[string] Convert String to Float in Swift

I'm trying to convert numbers taken from a UITextField, which I presume, are actually Strings, and convert them to Float, so I can multiply them.

I have two UITextfields which are declared as follows:

@IBOutlet var wage: UITextField
@IBOutlet var hour: UITextField

When the user presses a UIButton I want to calculate the wages the user earns, but I can't, as I need to convert them to floats first, before I can use them.

I know how to convert them to an integer by doing this:

var wageConversion:Int = 0
wageConversion = wage.text.toInt()!

However, I have no idea how to convert them to floats.

you can use,

let wg = Float(wage.text!)

If you want to round the float to 2 decimal places:

let wg = Float(String(format: "%.2f",wage.text!)

Double() builds an Double from an Int, like this:

var convertedDouble = Double(someInt)

Note that this will only work if your text actually contains a number. Since Wage is a text field, the user can enter whatever they want and this will trigger a runtime error when you go to unbox the Optional returned from toInt(). You should check that the conversion succeeded before forcing the unboxing.

if let wageInt = Wage.text?.toInt() {
    //we made it in the if so the conversion succeeded.
    var wageConversionDouble = Double(wageInt)
}

Edit:

If you're sure the text will be an integer, you can do something like this (note that text on UITextField is also Optional)):

if let wageText = Wage.text {
    var wageFloat = Double(wageText.toInt()!)
}

Using the accepted solution, I was finding that my "1.1" (when using the .floatValue conversion) would get converted to 1.10000002384186, which was not what I wanted. However, if I used the .doubleValue instead, I would get the 1.1 that I wanted.

So for example, instead of using the accepted solution, I used this instead:

var WageConversion = (Wage.text as NSString).doubleValue

In my case I did not need double-precision, but using the .floatValue was not giving me the proper result.

Just wanted to add this to the discussion in case someone else had been running into the same issue.

I convert String to Float in this way:

let numberFormatter = NSNumberFormatter()
let number = numberFormatter.numberFromString("15.5")
let numberFloatValue = number.floatValue

println("number is \(numberFloatValue)") // prints "number is 15.5"

extension String {    
    func floatValue() -> Float? {
        return Float(self)
    }
}

Easy way:

// toInt returns optional that's why we used a:Int?
let a:Int? = firstText.text.toInt()
let b:Int? = secondText.text.toInt()

// check a and b before unwrapping using !
if a && b {
    var ans = a! + b!
    answerLabel.text = "Answer is \(ans)"
} else {
    answerLabel.text = "Input values are not numberic"
}

you can use same approach for other calculations, hope this help !!

I found another way to take a input value of a UITextField and cast it to a float:

    var tempString:String?
    var myFloat:Float?

    @IBAction func ButtonWasClicked(_ sender: Any) {
       tempString = myUITextField.text
       myFloat = Float(tempString!)!
    }

to convert string to Float in Xcode 11 as previous methods need modification

func stringToFloat(value : String) -> Float {
    let numberFormatter = NumberFormatter()
    let number = numberFormatter.number(from: value)
    let numberFloatValue = number?.floatValue
    return numberFloatValue!
}

Update

The accepted answer shows a more up to date way of doing

Swift 1

This is how Paul Hegarty has shown on Stanford's CS193p class in 2015:

wageConversion = NSNumberFormatter().numberFromString(wage.text!)!.floatValue

You can even create a computed property for not having to do that every time

var wageValue: Float {
        get {
            return NSNumberFormatter().numberFromString(wage.text!)!.floatValue
        }
        set {
            wage.text = "\(newValue)"
        }
    }

Here is a Swift 3 adaptation of Paul Hegarty's solution from rdprado's answer, with some checking for optionals added to it (returning 0.0 if any part of the process fails):

var wageFloat:Float = 0.0

if let wageText = wage.text {
    if let wageNumber = NumberFormatter().number(from: wageText) {
        wageFloat = wageNumber.floatValue
    }
}

By the way, I took Stanford's CS193p class using iTunes University when it was still teaching Objective-C.

I found Paul Hegarty to be a FANTASTIC instructor, and I would highly recommend the class to anyone starting out as an iOS developer in Swift!!!

