Confusing closures and completion handles - iphone

Question

Im a new programmer and am very lost.
I am taking this online iOS dev course and I was configuring collection view cell.
However, closures and completion handles were used and it was never mentioned before.
import UIKit
class PersonCell: UICollectionViewCell {
#IBOutlet weak var img: UIImageView!
func configureCell(imgUrl: String) {
if let url = NSURL(string: imgUrl) {
downloadImg(url)
}
}
func downloadImg(url: NSURL) {
getDataFromURL(url) { (data, response, error) in
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) { () -> Void in
guard let data = data where error == nil else {return}
self.img.image = UIImage(data: data)
}
}
}
func getDataFromURL(url: NSURL, completion: ((data: NSData?, response: NSURLResponse?, error: NSError?) -> Void)) {
NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithURL(url) { (data, response, error) in
completion(data: data, response: response, error: error)
} .resume()
}
}
Can someone explain to me what the completion handler is doing after the "getDataFromURL" function. Also what are the closures doing? is "(data, response, error)" getting passed around? How does swift know that "data" is suppose to be NSData and etc in the "(data, response, error)"?
What does the closure after the "dataTaskWithURL" do (is it setting up the completion handler"?
Thank you!

Answer 1

These are good questions!
A closure is simply a collection (aka block) of lines of code that you can treat like a variable and execute like a function. You can refer to a closure with a variable name and you can pass a closure around as a parameter in function calls just like any other variable, eventually executing the code when appropriate. A closure can accept certain parameters to use in its code and it can include a return value.
Example:
This is a closure that accepts two strings as parameters and returns a string.
let closure: (String, String) -> String = { (a: String, b: String) -> String in
return a + b
}
Thus, the following will print "Hello Jack!":
print(closure("Hello ", "Jack!"))
A closure also has a variable type (just like "hello" is a String and 1 is an Int). The variable type is based on the parameters that the closure accepts and the value that the closure returns. Thus, since the closure above accepts two strings as parameters and returns a string, its variable type is (String, String) -> String. Note: when nothing is returned (i.e. the return type is Void), you can omit the return type (so (Int, String) -> Void is the same thing as (Int, String)).
A completion handler is a closure that you can pass to certain functions. When the function completes, it executes the closure (e.g. when a view finished animating onto the screen, when a file finished downloading, etc.).
Example:
"Done!" will be printed when the view controller is finished presenting.
let newClosure: () -> Void = { () -> Void in
print("Done!")
}
let someViewController = UIViewController(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
self.presentViewController(someViewController, animated: true, completion: newClosure)
Let's focus on the getDataFromURL function you wrote first. It takes two parameters: a variable of type NSData and a closure of type (NSData?, NSURLResponse?, NSError?) -> Void. Thus, the closure (which is named completion) takes three parameters of types NSData?, NSURLResponse?, and NSError?, and returns nothing, because this is how you defined the closure in the function declaration.
You then call getDataFromURL. If you read the documentation, you'll see that the closure you pass to this function as the second parameter is executed when the load task is complete. The function declaration for dataTaskWithURL is what defines the variable types that the closure accepts and returns. Within this closure, you are then calling the closure you passed to the getDataFromURL function.
Within this latter closure (the one you define in downloadImg when you are calling getDataFromURL), you are checking to see if the data that you downloaded is not nil, and if not, you are then setting the data as an image in a UIImageView. The dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ...) call simply ensures that you are setting the new image on the main thread, as per Apple's specifications (you can read more about threads elsewhere).

Answer 2

make an typealias to understand this is easy :
typealias Handle = (data: NSData?, response: NSURLResponse?, error: NSError?) -> Void
//the func should be
func getDataFromURL(url: NSURL, completion: Handle)
//when you call it. it needs an url and an Handle
getDataFromURL(url:NSURL, completion: Handle)
// so we pass the url and handle to it
getDataFromURL(url) { (data, response, error) in
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) { () -> Void in
guard let data = data where error == nil else {return}
self.img.image = UIImage(data: data)
}
}
//setp into the func
func getDataFromURL(url: NSURL, completion: Handle){
// call async net work by pass url
NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithURL(url) { (data, response, error) in
// now data / response / error we have and we invoke the handle
completion(data: data, response: response, error: error)
} .resume()
}
hope it be helpful :D