Creating title from first line of UITextView (Think Apple Notes app) Swift

Question

I'm trying to set the title of my notes using the first line out of a UITextView. Only the last section of my code isn't working.

(If you're wondering why I'm using an "else" in addition to the 30 character statement it's because if I don't put in a note with at least 30 characters there's an error)

 override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
        detailItem!.noteText = self.textView.text


        if !self.textView.text.isEmpty {
            var textViewString:String = self.textView.text

            if let range = self.textView.text.rangeOfString("\n") {
                let rangeOfString = self.textView.text.startIndex ..< range.endIndex
                let firstLine = self.textView.text.substringWithRange(rangeOfString)

                detailItem?.noteTitle = firstLine
            } else {
                // take up to the first 30 characters as the title
                let length = count(self.textView.text)
                if length > 30 {
                    let firstLine = (textView.text as NSString).substringFromIndex(30)
                    detailItem?.noteTitle = firstLine
                } else {
                    let firstLine = (textView.text as NSString).substringFromIndex(length)
                    detailItem?.noteTitle = firstLine
                }
            }
        }

So the code that doesn't work is this last part:

                    } else {
                        let firstLine = (textView.text as NSString).substringFromIndex(length)
                        detailItem?.noteTitle = firstLine
                    }

Questions:

1) What is the difference between a plain old int and a variable that's an int?

2) What is a work around to achieve the same result if my method is impossible?

Answer 1

Use .substringToIndex( ) instead of .substringFromIndex( ), and you will then get the right result.

Answer 2

I had the same problem and I found this way that works really well. You have the explanation in the code comments:

//If it's empty will return this values

    if self.txtText.text.isEmpty {

        title = "(Empty Note)"
        texto = "(Empty Note)"
    }

    //If it's not...
    else
    {
        //We provide the value "\n" to say which will be te last character
        let till: Character = "\n"
        if let idx = texto.characters.indexOf(till) {

        //Get the position of this character
            let pos = texto.startIndex.distanceTo(idx)

        //Substract 1 to not add the \n to the title
            firstLine = (txtText.text as NSString).substringToIndex(pos-1)
        }
        else {

            //If it's longer than 30 chars, get 30
            if texto.characters.count >= 30{
                firstLine = (txtText.text as NSString).substringToIndex(30)
            }

            //If it's shorter, count the chars and get till the last of this line
            else{
                firstLine = (txtText.text as NSString).substringToIndex(texto.characters.count)
            }
        }
        title = firstLine
    }