Create multiple markers using Google iOS SDK - ios

Question

I am a newbie in Swift. I was ale to get 2 markers on Google Maps:
import UIKit
import GoogleMaps
class ViewController: UIViewController {
// You don't need to modify the default init(nibName:bundle:) method.
override func loadView() {
let camera = GMSCameraPosition.cameraWithLatitude(37.0902, longitude: -95.7129, zoom: 3.0)
let mapView = GMSMapView.mapWithFrame(CGRect.zero, camera: camera)
mapView.myLocationEnabled = true
view = mapView
let state_marker = GMSMarker()
state_marker.position = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 61.370716, longitude: -152.404419)
state_marker.title = "Alaska"
state_marker.snippet = "Hey, this is Alaska"
state_marker.map = mapView
let state_marker1 = GMSMarker()
state_marker1.position = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 32.806671, longitude: -86.791130)
state_marker1.title = "Alabama"
state_marker1.snippet = "Hey, this is Alabama"
state_marker1.map = mapView
}
}
I need to add 51 more markers to different latitude and longitude for each state with different title and snippet.
I can probably just copy this block 51 times but is there a way to optimize this code?

Answer 1

You should create a struct like this:
struct State {
let name: String
let long: CLLocationDegrees
let lat: CLLocationDegrees
}
Then create an array of this struct in your VC:
let states = [
State(name: "Alaska", long: -152.404419, lat: 61.370716),
State(name: "Alabama", long: -86.791130, lat: 32.806671),
// the other 51 states here...
]
Now you can just loop through the array, adding markers in each iteration:
for state in states {
let state_marker = GMSMarker()
state_marker.position = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: state.lat, longitude: state.long)
state_marker.title = state.name
state_marker.snippet = "Hey, this is \(state.name)"
state_marker.map = mapView
}
You might also want to add a dictionary that stores the names of the states as keys and the corresponding GMSMarker as value. This way, you can modify the markers later.
var markerDict: [String: GMSMarker] = [:]
override func loadView() {
for state in states {
let state_marker = GMSMarker()
state_marker.position = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: state.lat, longitude: state.long)
state_marker.title = state.name
state_marker.snippet = "Hey, this is \(state.name)"
state_marker.map = mapView
markerDict[state.name] = state_marker
}
}