How to find index of list item in Swift?

Solution 1:

As swift is in some regards more functional than object-oriented (and Arrays are structs, not objects), use the function "find" to operate on the array, which returns an optional value, so be prepared to handle a nil value:

let arr:Array = ["a","b","c"]
find(arr, "c")!              // 2
find(arr, "d")               // nil

Use firstIndex and lastIndex - depending on whether you are looking for the first or last index of the item:

let arr = ["a","b","c","a"]

let indexOfA = arr.firstIndex(of: "a") // 0
let indexOfB = arr.lastIndex(of: "a") // 3

Solution 2:

tl;dr:

For classes, you might be looking for:

let index = someArray.firstIndex{$0 === someObject}

Full answer:

I think it's worth mentioning that with reference types (class) you might want to perform an identity comparison, in which case you just need to use the === identity operator in the predicate closure:

Swift 5, Swift 4.2:

let person1 = Person(name: "John")
let person2 = Person(name: "Sue")
let person3 = Person(name: "Maria")
let person4 = Person(name: "Loner")

let people = [person1, person2, person3]

let indexOfPerson1 = people.firstIndex{$0 === person1} // 0
let indexOfPerson2 = people.firstIndex{$0 === person2} // 1
let indexOfPerson3 = people.firstIndex{$0 === person3} // 2
let indexOfPerson4 = people.firstIndex{$0 === person4} // nil

Note that the above syntax uses trailing closures syntax, and is equivalent to:

let indexOfPerson1 = people.firstIndex(where: {$0 === person1})

Swift 4 / Swift 3 - the function used to be called index

Swift 2 - the function used to be called indexOf

* Note the relevant and useful comment by paulbailey about class types that implement Equatable, where you need to consider whether you should be comparing using === (identity operator) or == (equality operator). If you decide to match using ==, then you can simply use the method suggested by others (people.firstIndex(of: person1)).