Difference between println and print in Swift

Question

The use of println and print in Swift both print to the console. But the only difference between them seems to be that println returns to the next line whereas print will not.

For example:

println("hello world")
println("another world")

will output the following two lines:

hello world
another world

while:

print("hello")
print("world")

outputs only one line:

helloworld

The print seems to be more like the traditional printf in C. The Swift documentation states that println is the equivalent to NSLog but what's the purpose of print, is there any reason to use it other than not returning to the next line?

This naming is very familiar to those coming from Java. The "LN" in println stands for "line". — CrimsonChris, Jun 06 '14 at 02:31

Jeremy Chone · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22T19:58:25.700

33

In the new swift 2, the println has been renamed to print which as an option "terminator" argument.

(udpated 2015-09-16 with the new terminator: "")

var fruits = ["banana","orange","cherry"]

// #1
for f in fruits{
    print(f)
}

// #2
for f in fruits{
    print("\(f) ", terminator: "")
}

#1 will print

banana
orange
cherry

#2 will print

banana orange cherry

edited Sep 22 '15 at 19:58

answered Jun 11 '15 at 16:45

Jeremy Chone

3,079
1
27
28

This should be marked the correct answer since the spec has changed with the release of Swift 2. – Nick Sweeting Jun 25 '15 at 22:25
This seems to have changed. `/// - Note: to print without a trailing newline, pass 'terminator: ""` Looks like the new line is now the default and `appendNewLine` has been removed. – AnthonyMDev Sep 16 '15 at 18:38
As in the new swift 2 just released, the `println` has been renamed to `print`. There are no `println`s anymore. just `print`. – Michael Shang Sep 22 '15 at 00:23

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 06 '14 at 01:29

5

That's exactly what it is, it's used when you want to print multiple things on the same line.

answered Jun 06 '14 at 01:29

Lorenzo

1,605
14
18

Could you provide an example of why you would use `print` instead of `println`? – wigging Jun 06 '14 at 13:09

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 06 '14 at 01:27

2

Exactly like you said, to print without adding a new line. There are some cases where you may want this. This is a simple example:

var arr = [1,2,3,4,5]

print("My array contains: ")
for num in arr{
    print("\(num) ")
}

answered Jun 06 '14 at 01:27

Connor Pearson

63,902
28
145
142

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 14 '17 at 11:26

1

It is same as in Java print is just print where ln in println means "Next Line". It will create a next line for you.

answered May 14 '17 at 11:26

BananZ

1,153
1
12
22

Your answer is obsolete, the syntax has changed, see Jeremy Chone's answer. – Eric Aya May 14 '17 at 11:29

Dordor · Answer 5 · 2016-09-29T00:23:18.460

0

The deference between print and println is that after print prints the cursor does not skip lines and after println prints the cursor skips a line

edited Sep 29 '16 at 00:23

answered Sep 22 '16 at 21:18

Dordor

169
2
11

That was the case until Swift 2. Now the syntax has changed, see Jeremy Chone's answer. – Eric Aya Sep 29 '16 at 09:40

Difference between println and print in Swift

5 Answers5

#1 will print

#2 will print

Linked