Wait until swift for loop with asynchronous networ

Question

I would like a for in loop to send off a bunch of network requests to firebase, then pass the data to a new view controller once the the method finishes executing. Here is my code:

    var datesArray = [String: AnyObject]()

        for key in locationsArray {       
            let ref = Firebase(url: "http://myfirebase.com/" + "\(key.0)")
            ref.observeSingleEventOfType(.Value, withBlock: { snapshot in

                datesArray["\(key.0)"] = snapshot.value

            })
        }

        //Segue to new view controller here, and pass datesArray once it is complete 

I have a couple concerns. First, how do I wait until the for loop is finished and all the network requests are complete? I can't modify the observeSingleEventOfType function, it is part of the firebase SDK. Also, will I create some sort of race condition by trying to access the datesArray from different iterations of the for loop (hope that makes sense)? I've been reading about GCD and NSOperation but I'm a bit lost as this is the first app I've built.

Note: Locations array is an array containing the keys I need to access in firebase. Also, it's important that the network requests are fired off asynchronously. I just want to wait until ALL the asynchronous requests complete before I pass the datesArray to the next view controller.

Answer 1

Dispatch group is good but the order of sent requests is random.

Finished request 1
Finished request 0
Finished request 2

In my project case, each requests needed to be launch is the right order. If this could help someone :

public class RequestItem: NSObject {
    public var urlToCall: String = ""
    public var method: HTTPMethod = .get
    public var params: [String: String] = [:]
    public var headers: [String: String] = [:]
}


public func trySendRequestsNotSent (trySendRequestsNotSentCompletionHandler: @escaping ([Error]) -> () = { _ in }) {

    // If there is requests
    if !requestItemsToSend.isEmpty {
        let requestItemsToSendCopy = requestItemsToSend

        NSLog("Send list started")
        launchRequestsInOrder(requestItemsToSendCopy, 0, [], launchRequestsInOrderCompletionBlock: { index, errors in
            trySendRequestsNotSentCompletionHandler(errors)
        })
    }
    else {
        trySendRequestsNotSentCompletionHandler([])
    }
}

private func launchRequestsInOrder (_ requestItemsToSend: [RequestItem], _ index: Int, _ errors: [Error], launchRequestsInOrderCompletionBlock: @escaping (_ index: Int, _ errors: [Error] ) -> Void) {

    executeRequest(requestItemsToSend, index, errors, executeRequestCompletionBlock: { currentIndex, errors in
        if currentIndex < requestItemsToSend.count {
            // We didn't reach last request, launch next request
            self.launchRequestsInOrder(requestItemsToSend, currentIndex, errors, launchRequestsInOrderCompletionBlock: { index, errors in

                launchRequestsInOrderCompletionBlock(currentIndex, errors)
            })
        }
        else {
            // We parse and send all requests
            NSLog("Send list finished")
            launchRequestsInOrderCompletionBlock(currentIndex, errors)
        }
    })
}

private func executeRequest (_ requestItemsToSend: [RequestItem], _ index: Int, _ errors: [Error], executeRequestCompletionBlock: @escaping (_ index: Int, _ errors: [Error]) -> Void) {
    NSLog("Send request %d", index)
    Alamofire.request(requestItemsToSend[index].urlToCall, method: requestItemsToSend[index].method, parameters: requestItemsToSend[index].params, headers: requestItemsToSend[index].headers).responseJSON { response in

        var errors: [Error] = errors
        switch response.result {
        case .success:
            // Request sended successfully, we can remove it from not sended request array
            self.requestItemsToSend.remove(at: index)
            break
        case .failure:
            // Still not send we append arror
            errors.append(response.result.error!)
            break
        }
        NSLog("Receive request %d", index)
        executeRequestCompletionBlock(index+1, errors)
    }
}

Call :

trySendRequestsNotSent()

Result :

Send list started
Send request 0
Receive request 0
Send request 1
Receive request 1
Send request 2
Receive request 2
...
Send list finished

See for more infos : Gist