What is Xcode doing when it is Indexing?

Question

I understand the principle of indexing in general. I would like to understand in more detail what aspects of the project Xcode is indexing, what functionality would be affected if it were turned off and what events trigger it to load/reload indexes.

Answer 1

Indexing in Xcode helps to

• speed up searching within project,
• autocompletion (if you for example add a method to your class, it helps you to use it in other part of your project in seconds without remembering its full name etc.),
• suggestions

Trigger events are for example:

• creating your own class
• implementation of a framework
• importing a module
• connecting a segue
• outlet connection with a view controller

It also depends on specific situation.

If you clean your project / build folder, it can reindex the project.

Answer 2

You will lose features such as

1. Autocomplete
2. Ability to quickly jump to definition
3. Get class and method help by alt clicking.

So, its recommended that let indexing get complete, so you could work smoothly in above areas.

Thanks.