Referring to programmatically created UI elements - ios

Question

I'm creating many UI elements programmatically. Let's say 50 UILabels.
What is a proper way to access to labels properties?
Now i'm adding a tag to each label and next search label in [subview] array and get label properties through a 'sender':
func buttonTapped(sender: UIButton) {
for subview in containerView.subviews {
if let label = subview as? UILabel, label.tag == sender.tag {
// do stuff
}
}
}
Not sure it's most elegant way because there are some problems if we change labels to buttons.
Lets say:
func createButton() {
let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(origin: ...,
size: ...))
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonTapped(sender:)), for: .touchUpInside)
let longTap = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(disableButton(sender:)))
longTap.minimumPressDuration = 1
button.addGestureRecognizer(longTap)
.......
containerView.addSubview(button)
}
And now i can't access to properties via 'sender' in disableButton(sender:) method, because sender is UILongPressGestureRecognizer.
Seems like im doing something wrong if it works for labels but not for buttons.
Please, guide me in right direction

Answer 1

First of all, I would keep and array with a reference to all of the labels so you don't have to iterate through all of the subviews to find them and keep this in order with the highest z value first. But if you don't want to do that here is the code that can find you view in one line; its not the most efficient thing in the world but for your number fo views it should be fine.
class ViewController: UIViewController {
let first = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 100, height: 50))
let second = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 25, y: 25, width: 100, height: 50))
override func viewDidLoad() {
first.text = "first"
first.backgroundColor = .blue
second.text = "second"
second.backgroundColor = .red
view.addSubview(first)
view.addSubview(second)
let tap = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleTap(sender:)))
view.addGestureRecognizer(tap)
}
#objc func handleTap(sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
if let label = view.subviews.flatMap({$0 as? UILabel}).last(where: { $0.bounds.contains(sender.location(in: $0))}) {
print("You pressed: \(label)")
}
}
}
Note whats going on here:
We use flatMap to discard any subviews that are not UIlabels.
We use last to find the last item in the array (
because the top most views are last according to UIView.subviews) where the touch is inside that view's bounds.

Answer 2

Simple add this code when your creating your label
yourLbl.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
And use touchesBegan method to get your clicked label
override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent?) {
let touch = touches.first
if let lblView = touch?.view
{
if lblView.isKind(of: UILabel.self)
{
let yourLbl = lblView as! UILabel
//Access your clicked lable
}
}
}