Swift Playground - Files are not readable

Question

Files are not readable in Swift Playground.

How to make files readable?

Same code runs well on Xcode terminal app, but fails on Swift Playg

Answer 1

There are several ways to do load files into a Swift Playground. I'll highlight the Image Literal, File Menu and Context Menu techniques.

Image Literal technique

This is the easiest and COOLEST. You simply drag a file from anywhere on your machine into the code and assign it via a let or var statement. GIF here.

File Menu technique

Choose File -> Add Files to "MyProjectName"

See GIF of this here.

Context Menu technique

You can reveal the current playground in the Xcode (7.3.1) Project Navigator using the right-click menu. Upon revealing the current playground, you'll see a directory entitled Resources. Simply drag the file you want access to into that folder and watch the magic happen (given you've written the file access code).

Example resource loading code

Here's an example of doing this for showing an image:

let url: NSURL! = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("IMG_4099", withExtension: "JPG")
let imagePath = url.path
let image = UIImage(contentsOfFile: imagePath!)
let imageView = UIImageView.init(image: image)

I've produced an animated GIF that demonstrates this in action. Here's a screengrab from that:

Reading external code

If you want to add auxiliary code in addition to resources, use the Sources folder.

A note regarding the console

The console area of Xcode's Playground interface will show you that the UIImage instance is nil when you load an image file outside the sandbox. If you entered a path you know exists, but the image isn't showing, ensure the UIImage instance isn't printing as nil.