Using the Swift standard library

Users often treat a standard library as part of the language. In reality, philosophies on standard library design very widely, often with opposing views. For example, the C and C++ standard libraries are relatively small, containing only the functionality that every developer might reasonably require to develop an application. Conversely, languages such as Python, Java, and .NET have large standard libraries that include features, that tend to be separate in other languages, such as XML, JSON, localization, and e-mail processing.

In the Swift programming language, the Swift standard library is separate from the language itself, and is a collection of classes, structures, enumerations, functions, and protocols, which are written in the core language. The Swift standard library is currently very small, even compared to C and C++. It provides a base layer of functionality through a series of generic structures and enums, which also adopt various protocols...