UITextPosition to Int

Swift 5

I came across this question originally because I was wondering how to convert UITextPosition to an Int (based on your title). So that is what I will answer here.

You can get an Int for the current text position like this:

if let selectedRange = textField.selectedTextRange {
    // cursorPosition is an Int
    let cursorPosition = textField.offset(from: textField.beginningOfDocument, to: selectedRange.start)
}

Note: The properties and functions used above are available on types that implement the UITextInput protocol so if textView was a UITextView object, you could replace the instances of textField with textView and it would work similarly.

For setting the cursor position and other related tasks, see my fuller answer.

the clue is to make a position and then a range with no length and then select it

e.g.

- (IBAction)select:(id)sender {
    //get position: go from end 1 to the left
    UITextPosition *pos = [_textField positionFromPosition:_textField.endOfDocument
                                               inDirection:UITextLayoutDirectionLeft
                                                    offset:1];

    //make a 0 length range at position
    UITextRange *newRange = [_textField textRangeFromPosition:pos
                                                toPosition:pos];

    //select it to move cursor
    _textField.selectedTextRange = newRange;
}