Swift 3 - Send make synchronous http request

There is always a way to use the asynchronous pattern.

To make the function asynchronous add a completion block

func completeLoadAction(urlString:String, completion: (Int) -> ()) {
   let url = URL(string:urlString.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces))
   let request = URLRequest(url: url!)
   let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in
      guard let data = data, error == nil else {                                                 // check for fundamental networking error
         print("error=\(error)")
         DispatchQueue.main.async {
            let ac = UIAlertController(title: "Unable to complete", message: "The load has been added to the completion queue. This will be processed once there is a connection.", preferredStyle: .alert)
            ac.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "OK", style: .default))
            self.present(ac, animated:  true)
         }
         completion(0) // or return an error code 
         return     
      }

      let httpStatus = response as? HTTPURLResponse
      var httpStatusCode:Int = (httpStatus?.statusCode)!

      let responseString = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
      print("responseString = \(responseString)")
      DispatchQueue.main.async {
         let ac = UIAlertController(title: "Completed Successfully", message: "The "+coldel+" has been completed successfully", preferredStyle: .alert)
         ac.addAction(UIAlertAction(title:"Continue", style: .default, handler:  { action in self.performSegue(withIdentifier: "segueConfirmedLoad", sender: self) }))
         self.present(ac, animated: true)
      }
      completion(httpStatusCode)
   }
   task.resume()

}

and call it thusly

completeLoadAction(urlString: "www.something.com") { code in
   print(code)
}

To make it synchronous and wait you can use semaphores such as below

struct Login {

    static func execute() -> Bool {
        let request = NSURLRequest....

        var success = false
        let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0)
        let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request, completionHandler: { _, response, error in
            if let error = error {
                print("Error while trying to re-authenticate the user: \(error)")
            } else if let response = response as? HTTPURLResponse,
                300..<600 ~= response.statusCode {
                    print("Error while trying to re-authenticate the user, statusCode: \(response.statusCode)")
            } else {
                success = true
            }
            semaphore.signal()
        }) 

        task.resume()
        _ = semaphore.wait(timeout: DispatchTime.distantFuture)
        return success
    }
}