I am beta-testing my first Android app, and have recently completed my second iOS app. Having taught myself how to program in both Swift and Java, I spent a lot of time lamenting the inability to easily convert code between the two. Sure, there are cross-platform solutions, but as an independent developer, I couldn’t afford to invest a ton of money in a paid system. Plus, I had already learned Swift, and this wasn’t helpful for many cross-platform solutions.
Below is a list-in-progress of concepts and objects that have parallels between the two operating systems and languages. Feel free to comment and make suggestions!
| iOS | Android |
| storyboard/nib | design/layout/xml |
| constraints | layouts |
| UIViewController | Activity/Fragment |
| UIView | View |
| UITableView | RecyclerView/LinearLayout |
| UICollectionView | RecyclerView/GridLayout |
| UIPickerView | Spinner |
| UITextView/UITextField | EditText |
| UILabel | TextView |
| UIButton | Button/ImageButton |
| UIImageView | ImageView |
| UISwitch | Switch |
| viewDidLoad() | onCreate() |
| viewWillAppear() | onResume() |
| viewWillDisappear() | onSuspend() |
| NSNotification.postNotification() | sendBroadcast() |
| NSNotification.addObserver() | BroadcastReceiver.onReceive() |
| dispatch_async() | AsyncTask() |
| Swift | Java |
| Class | Class |
| String | String |
| Int | int/Integer |
| Bool | boolean/Boolean |
| Array | ArrayList/[] — example: String[] |
| Dictionary | HashMap |
| for i in i..<count { } | for (int i=0; i<count; i++) { } |
| for item in array { } | for (String item : array) { } |
| if x == 5 | if (x == 5) |
| switch object | switch (object) |
| case: x = 4; break; |
case: x = 4 |
I hope this is helpful to some other beginning programmers! Reinventing the wheel for each device is hard enough…not even knowing what the wheel is called is even worse!
Yes, helpful!
This is very helpful article. Can I use some quotes from here in my article here: https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/how-to-convert-android-to-ios-app-or-two-apps-are-better-than-one
You are welcome to share! Please link back to my blog. Thanks!
Thanks
I have recently written and published an iPhone app on the iPhone store for my restaurant SiamCottage and now I am learning how to use the Android IDE to write the equivalent app.
And so your list of terms will be really useful to keep next to me while going through the online course.
Thanks
Thanks, James! I’m glad the list was useful for you. I followed a similar path, and I wished someone had created such a list…