google itself. More than 1.5 million developers today rely on ​Kotlin app development​ to build world-class apps. Kotlin is open source, free and statically typed general-purpose programming language with support for Java interoperability.

Similarly, Swift is the most loved programming language for building iOS apps among the developer community. Companies like Uber, Airbnb and Facebook use it to build powerful iOS apps. It is general-purpose, multi-paradigm and compiled language which is built using LLCM compiler.

Let’s track the major differences between both these popular languages that every app development company must know:

Development Kotlin is used to build Android apps whereas swift is utilized for building iOS apps. Both these modern languages are getting popular due to their simpler, cleaner and easy-to-follow syntax and functions.

Kotlin Native enables developers to use it for ​hybrid app development​. On the other hand, Swift can be used for building Android apps, but it requires integration with a framework to build compatible app UI.

Data Class Swift does not support data class, unlike Kotlin. Developers need to create classes to hold data while writing code in Swift. On the other hand, the in-built classes in Kotlin can be used to implement things like impartiality and replication.

Implementation of Function Slight differences are evident in function implementation between Kotlin and Swift. ​Read them below: ● ● ●

In Swift, every variable has an underscore (_) as a prefix, while Kotlin does not.

Kotlin has $ as a prefix with a variable whereas Swift has forward-slash () when returning a variable to the argument.

Kotlin uses ​Unit w ​ hereas Swift uses ​void​ as a default return type.

Final Class Kotlin classes are final by default and do not offer any extensions. It also does not allow​ app developers ​to add any extensions to the class, unlike Swift.

Error Handling For error handling, Koltin uses null in case of String variables where nil is used by Swift for the same. Both languages are excellent when it comes to error handling and avoiding programming errors.

Enums In Swift, Enums are utilized to perform struct features, implement computational properties and other values. On the other hand, Kotlin simply does not support the Enum list. Lack of enum

patterns is common during ​Kotlin app development​. Alternatively, it can be implemented with a sealed class.

Structs Though Kotlin is a Java-like language, it does not have any Struct types as its function.

Whereas, Swift allows the developers to choose their preferred Struct or class based on requirements.

Memory Management Swift utilizes Automatic Reference Counting for memory management whereas Garbage collection is used by Kotlin. Swift has more accurate, concise and reliable memory management compared to Kotlin.

Annotations With annotations, you can insert metadata to the app code as an app developer. Kotlin supports various annotations like @Target, @Repeatable, @Retention whereas Swift simply doesn’t.

Tuples Tuples are a set of structured data with multiple parts. For example, in RDBMS, the data is stored on Excel sheets with tuples are denoted as rows. Kotlin does on support any tuples types. Whereas, Swift utilizes tuples to outline the interfaces among components.

Delegated Properties Delegated properties is another aspect where Kotlin takes the upper hand over Swift.

Developers can send methods and citation from one particular class to another class uses this feature. Traditional properties like Lazy, Observation, and Storing properties of a class can also be defined by ​app developers​ during Kotlin. Swift does not support delegated properties so developers should settle with default properties of the class.

Parting Thoughts Hope you enjoyed this detailed comparison guide for​ Kotlin vs Swift.​ Both, these modern languages are a good choice for ​mobile app development​ ​due to their simplicity, security and support capabilities. If you still have any doubts about both these programming languages, contact expert app developers at A3logics.