NSAttributed String missing return value - ios

Question

I'm trying to make this function inside a VC into a function within an extension (because I need to access it in multiple VC's so I'm trying to return the attributedStringWithRtf so i can use it elsewhere.
func populateTextViewWithCurrentScene() {
let fileURL = getFileURL()
do {
let attributedStringWithRtf:NSAttributedString = try NSAttributedString(
url: fileURL,
options: [.documentType: NSAttributedString.DocumentType.rtf],
documentAttributes: nil
)
self.textViewOutlet.attributedText = attributedStringWithRtf
}
catch {
print("failed to populate text view with current scene with error: \(error)")
}
}
So far, I've tried this, following the guide here How could I create a function with a completion handler in Swift? and I've also tried a version declaring a var before the function. The error I'm getting on the below is Cannot call value of non-function type 'NSAttributedString'.
I know there are quite a few questions about this sort of thing but a lot are for old versions of Swift
func populateTextViewWithCurrentScene(rtfString: NSAttributedString) -> Void {
let fileURL = getFileURL()
do {
let rtfString:NSAttributedString = try NSAttributedString(
url: fileURL,
options: [.documentType: NSAttributedString.DocumentType.rtf],
documentAttributes: nil
)
}
catch {
print("failed to populate text view with current scene with error: \(error)")
}
rtfString()
}

Answer 1

I went ahead and created an extension of UIViewController that should provide what you are looking for. Comments are included for each line to explain the decisions that I made.
Feel free to comment if some part is unclear, or does not work as expected.
import UIKit
// You mentioned wanting to extend your viewcontroller
// so I extend UIViewController to support that
extension UIViewController {
// Returns an optional NSAttributedString, based upon successfully loading the file contents
func loadString() -> NSAttributedString? {
do {
// Everything is cleaned up into a single return command,
// including the getFileURL, which can be used as a parameter instead
// of creating a variable for it
return try NSAttributedString(url: getFileURL(),
options: [.documentType: NSAttributedString.DocumentType.rtf],
documentAttributes: nil)
} catch {
// If this fails, use your existing print command
print("failed to populate text view with current scene with error: \(error)")
// and then return nil to indicate that nothing was loaded
return nil
}
}
}
This is building off of the comments below from you and rmaddy.
As referenced in my original comment, the solution was not consolidating the try & return, that was simply to streamline the code.
You can look at the function this way:
"I want to try and open a file that is located at getFileURL(), and
would like to use some options I specify with my options: parameter.
Since this action can fail, Xcode makes me use try.
Assuming that this file is successfully opened, then return the
contents back to the caller in the form of an NSAttributedString.
However, if this fails, print out a message telling me why it failed
and then return a nil to indicate that no data is returned."