This is how I approached it. I did not want to "cross the bridge", as it has been removed from Xcode 6 beta 5 anyway, quick and dirty:

extension String {

    // converting a string to double
    func toDouble() -> Double? {

        // split the string into components
        var comps = self.componentsSeparatedByString(".")

        // we have nothing
        if comps.count == 0 {
            return nil
        }
        // if there is more than one decimal
        else if comps.count > 2 {
            return nil
        }
        else if comps[0] == "" || comps[1] == "" {
            return nil
        }

        // grab the whole portion
        var whole = 0.0
        // ensure we have a number for the whole
        if let w = comps[0].toInt() {
            whole = Double(w)
        }
        else {
            return nil
        }

        // we only got the whole
        if comps.count == 1 {

            return whole

        }

        // grab the fractional
        var fractional = 0.0
        // ensure we have a number for the fractional
        if let f = comps[1].toInt() {

            // use number of digits to get the power
            var toThePower = Double(countElements(comps[1]))

            // compute the fractional portion
            fractional = Double(f) / pow(10.0, toThePower)

        }
        else {
            return nil
        }

        // return the result
        return whole + fractional
    }

    // converting a string to float
    func toFloat() -> Float? {

        if let val = self.toDouble() {
            return Float(val)
        }
        else {
            return nil
        }

    }

}


// test it out
var str = "78.001"

if let val = str.toFloat() {
    println("Str in float: \(val)")
}
else {
    println("Unable to convert Str to float")
}

// now in double
if let val = str.toDouble() {
    println("Str in double: \(val)")
}
else {
    println("Unable to convert Str to double")
}

In swift 4

let Totalname = "10.0" //Now it is in string

let floatVal  = (Totalname as NSString).floatValue //Now converted to float

Swift 4/5, use just Float(value).

let string_value : String = "123200"

let float_value : Float = Float(string_value)

print(float_value)

Answer: 123200

import Foundation
"-23.67".floatValue // => -23.67

let s = "-23.67" as NSString
s.floatValue // => -23.67

Because in some parts of the world, for example, a comma is used instead of a decimal. It is best to create a NSNumberFormatter to convert a string to float.

let numberFormatter = NSNumberFormatter()
numberFormatter.numberStyle = NSNumberFormatterStyle.DecimalStyle
let number = numberFormatter.numberFromString(self.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(Wage.text))

Use this:

 // get the values from text boxes
    let a:Double = firstText.text.bridgeToObjectiveC().doubleValue
    let b:Double = secondText.text.bridgeToObjectiveC().doubleValue

//  we checking against 0.0, because above function return 0.0 if it gets failed to convert
    if (a != 0.0) && (b != 0.0) {
        var ans = a + b
        answerLabel.text = "Answer is \(ans)"
    } else {
        answerLabel.text = "Input values are not numberic"
    }

For the sake of completeness this is a solution using an extension of UITextField which can also consider a different locale.

For Swift 3+

extension UITextField {
    func floatValue(locale : Locale = Locale.current) -> Float {
        let numberFormatter = NumberFormatter()
        numberFormatter.numberStyle = .decimal
        numberFormatter.locale = locale

        let nsNumber = numberFormatter.number(from: text!)
        return nsNumber == nil ? 0.0 : nsNumber!.floatValue
    }
}

You have two options which are quite similar (by the approach and result):

// option 1:
var string_1 : String = "100"
var double_1 : Double = (string_1 as NSString).doubleValue + 99.0

// option 2: 
var string_2 : NSString = "100"
// or:  var string_2 = "100" as NSString
var number_2 : Double = string_2.doubleValue;

Works on Swift 5+

import Foundation

let myString:String = "50"
let temp = myString as NSString
let myFloat = temp.floatValue
print(myFloat)  //50.0
print(type(of: myFloat)) // Float

// Also you can guard your value in order to check what is happening whenever your app crashes.

guard let myFloat = temp.floatValue else {
fatalError(" fail to change string to float value.")
}

Below will give you an optional Float, stick a ! at the end if you know it to be a Float, or use if/let.

let wageConversion = Float(wage.text)