Wait For Asynchronous Operation To Complete in Swift

Question

I am not sure how to handle this situation as I am very new to iOS development and Swift. I am performing data fetching like so:

func application(application: UIApplication!, performFetchWithCompletionHandler completionHandler: ((UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void)!)
{
    loadShows()
    completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResult.NewData)
    println("Background Fetch Complete")
}

My loadShows() function parses a bunch of data it gets from a website loaded into a UIWebView. The problem is that I have a timer that waits for 10 seconds or so in the loadShows function. This allows for the javascript in the page to fully load before I start parsing the data. My problem is that the completion handler completes before my loadShows() does.

What I would like to do is add a bool for "isCompletedParsingShows" and make the completionHandler line wait to complete until that bool is true. What is the best way to handle this?

Daij-Djan · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-13T17:29:46.777

you have to pass your async function the handler to call later on:

func application(application: UIApplication!, performFetchWithCompletionHandler completionHandler: ((UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void)!) {
    loadShows(completionHandler)
}

func loadShows(completionHandler: ((UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void)!) {
    //....
    //DO IT
    //....

    completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResult.NewData)
    println("Background Fetch Complete")
}

OR (cleaner way IMHO)

add an intermediate completionHandler

func application(application: UIApplication!, performFetchWithCompletionHandler completionHandler: ((UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void)!) {
    loadShows() {
        completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResult.NewData)
        println("Background Fetch Complete")
    }
}

func loadShows(completionHandler: (() -> Void)!) {
    //....
    //DO IT
    //....
    completionHandler()
}

mind this is a MINIMAL and concrete example but the approach is basically the same everywhere..... you pass the handler on OR you create a new closure that acts as an intermediate (often cleaner IMO) — Daij-Djan, Jul 13 '14 at 17:24

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 13 '14 at 17:41

two ways to solve this, both use Grand Central Dispatch (which is similar in Swift and Objective C):

change loadShows method to make it synchronous and use the same dispatch queue as completionHandler, then wrap the entire body of the method in a dispatch_async ; this way the method call ends right away, but the completionHandler will be called after loadShows if finished, just like in a synchronous program
use a GCD semaphore - just like the BOOL you mention, but created with dispatch_semaphore_create ; you call dispatch_semaphore_wait before completionHandler to make it wait for the semaphore to be unlocked (unlock it with dispatch_semaphore_signal ) ; remember to place your method body inside a dispatch_async call in order not to have it block the rest of the app while waiting for loadShows to complete.

Can you provide an example of #2? I can't seem to find any using swift and this is good information to understand. — PretzelJesus, Jul 13 '14 at 19:43
not everybody can call the continue code inside a completion closure, the GCD solution is the best in my opinion, very similar to other synchronous solutions in other languages, use RoNIT link to an example, its easy to understand — Shaybc, Jul 28 '16 at 19:14

Vasily Bodnarchuk · Answer 3 · 2018-03-16T08:44:55.123

Details

xCode 9.2, Swift 4

Solution

class AsyncOperation {

    private let semaphore: DispatchSemaphore
    private let dispatchQueue: DispatchQueue
    typealias CompleteClosure = ()->()

    init(numberOfSimultaneousActions: Int, dispatchQueueLabel: String) {
        semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: numberOfSimultaneousActions)
        dispatchQueue = DispatchQueue(label: dispatchQueueLabel)
    }

    func run(closure: @escaping (@escaping CompleteClosure)->()) {
        dispatchQueue.async {
            self.semaphore.wait()
            closure {
                self.semaphore.signal()
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage

let asyncOperation = AsyncOperation(numberOfSimultaneousActions: 1, dispatchQueueLabel: "AnyString")
asyncOperation.run { completeClosure in
    // sync/async action
    // ...


    // action complete        
    completeClosure()
}

Full sample

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let asyncOperation = AsyncOperation(numberOfSimultaneousActions: 1, dispatchQueueLabel: "AnyString")
    var counter = 1

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 50, y: 50, width: 100, height: 40))
        button.setTitle("Button", for: .normal)
        button.setTitleColor(.blue, for: .normal)
        button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonTapped), for: .touchUpInside)
        view.addSubview(button)

    }

    @objc func buttonTapped() {
        print("Button tapped at: \(Date())")
        asyncOperation.run { completeClosure in
            let counter = self.counter
            print("     - Action \(counter) strat at \(Date())")
            self.counter += 1

            DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
                sleep(1)
                print("     - Action \(counter) end at \(Date())")
                completeClosure()
            }
        }
    }

}

Wait For Asynchronous Operation To Complete in Swift

3 Answers3

OR (cleaner way IMHO)

Details

Solution

Usage

Full sample

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