Unrecognized selector error for isEqualToString: when setting text of a label

Question

I am trying to set the text of a label from one of the properties of my model object (searchRecipeDetailsVariable), but I get an error

//Extract number of servings from dictionary and place in model
self.searchedRecipeDetailsVariable.numberOfServings = [self.detailedSearchYummlyRecipeResults objectForKey: @"numberOfServings"];
//log number of servings to check that it works
NSLog(@"Number of Servings, %@",self.searchedRecipeDetailsVariable.numberOfServings);
self.numberOfServingsLabel.text = self.searchedRecipeDetailsVariable.numberOfServings;

When I print the value, I can see the number correctly. However, when I attempt to set numberOfServingsLabel.text I receive the error:

-[__NSCFNumber isEqualToString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x9028390

As you can imagine, I am not too sure why. I have tried setting the text directly with a string, like below and this works.

self.numberOfServingsLabel.text = @"500";

Then to test I actually did have a string I tried the below. This works fine.

NSString *test = self.searchedRecipeDetailsVariable.numberOfServings;
NSLog(@"test numberof servings string, %@", test);

When I hover over test, I printed the description. I don't know if it will be useful but it was:

Printing description of test: 2

When I hover over it, it does say it is an NSString * and at the end it has (int)2. Not to sure what that means.

Answer 1

-[__NSCFNumber isEqualToString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x9028390

Just like in any other case, the error message is a meaningful English sentence describing the problem. It tells you that self.searchedRecipeDetailsVariable.numberOfServings is an NSNumber. No matter you declared it as an NSString, since Objective-C is dynamically typed (the compile-time type declaration for an object is just for giving hints to the compiler, it may have nothing to do with reality).

You need to convert it to a string, perhaps using NSNumberFormatter (the proper way), or getting its description (that's not recommended, the description is never to be relied upon), etc. For example:

NSString *test = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d",
    self.searchedRecipeDetailsVariable.numberOfServings.intValue];