You can create a 2D array and then use flatMap
to turn it into a 1D array:
let array = [[Int]](repeating: [1,2,3], count: 3).flatMap{$0}
If you want to have a general way of doing this, here's an extension that adds an init method and a repeating method that takes an array which makes this a bit cleaner:
extension Array {
init(repeating: [Element], count: Int) {
self.init([[Element]](repeating: repeating, count: count).flatMap{$0})
}
func repeated(count: Int) -> [Element] {
return [Element](repeating: self, count: count)
}
}
let array = [1,2,3].repeated(count: 3) // => [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]
Note that with the new initializer you can get an ambiguous method call if you use it without providing the expected type:
let array = Array(repeating: [1,2,3], count: 3) // Error: Ambiguous use of ‛init(repeating:count:)‛
Use instead:
let array = [Int](repeating: [1,2,3], count: 3) // => [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]
or
let array:[Int] = Array(repeating: [1,2,3], count: 3) // => [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]
This ambiguity can be avoided if you change the method signature to init(repeatingContentsOf: [Element], count: Int)
or similar.