Loop through a uitableviewcell on submit in swift 4 - ios

Question

I am trying to access each value of a text field in a prototype cell within a UITableView on Submit. I know I should be doing this in a better way (model) but for now, I just need to access these fields and cannot find a way to do this in Swift 3/4. Would anyone be able to assist?
Code:
import UIKit
import Firebase
class FormTableViewController: UITableViewController {
var formLabels = [String]()
var formPlaceholders = [String]()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
FirebaseApp.configure()
formLabels = ["Name","Email","Password", "Phone"]
formPlaceholders = ["John Smith","example#email.com","Enter Password", "8585551234"]
tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 30
}
// MARK: - Table view data source
override func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return formLabels.count
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = self.tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier:
"FormTableCell", for: indexPath)
as! FormTableViewCell
let row = indexPath.row
cell.formLabel.font =
UIFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: UIFontTextStyle.headline)
cell.formLabel.text = formLabels[row]
cell.formTextField.placeholder = formPlaceholders[row]
return cell
}
#IBAction func submitButtonPressed(_ sender: Any) {
// Need to do something with the Name, Email, Phone and Password fields here
}
}

Answer 1

You seem to acknowledge that updating the model directly probably makes sense. So why not do that? Just:
Have model collection for the responses;
Set up delegate for the text field in the cell;
Have cellForRowAt set that delegate; and
Make the table view controller conform to that class.
So, something quick and dirty, set up the cell to hook up editChanged event from the text field and set up protocol to inform the view controller:
protocol FormTableViewCellDelegate: class {
func fieldValueChanged(cell: UITableViewCell, textField: UITextField)
}
class FormTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
weak var delegate: FormTableViewCellDelegate?
#IBOutlet weak var formLabel: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var formTextField: UITextField!
#IBAction func editingChanged(_ sender: UITextField) {
delegate?.fieldValueChanged(cell: self, textField: sender)
}
}
And then have the view controller set up model object and conform to your new protocol:
class FormTableViewController: UITableViewController {
var formLabels = [String]()
var formPlaceholders = [String]()
var values = [String?]()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
...
formLabels = ["Name","Email","Password", "Phone"]
formPlaceholders = ["John Smith","example#email.com","Enter Password", "8585551234"]
values = [nil, nil, nil, nil]
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "FormTableCell", for: indexPath) as! FormTableViewCell
let row = indexPath.row
cell.formLabel.font = .preferredFont(forTextStyle: .headline)
cell.formLabel.text = formLabels[row]
cell.formTextField.placeholder = formPlaceholders[row]
cell.formTextField.text = values[row]
cell.delegate = self // set the delegate, too
return cell
}
#IBAction func submitButtonPressed(_ sender: Any) {
print(#function, values)
}
}
// delegate protocol to update model as text fields change
extension FormTableViewController: FormTableViewCellDelegate {
func fieldValueChanged(cell: UITableViewCell, textField: UITextField) {
guard let indexPath = tableView.indexPath(for: cell) else { return }
values[indexPath.row] = textField.text
}
}
Then that's it, your model is updated as the text fields are updated. Plus this has the advantage that it now supports cell reuse, conforms to MVC patterns, etc.

Answer 2

If you want to just loop through cells, you can create an array of ‘IndexPath’.
let array = (0..<formLabels.count).map { IndexPath(row: $0, section:0) }
After that you can loop over this array and access individual cell using tableview method:- tableView.cellForIndexPath
Hope this helps. (Not on my laptop, so didn’t test the syntax)