memory management - Is it necessary to use autoreleasepool in a Swift program?

Question

On page 17 of this WWDC14 presentation, it says

Working with Objective-C? Still have to manage autorelease pools
autoreleasepool { /* code */ }

What does that mean? Does it mean that if my code base doesn't have any Objective-C files, autoreleasepool {} is unnecessary?

In an answer of a related question, there is an example where autoreleasepool can be useful:

- (void)useALoadOfNumbers {
    for (int j = 0; j < 10000; ++j) {
        @autoreleasepool {
            for (int i = 0; i < 10000; ++i) {
                NSNumber *number = [NSNumber numberWithInt:(i+j)];
                NSLog(@"number = %p", number);
            }
        }
    }
}

If the code above gets translated into Swift with autoreleasepool dropped, will Swift be smart enough to know that the number variable should be released after the first } (like some other languages does)?

Answer 1

The autoreleasepool pattern is used in Swift when returning autorelease objects (created by either your Objective-C code or using Cocoa classes). The autorelease pattern in Swift functions much like it does in Objective-C. For example, consider this Swift rendition of your method (instantiating NSImage/UIImage objects):

func useManyImages() {
    let filename = pathForResourceInBundle
    
    for _ in 0 ..< 5 {
        autoreleasepool {
            for _ in 0 ..< 1000 {
                let image = NSImage(contentsOfFile: filename)
            }
        }
    }
}

If you run this in Instruments, you'll see an allocations graph with 5 small hills (because outer for-loop), like the following:

But if you do it without the autorelease pool, you'll see that peak memory usage is higher:

The autoreleasepool allows you to explicitly manage when autorelease objects are deallocated in Swift, just like you were able to in Objective-C.

Note: When dealing with Swift native objects, you generally will not receive autorelease objects. This is why the presentation mentioned the caveat about only needing this when "working with Objective-C", though I wish Apple was more clear on this point. But if you're dealing with Objective-C objects (including Cocoa classes), they may be autorelease objects, in which case this Swift rendition of the Objective-C @autoreleasepool pattern is still useful.