New Features in Swift 2.2

Swift 2.2 brings new syntax, new features, and some deprecations too. It is an interim release before Swift 3 comes later this year with even bigger changes, and the changes in Swift 2.2 align with the broader goals of Swift 3 to focus on gradually stabilizing the core language and Standard Library by adding missing features, refining what is already there, and removing what is no longer needed in the language. All changes in Swift 2.2 went through the community-driven Swift evolution process — where over 30 proposals have been submitted, reviewed, and accepted since Swift was open-sourced a few months ago.

→ swift.org/blog/swift-2.2-new-features/

Swift 2.2 adds features such as compile-time version checks with #if swift(>=3.0), checked selectors using #selector to avoid runtime errors, built-in tuple comparisons up to six elements, and allows most keywords as argument labels without backticks.

It deprecates C-style for loops, ++ and -- operators, var parameters in functions, tuple splat syntax, and old debug identifiers like FILE, replacing them with modern alternatives like ranges, +=1, and #file.

These changes aim to stabilise the language before Swift 3, with all updates going through community proposals, and Xcode offers Fix-its to help migrate code.