Firebase Database - Fatal error: Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value

Question

I'm trying to populate a label in my custom cell for my UITableViewController with information from my Firebase Database but I keep running into this error:

"Thread 1: Fatal error: Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value"

I did read this link: What does "fatal error: unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value" mean?

I don't think I'm accessing outlets before they're loaded in and I did check that my IBOutlet connection is correct.

class FeedCell: UITableViewCell {

    @IBOutlet weak var postText: UILabel!

}

class FeedTableViewController: UITableViewController {

    var postInfo = FeedCell()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // Uncomment the following line to preserve selection between presentations
        // self.clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear = false

        // Uncomment the following line to display an Edit button in the navigation bar for this view controller.
//         self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.editButtonItem

        self.tableView.rowHeight = 100.0

//        postText = UILabel()
//
        var ref: DatabaseReference!
        ref = Database.database().reference()
        let cellRef = ref.child("post/body")

        cellRef.observeSingleEvent(of: .value) { (snapshot) in
            if let body = snapshot.value as? String {
                self.postInfo.postText.text = body
                print(body)
            }
        }
    }

Here's my database

I expected the label to be updated with the body text "test firebase" but I'm just running into that error. Is it because I defined my IBOutlet in another class then referenced it in my FeedTableVIewController? Any advice would be appreciated!

at first you should never access outlets directly, second create a model for the data, in the if statement populate array of type model with the data you would get from firebase and then in `cellForRowAtIndexPath` method you configure cell with the data — Latenec, Mar 30 '19 at 02:09

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 30 '19 at 02:10

The problem is here

var postInfo = FeedCell()

with

self.postInfo.postText.text = body <<< postText is nil

First you shouldn't create an instance var of a cell , and as your current var here postInfo is initated with FeedCell() so the outlet is nil regardless of it's connected / not

Second you should make use of table delegate and dataSource methods to populate your table

Firebase Database - Fatal error: Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value

1 Answers1