NSFontAttributedString worked before XCode 6.1

Question

let timeFont = [NSFontAttributeName:UIFont(name: "Voyage", size: 20.0)]
var attrString3 = NSAttributedString("(Time)", attributes : timeFont); // <--- compiler error "Extra argument in call"

This code worked in xcode 6.0, but now that I've upgraded to xcode 6.1 it doesn't work anymore and I can't figure out what I need to get it back working. It says that there is an extra argument, but that's not correct. I believe that it has something to do with the new failable initializers, but everything that I've tried doesn't' work.

Answer 1

There are two reasons your code is failing to compile:

• The initializer for NSAttributedString that you want to use now requires the explicit labeling of the string parameter
• The UIFont initializer that you are using now returns an optional (i.e., UIFont?), which needs to be unwrapped before you pass it in the attributes dictionary.

Try this instead:

let font = UIFont(name: "Voyage", size: 20.0) ?? UIFont.systemFontOfSize(20.0)
let attrs = [NSFontAttributeName : font]
var attrString3 = NSAttributedString(string: "(Time)", attributes: attrs)

Note the use of the new coalescing operator ??. This unwraps the optional Voyage font, but falls back to the System Font if Voyage is unavailable (which seems to be the case in the Playground). This way, you get your attributed string regardless, even if your preferred font can't be loaded.

Answer 2

Xcode 6.1 comes with Swift 1.1 that supports constructors that can fail. UIFont initialisation can fail and return nil. Also use string: when creating NSAttributedString:

if let font = UIFont(name: "Voyage", size: 20.0) {
    let timeFont = [NSFontAttributeName:font]
    var attrString3 = NSAttributedString(string: "(Time)", attributes : timeFont)
}