Noob questions for the code below. 1) For an Int property, I have to initialize with 0 (or some Int). Therefore, that default Int will obscure/replace the placeholder text, correct? 2) Have I set the TextField up correctly to bind the Int? 3) If I do have to have the preceding Text view, how can I right-align the TextField?

@State private var bookPages = 0

Form { HStack { Text("Pages in book") // can I avoid this? TextField("Pages in book", value: $bookPages, formatter: NumberFormatter( )) } }

Just do the following -

@State private var bookPages = ""

var body: some View {
        Form {
               Textfield("Pages in book", value: $bookPages)
               }
}

You will obviously have to check that user has entered an Int and that the string can be converted to an Int so that you can use it as an Int but the above is nice and simple.

Following from first answer

If you require the bookPages to be Int then you could do a

guard let pages = Int(bookPages) else { return }

now pages is a Int