How do I receive the current value of a slider in code?

Question

I am (attempting) developing my first application in Xcode using cocoa framework.

I have a slider which min value is 10 and max is 50. This is to select max search results.

I have linked a label on my user interface to display the value of the slider and when it is moved, it updates the label on the user interface.
However, I am trying to join around 4 strings to create my final URL one of them is the value of said label.

I am trying to read the value of the label on the interface for use in creating the finished URL

NSString *startofURL = @"http://starturl.com/?q=";  
NSString *searchTerm = whatToSearch;  
NSString *middleofURL = "&max-results=";  
NSString *resultsStr = labelMaxResults.stringValue;    //Problem here ??  

I have 2 questions; firstly, How do I go about retrieving the value of my slider via code instead of trying to get it from the linked label, as I think this is my problem.

secondly, I have read up on joining and appending strings, however I am a little confused on which is the best method to use in order to join up the 4 strings into one long URL.

Answer 1

    NSSlider * slider = [[NSSlider alloc] init];
    [slider setMinValue:50];
    [slider setMaxValue:150];
    int sliderValue = [slider intValue];

this doesn't put your slider on screen, but assume you made it in IB, ignore the first line, you can set your min max and get the value. you can make an action like

-(IBAction)sliderMoved:(id)sender

then bind that to the slider, if you set the slider to continuous you will get updates every time that it moves other wise just when you let go of the slider

-(IBAction)sliderMoved:(id)sender
{
    sliderValue = [slider intValue];
    [self doSomethingElseNow];
}