What is the difference between List and ForEach in SwiftUI?

Question

I know SwiftUI does not support currently regular for loops but instead provide something called ForEach but what is the difference between that and a List?

Answer 1

• ForEach is a view that lets you pass a collection of data to its initializer and then creates multiple "subviews" from the closure you provide. It doesn't have any semantics on how the views will be arranged.

  Example:

    ForEach(1..<5) { row in       Text("Row \(row)")   } 

  will create the equivalent off

    Text("Row 1")   Text("Row 2")   Text("Row 3")   Text("Row 4") 

  wrapped in a single container view.

• List is a view that can compose multiple views together, but not necessarily views of the same type. You can simply add multiple views without any loop.

  Example 1:

    List {       Image("avatar")       Text("Title")       Button(action: {           print("Button tapped!")       }) {           Text("Energize!")       }   } 

  As a convenience, the List initializer allows you to use it just like the ForEach view in case you want to have a list consisting of a single cell type only.
  

  Example 2:

    List(1..<5) { row in       Text("Row \(row)")   } 

  A list has a special appearance, depending on the platform. For example, on iOS a list will appear as a table view and insert separator lines between its vertically stacked views.

  You can use ForEach views inside List views to have both dynamic and static content – a very powerful feature of SwiftUI.
  
  

  Example 3:

    List {       Text("Food")       ForEach(meals) { meal in           Text(meal.name)       }       Text("Drinks")       ForEach(drinks) { drink in           Text(drink.name)       }   }