Swift list getting and removing value - arrays

Question

Swift's documentation of Remove from an array is "Removes and returns the element at the specified position." When I try it I don't get any values. If I do it in two steps it works fine. What am I missing?
Main code:
func GetItemAlert(s: String){
// Create an alert
let alert = UIAlertController(
title: "New item",
message: s,
preferredStyle: .alert)
// Add a text field to the alert for the new item's title
//alert.addTextField(configurationHandler: nil)
// Add a "cancel" button to the alert. This one doesn't need a handler
alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Close", style: .cancel, handler: nil))
// Add a "OK" button to the alert. The handler calls addNewItem()
alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "OK", style: .default, handler: { (_) in
}))
// Present the alert to the user
self.present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
func pop()-> String{
let removeid = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(TheList.count)))
let val1 = TheList[removeid]
let val2 = TheList.remove(at: removeid)
tableView.reloadData()
return ""
}
#IBAction func btnPop(_ sender: Any) {
GetItemAlert(s: pop())
}
Extention:
import Foundation
class HatTrick
{
var item: String
public init(item: String)
{
self.item = item
}
}
extension HatTrick
{
public class func preload() -> [HatTrick]
{
return [
HatTrick(item: "A"),
HatTrick(item: "B"),
HatTrick(item: "C"),
HatTrick(item: "D"),
HatTrick(item: "E")
]
}
}

Answer 1

You are correct in saying that remove "Removes and returns the element at the specified position."
var a = [0, 1, 2, 3] // Creates an array
let b = a.remove(at: 2) // we removed a value from a and stored it in b
print(b) // Prints 2

Answer 2

Maybe it doesn't show val2 in the debugger cause Xcode optimized them out. You can try to call a function with them and see whether its still optimized away.
Val1 is still referenced inside the Array until its removed in the next call, so retained? If you care you could file a bugreport.