.firstIndex()

The .firstIndex() method in Swift returns the index of the first element in an array that fulfills a specified condition. If no element satisfies the condition, it returns nil.

Syntax

arrayName.firstIndex{ condition }

The .firstIndex() method takes a single parameter, which is a closure representing the condition that an element must satisfy. The closure returns a boolean value indicating whether a particular element meets the condition.

Example

Consider an array of integers representing the temperatures in Celsius:

let temperatures = [23, 18, 25, 20, 22, 21]

The .firstIndex() method is used below to find the index of the first temperature that exceeds a certain threshold, such as 25 degrees:

let threshold = 25

if let index = temperatures.firstIndex(where: { $0 > threshold }) {
    print("The first temperature exceeding \(threshold) degrees is at index \(index).")
} else {
    print("No temperature exceeds \(threshold) degrees.")
}

The output will be:

No temperature exceeds 25 degrees.

In this case, there are no temperatures that exceed 25. So, the else message is printed.

The .firstIndex() method returns an optional value, so optional binding (if let) is used to safely unwrap the result.

Note: The .firstIndex() method is available in Swift 4.2 and later versions.