Throttle

• Simply put, it means to execute your block/operation/task once in a period of time (for instance once every 10 seconds).

                Without Throttle                                             With Throttle

In effect, there is a hodgepodge of different patterns you can use to execute your function for once like:

• dispatch_once
• Throttle

dispatch_once

dispatch_once is one of the solutions that you can use when you have more than one thread kicks off its function at the same time. so in order to solve the repetition that could occur you can use dispatch_once. Now you're waiting for the dispatch_once code. Unfortunately it's deprecated, but likely you can use lazy var instead.

lazy var or nominally dispatch_once used to execute your operation once.

The lazy initializer for a global variable (also for static members of structs and enums) is run the first time that global is accessed, and is launched as dispatch_once to make sure that the initialization is atomic. This enables a cool way to use dispatch_once in your code: just declare a global variable with an initializer and mark it private.

From here

How it works

The initial setup phase wrapped in the dispatch_once block. So when the second thread starts, it reaches the dispatch_once block and it's prevented from continuing because that section of code is currently running, It just like let dispatch block's thread 2 until dispatch_once has been completed in thread 1. When thread 3 comes along, it too blocks until the thread one has completed the dispatch_once block. Once the dispatch_once block has completed, then all three threads able to continue with the reminder of the function.

How to create it

lazy var showOnce: Void = {
   return setupNotificationMessage()
}()

Usage

@objc func handleCheckOut() {
   return showOnce
}

Note

• In that window of time your app is running, the function will be executed for once. So it's not the best option to use for user experience design.
• If you're looking for getting your user experience design stable and better, you can use Throttle.

Throttle

• To throttle a function means to ensure the function is called at most once in a specified time period.

A simple way of creating throttle

 class Throttle {

 var workItem = DispatchWorkItem(block: {})

 func throttle(_ block: @escaping ()->()) {

 // Cancel any operation comes along, and initializes the workItem to execute the block of code after two seconds.
 workItem.cancel()
 workItem = DispatchWorkItem {
   block()
 }
      
 // After two seconds we'll start executing the workItem.
 DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: DispatchTime.now() + 2, execute: workItem)
 }
}

Usage

var throttler = Throttle()
@objc func handleCheckOut() {
    throttler.throttle({ [weak self] in
        self?.setupNotificationMessage()
    })
}

• Check out the annotation of throttle function to manage to grasp the main points better.

Requirements

This project requires:

• Xcode 11+
• iOS 13+