add Shadow on UIView using swift 3

Very simple and few lines of code:

let viewShadow = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 200))
viewShadow.center = self.view.center
viewShadow.backgroundColor = UIColor.yellow
viewShadow.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.red.cgColor
viewShadow.layer.shadowOpacity = 1
viewShadow.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize.zero
viewShadow.layer.shadowRadius = 5
self.view.addSubview(viewShadow)

Look like :

This works for me (Swift 3 and 4)

yourView.layer.shadowColor = UIColor.gray.cgColor
yourView.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.3
yourView.layer.shadowOffset = CGSize.zero
yourView.layer.shadowRadius = 6

Shadow using UIView Extension Swift 4

I would like to add one more line with selected answer! When we rasterizing the layer, It needs to be set to 2.0 for retina displays. Otherwise label text or images on that view will be blurry. So we need to add rasterizationScale also.

  extension UIView {

    func dropShadow() {
        layer.masksToBounds = false
        layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
        layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5
        layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: -1, height: 1)
        layer.shadowRadius = 1
        layer.shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: self.bounds).cgPath
        layer.shouldRasterize = true
        layer.rasterizationScale = UIScreen.main.scale
    }
}

CODE SNIPPET:

extension UIView {

  // OUTPUT 1
  func dropShadow(scale: Bool = true) {
    layer.masksToBounds = false
    layer.shadowColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
    layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5
    layer.shadowOffset = CGSize(width: -1, height: 1)
    layer.shadowRadius = 1

    layer.shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: bounds).cgPath
    layer.shouldRasterize = true
    layer.rasterizationScale = scale ? UIScreen.main.scale : 1
  }

  // OUTPUT 2
  func dropShadow(color: UIColor, opacity: Float = 0.5, offSet: CGSize, radius: CGFloat = 1, scale: Bool = true) {
    layer.masksToBounds = false
    layer.shadowColor = color.cgColor
    layer.shadowOpacity = opacity
    layer.shadowOffset = offSet
    layer.shadowRadius = radius

    layer.shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: self.bounds).cgPath
    layer.shouldRasterize = true
    layer.rasterizationScale = scale ? UIScreen.main.scale : 1
  }
}

NOTE: If you don't pass any parameter to that function, then the scale argument will be true by default. You can define a default value for any parameter in a function by assigning a value to the parameter after that parameter’s type. If a default value is defined, you can omit that parameter when calling the function.

OUTPUT 1:

shadowView.dropShadow()

OUTPUT 2:

shadowView.dropShadow(color: .red, opacity: 1, offSet: CGSize(width: -1, height: 1), radius: 3, scale: true)

layer.shouldRasterize = true will make the shadow static and cause a shadow for the initial state of the UIView. So I would recommend not to use layer.shouldRasterize = true in dynamic layouts like view inside a UITableViewCell.