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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-07T13:28:51+00:00

Is there any advantages in performance that depend on what numbers you use as

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Is there any advantages in performance that depend on what numbers you use as tags?

I have 4 sets of objects that I am labeling with tags. Is there any reason not to skip numbers? Ie, could I have the first set run from 0 to 99, the second from 1000 – 1099, the third from 2000 – 2099, and the fourth from 100,000 to 100,099?

Note that I’m not actually using nearly this many objects in my code. So I’m not asking about performance issues with having this many objects. I just want to know if its bad to skip tags. It helps me organize my code and my thoughts. Anyone know how the tags are stored?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Tags are stored as integers. Integers on iOS as stored using 4 bytes. Comparing them to another integer value takes the exact same time no matter which value you are using.

    That said, there may however be internal optimizing in place for storing the view-hierachy. Just as an example, Apple may chose to use some kind of tree structure for mapping tags to views. That part I can not answer as those things are internal to Apple’s developers.

    You have two options;

    1. Measure yourself (using Instruments).
    2. Do not worry as the
      impact will be close to invisible no matter what.
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