LLDB (Swift): Casting Raw Address into Usable Type

Under Xcode 8.2.1 and Swift 3, the lldb command po or p won't work with the typed variable. You will need to use the swift command print to examine the properties of the typed object instance. (Thanks to cbowns's answer!) E.g.:

expr -l Swift -- import UIKit
expr -l Swift -- let $pin = unsafeBitCast(0x7df67c50, to: MKPinAnnotationView.self)
expr -l Swift -- print($pin.alpha)

You can use Swift's unsafeBitCast function to cast an address to an object instance:

(lldb) e let $pin = unsafeBitCast(0x7df67c50, MKPinAnnotationView.self)
(lldb) po $pin

Then you can work with $pin as usual – access properties, call methods, etc.

Check out this article for more information: Swift Memory Dumping.


The lldb format for expression seems to have changed in Xcode 7.3. The following got me started:

(lldb) expr -l Swift -- import UIKit
(lldb) expr -l Swift -- let $view = unsafeBitCast(0x7fb75d8349c0, UIView.self)