Multiple buttons in UITableViewCell in a 'top-down' UITableView - ios

Question

I am trying to work out how to action buttons within a UITableViewCell when the table view is 'top down' - as in, each new row is added to the top of the table view. I achieve this with the following code:
I use the following code to insert new items into my model array and then into the tableview:
let newItem = Item(text: inputTextView.text, time: Date())
items.insert(newItem, at: 0) //inserting into the front of model array
tableView.beginUpdates()
let indexPath:IndexPath = IndexPath(row:0, section:0)
tableView.insertRows(at: [indexPath], with: .fade)
tableView.endUpdates()
Within the cellForRowAt function I run the following code:
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: postCellID, for: indexPath) as! NewPostCell
let item = items[indexPath.row]
cell.postTextLabel.text = text
cell.timeLabel.text = dateFormatter.string(from: time)
cell.selectionStyle = .none
return cell
Each of my tableview cells have three buttons in it.
How do I connect up these buttons so I know which button is pressed from which indexPath?
The problem is that if I use indexPath.row to tag the buttons, then the buttons in all cells gets tagged with 0, as each insert is happening at the top of the table at indexPath.row 0th position.
I thought of tagging the buttons with the current size of my model array, but that doesn't work either as when cells are re-used they could then be tagged with the length of the array at that point, which would be wrong.
There are a lot of apps that have 'last entry at the top' of the tableview sort of setup, with buttons in cells. So there must be a way to do this.

Answer 1

You can add UIButton to your UITableViewCell and access these UIButton via tag and add target method to these buttons as:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
// create a new cell if needed or reuse an old one
let cell:UITableViewCell = self.tableVw.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "Cell") as UITableViewCell!
//Access UIButton
let button1:UIButton = cell.viewWithTag(10) as! UIButton
let button2:UIButton = cell.viewWithTag(11) as! UIButton
let button3:UIButton = cell.viewWithTag(12) as! UIButton
//Add Action Methods to UIButtons
button1.addTarget(self, action: #selector(FisrtButtonClick), for: .touchUpInside)
button2.addTarget(self, action: #selector(SecondButtonClick), for: .touchUpInside)
button3.addTarget(self, action: #selector(ThirdButtonClick), for: .touchUpInside)
return cell
}
Button Actions
// MARK: - UIButton Methods.
func FisrtButtonClick(_ sender: Any) {
//Get Button cell position.
let ButtonPosition = (sender as AnyObject).convert(CGPoint.zero, to: tableVw)
let indexPath = tableVw.indexPathForRow(at: ButtonPosition)
if indexPath != nil {
print("Cell indexPath: \(indexPath?.row)")
}
}
func SecondButtonClick(_ sender: Any) {
//Get Button cell position.
let ButtonPosition = (sender as AnyObject).convert(CGPoint.zero, to: tableVw)
let indexPath = tableVw.indexPathForRow(at: ButtonPosition)
if indexPath != nil {
print("Cell indexPath: \(indexPath?.row)")
}
}
func ThirdButtonClick(_ sender: Any) {
//Get Button cell position.
let ButtonPosition = (sender as AnyObject).convert(CGPoint.zero, to: tableVw)
let indexPath = tableVw.indexPathForRow(at: ButtonPosition)
if indexPath != nil {
print("Cell indexPath: \(indexPath?.row)")
}
}

Answer 2

Main idea
These are the basic steps you have to do:
Set unique tag values for each of the 3 button types: this will allow to identify which of the 3 buttons of a cell is pressed. (for instance tag value 1 for the first of your buttons, value 2 for the second kind, value 3 for the third button).
Link the 3 buttons to a #IBAction method.
You can also do this programmatically with target-actions: call aButton.addTarget(target:, action:, for:) for each button.
Then when a button will be pressed, you will use an helper function to determine the cell index of the button that was pressed.
Code
The #IBAction method should look like #IBAction func buttonTrigerred(_ sender: UIButton){...} and the code would be:
#IBAction func buttonTrigerred(_ sender: UIButton){
// -- retrieving the index path of the cell, as #NikhleshBagdiya posted
// Determine the indexPath of the cell
let buttonPosition = (sender as AnyObject).convert(CGPoint.zero, to: tableView)
let cellIndexPath = tableView.indexPathForRow(at: buttonPosition)
// --
// Determine which button is called
if sender.tag == 1 { ... } // the first kind of button has been pressed
else if sender.tag == 2 { ... } // second button kind
else if sender.tag == 3 { ... } // third button kind
}
Setting the tag value
Each of my tableview cells have three buttons in it.
I suppose you have designed your UITableViewCell in a Storyboard or Xib file. So for each of the 3 buttons of your cell: select the button, go to the attributes inspector, set the tag to the custom values indicated above.