Dan Beaulieu在swift5中给出了答案(从swift 3.0.1开始也可以工作)。

斯威夫特5.0.1

extension DispatchQueue {

    static func background(delay: Double = 0.0, background: (()->Void)? = nil, completion: (() -> Void)? = nil) {
        DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
            background?()
            if let completion = completion {
                DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + delay, execute: {
                    completion()
                })
            }
        }
    }

}

使用

DispatchQueue.background(delay: 3.0, background: {
    // do something in background
}, completion: {
    // when background job finishes, wait 3 seconds and do something in main thread
})

DispatchQueue.background(background: {
    // do something in background
}, completion:{
    // when background job finished, do something in main thread
})

DispatchQueue.background(delay: 3.0, completion:{
    // do something in main thread after 3 seconds
})

你必须将你想要在后台运行的更改与你想要在UI上运行的更新分开:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)) {
    // do your task

    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
        // update some UI
    }
}

由于OP问题已经在上面得到了回答，我只想添加一些速度方面的考虑:

我不建议使用.background线程优先级运行任务，尤其是在iPhone X上，因为任务似乎是分配在低功耗内核上的。

下面是一个计算密集型函数的一些真实数据，该函数从XML文件中读取(带缓冲)并执行数据插值:

设备名/ .background / .utility / .default / .userInitiated / .userInteractive

iPhone X: 18.7s / 6.3s / 1.8s / 1.8s iPhone 7: 4.6s / 3.1s / 3.0s / 2.8s / 2.6s iPhone 5s: 7.3s / 6.1s / 4.0s / 4.0s / 3.8s

注意，并不是所有设备的数据集都相同。iPhone X最大，iPhone 5s最小。

快4.倍

把这些放到文件中:

func background(work: @escaping () -> ()) {
    DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async {
        work()
    }
}

func main(work: @escaping () -> ()) {
    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        work()
    }
}

然后在需要的地方调用它:

background {
     //background job
     main {
       //update UI (or what you need to do in main thread)
     }
}

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(QOS_CLASS_BACKGROUND, 0), {
    // Conversion into base64 string
    self.uploadImageString =  uploadPhotoDataJPEG.base64EncodedStringWithOptions(NSDataBase64EncodingOptions.EncodingEndLineWithCarriageReturn)
})

来自Jameson Quave的教程

斯威夫特2

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), {
    //All stuff here
})