distance(from:to:)' is unavailable: Any String view index conversion can fail in Swift 4; please unwrap the optional indices

Question

I was trying to migrate my app to Swift 4, Xcode 9. I get this error. Its coming from a 3rd party framework.

distance(from:to:)\' is unavailable: Any

Answer 1

The error says that the distances you are generating are optionals and need to be unwrapped. Try this:

func nsRange(from range: Range) -> NSRange {
    let utf16view = self.utf16
    guard let lowerBound = utf16view.distance(from: utf16view.startIndex, to: from), let upperBound = utf16view.distance(from: from, to: to) else { return NSMakeRange(0, 0) }
    return NSMakeRange(lowerBound, upperBound)
}

However the return could be handled better in the guard statement. I'd recommend making the return type of the function NSRange? and checking for nil wherever you call the function to avoid inaccurate values being returned.