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iOS Build a Weather App with Swift Managing Complexity Grand Central Dispatch

Marcelo Farjalla
Marcelo Farjalla
3,241 Points

How do we know if we are in a background thread vs. the main thread?

In the GCD lesson, Pasan, mentions if we are ever in a background thread but need to update the UI on the main thread we should call the GCD api. I don't really understand how to distinguish if I am in a background thread and/or when I should call that main thread api. Can someone clarify for me? Much appreciated.

Marcelo Farjalla
Marcelo Farjalla
3,241 Points

I re-watched and Pasan mentions when we return from the getForecast method we are still in the background thread but need to be on the main thread to update the UI. So... anytime I use the async closure method to get something from the server that closure is automatically in the background? Is that correct?

1 Answer

Nick Kohrn
Nick Kohrn
38,025 Points

Marcelo,

Yes, that is correct. Whenever you make a network request, Grand Central Dispatch will use a background thread to perform the task.

When you want to return to the main thread in order to update your UI, you can do so by calling this:

 dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(),{
   // Add your code to update the UI here
})