"Just as a carpenter knows a saw, an iOS dev must know Xcode" - Anonymous
I've been developing apps for quite some time now and over the years have picked up a few tricks of the trade while working with Xcode. Here is a list of some of my favorite/time saving features in Xcode.
1. Edit multiple lines of code at once
Have you ever edited a model or lines of code where you needed to type one thing multiple times. Introducing multiline cursors. Simply hold option, click and drag the lines you want the cursor to go to. Once you are done you can just click to exit the editing and go back to a single cursor.
2. Code Snippets
Code snippets are probably the most underutilized feature in Xcode. With my work I am in new projects pretty consistently so it is super helpful to have commonly used functions and templates for things I use across projects.
Save a new snippet by highlighting and selecting create code snippet
From here you can create placeholders by entering any text like so
<# your placeholder here #>
3. SF Symbols
Apps and icons go together like raisins in cookies. Not ideal, but sometimes it must be done. One way to make your life easier is by using the SF Symbols app. Download it from here This app has all of Apple's icons that are free to use throughout your app. If you are using SwiftUI simply find the name of the icon you like and create an image for it like this
Image(systemName: "mic")4. Sounds for Build Success and Build Fail
Coffee breaks are super convenient while your app is building. But what if you could have some sort of alert when your app build succeeds or fails. Simply go to Xcode -> Preferences -> Behaviors and you can customize sounds and announcements for all sorts of actions in your project.
5. To Immediately Publish to TestFlight Internal
Do you constantly have to mark your app as not using encryption before it will publish to your internal TestFlight group? Simply add this to your info.plist and it will automatically mark your app as not using encryption.
<key>ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption</key>
<false/>Hope you enjoyed these tips. If you want your tip to be featured in the next article please leave it below in the comments.