How to check object is nil or not in swift?

The case of if abc == nil is used when you are declaring a var and want to force unwrap and then check for null. Here you know this can be nil and you can check if != nil use the NSString functions from foundation.

In case of String? you are not aware what is wrapped at runtime and hence you have to use if-let and perform the check.

You were doing following but without "!". Hope this clears it.

From apple docs look at this:

let assumedString: String! = "An implicitly unwrapped optional string."

You can still treat an implicitly unwrapped optional like a normal optional, to check if it contains a value:

if assumedString != nil {
    println(assumedString)
}
// prints "An implicitly unwrapped optional string."

If abc is an optional, then the usual way to do this would be to attempt to unwrap it in an if statement:

if let variableName = abc { // If casting, use, eg, if let var = abc as? NSString
    // variableName will be abc, unwrapped
} else {
    // abc is nil
}

---

However, to answer your actual question, your problem is that you're typing the variable such that it can never be optional.

Remember that in Swift, nil is a value which can only apply to optionals.

Since you've declared your variable as:

var abc: NSString ...

it is not optional, and cannot be nil.

Try declaring it as:

var abc: NSString? ...

or alternatively letting the compiler infer the type.