Objective-C "miscasting" string / int using stringWithFormat and% d

I think this is a relatively simple question, but I don't know exactly what is going on.

I have a method that tries to build a string using NSString stringWithFormat

It looks like this:

NSString *line1 = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"the car is %d miles away", self.ma];

      

        
        
        
      

    

In the above line, "self.ma" should be an int, but in my case I made a mistake and "self.ma" actually points to an NSString.

So my understanding is that the line should read

NSString *line1 = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"the car is %@ miles away", self.ma];

      

        
        
        
      

    

but my question is What is% d in the first example running with my NSString?

If I use the debugger, I see that in one case "self.ma" is equal to "32444", but somehow% d converts it to 1255296.

I would guess that the 32444 => 1255296 conversion is some type of base numbering conversion (hex-dec or whatever), but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Any idea as to what% d is doing with my string?

TIA