Swift giving Optional(3) instead of 3 for .toInt

Question

Trying to pull a number from a Field and keep getting Optional(number) instead of the number

@IBOutlet weak var years: UITextField!

@IBAction func calculateYear         


        

Answer 1

That happens because the toInt() method returns an optional, to account for the case when the string is not convertible to an integer.

Just put that in an optional binding:

if let a = a {
    println(a)
}

Answer 2

toInt() returns an optional because the conversation to an integer can fail. Consider the case where the user enters something other than a number. When the user enters "Blah", what do you expect toInt() to return?

You need to conditionally unwrap the optional

if let a = years.text.toInt() {
    println(a)
}

Answer 3

I also found forced unwrapping by changing a to a! worked as well. thanks to all who tried to help.