[swift] How do I dispatch_sync, dispatch_async, dispatch_after, etc in Swift 3, Swift 4, and beyond?

I have lots of code in Swift 2.x (or even 1.x) projects that looks like this:

// Move to a background thread to do some long running work
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)) {
    let image = self.loadOrGenerateAnImage()
    // Bounce back to the main thread to update the UI
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
        self.imageView.image = image
    }
}

Or stuff like this to delay execution:

dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, Int64(0.5 * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC))), dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
    print("test")
}

Or any of all kinds of other uses of the Grand Central Dispatch API...

Now that I've opened my project in Xcode 8 (beta) for Swift 3, I get all kinds of errors. Some of them offer to fix my code, but not all of the fixes produce working code. What do I do about this?

Swift 5.2, 4 and later

Main and Background Queues

let main = DispatchQueue.main
let background = DispatchQueue.global()
let helper = DispatchQueue(label: "another_thread") 

Working with async and sync threads!

 background.async { //async tasks here } 
 background.sync { //sync tasks here } 

Async threads will work along with the main thread.

Sync threads will block the main thread while executing.

This one is good example for Swift 4 about async:

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
    // Background Thread
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        // Run UI Updates or call completion block
    }
}

in Xcode 8 use:

DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async { }

In Xcode 8 beta 4 does not work...

Use:

DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 0.5) {
    print("Are we there yet?")
}

for async two ways:

DispatchQueue.main.async {
    print("Async1")
}

DispatchQueue.main.async( execute: {
    print("Async2")
})

Swift 4.1 and 5. We use queues in many places in our code. So, I created Threads class with all queues. If you don't want to use Threads class you can copy the desired queue code from class methods.

class Threads {

  static let concurrentQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "AppNameConcurrentQueue", attributes: .concurrent)
  static let serialQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "AppNameSerialQueue")

  // Main Queue
  class func performTaskInMainQueue(task: @escaping ()->()) {
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
      task()
    }
  }

  // Background Queue
  class func performTaskInBackground(task:@escaping () throws -> ()) {
    DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
      do {
        try task()
      } catch let error as NSError {
        print("error in background thread:\(error.localizedDescription)")
      }
    }
  }

  // Concurrent Queue
  class func perfromTaskInConcurrentQueue(task:@escaping () throws -> ()) {
    concurrentQueue.async {
      do {
        try task()
      } catch let error as NSError {
        print("error in Concurrent Queue:\(error.localizedDescription)")
      }
    }
  }

  // Serial Queue
  class func perfromTaskInSerialQueue(task:@escaping () throws -> ()) {
    serialQueue.async {
      do {
        try task()
      } catch let error as NSError {
        print("error in Serial Queue:\(error.localizedDescription)")
      }
    }
  }

  // Perform task afterDelay
  class func performTaskAfterDealy(_ timeInteval: TimeInterval, _ task:@escaping () -> ()) {
    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: (.now() + timeInteval)) {
      task()
    }
  }
}

Example showing the use of main queue.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
     Threads.performTaskInMainQueue {
        //Update UI
    }
}