How to access custom cell textfield values Swift 3.0 - ios

Question

I have created a custom tableViewCell class for a prototype cells which is holding a text field. Inside ThirteenthViewController, I would like to reference the tableViewCell class so that I can access its doorTextField property in order to assign to it data retrieved from UserDefaults. How can I do this?
class ThirteenthViewController: UIViewController,UITableViewDelegate,UITableViewDataSource,UITextFieldDelegate {
var options = [
Item(name:"Doorman",selected: false),
Item(name:"Lockbox",selected: false),
Item(name:"Hidden-Key",selected: false),
Item(name:"Other",selected: false)
]
let noteCell:NotesFieldUITableViewCell! = nil
#IBAction func nextButton(_ sender: Any) {
//save the value of textfield when button is touched
UserDefaults.standard.set(noteCell.doorTextField.text, forKey: textKey)
//if doorTextField is not empty assign value to FullData
guard let text = noteCell.doorTextField.text, text.isEmpty else {
FullData.finalEntryInstructions = noteCell.doorTextField.text!
return
}
FullData.finalEntryInstructions = "No"
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
let index:IndexPath = IndexPath(row:4,section:0)
let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: index) as! NotesFieldUITableViewCell
self.tableView.delegate = self
self.tableView.dataSource = self
cell.doorTextField.delegate = self
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return options.count
}
func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
// configure the cell
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath)
-> UITableViewCell {
if indexPath.row < 3 {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "Cell")!
cell.textLabel?.text = options[indexPath.row].name
return cell
} else {
let othercell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "textField") as! NotesFieldUITableViewCell
othercell.doorTextField.placeholder = "some text"
return othercell
}
}
}//end of class
class NotesFieldUITableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
#IBOutlet weak var doorTextField: UITextField!
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
}
override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)
}
}

Answer 1

In order to access the UITextField in your cell, you need to know which row of the UITableView contains your cell. In your case, I believe the row is always the 4th one. So, you can create an IndexPath for the row and then, you can simply do something like this:
let ndx = IndexPath(row:3, section: 0)
let cell = table.cellForRow(at:ndx) as! NotesFieldUITableViewCell
let txt = cell.doorTextField.text
The above might not be totally syntactically correct since I didn't check for syntax, but I'm sure you can take it from there, right?
However, do note that in order for the above to work, the last row (row 4) has to be always visible. If you try to fetch rows which are not visible, you do run into issues with accessing them since UITableView reuses cells and instantiates cells for the visible rows of data.
Also, if you simply want to get the text that the user types and text input ends when they tap "Enter", you can always simply bypass accessing the table row at all and add a UITextFieldDelegate to your custom cell to send a notification out with the entered text so that you can listen for the notification and take some action.
But, as I mentioned above, this all depends on how you have things set up and what you are trying to achieve :)
Update:
Based on further information, it appears as if you want to do something with the text value when the nextButton method is called. If so, the following should (theoretically) do what you want:
#IBAction func nextButton(_ sender: Any) {
// Get the cell
let ndx = IndexPath(row:4, section: 0)
let cell = table.cellForRow(at:ndx) as! NotesFieldUITableViewCell
//save the value of textfield when button is touched
UserDefaults.standard.set(cell.doorTextField.text, forKey: textKey)
//if doorTextField is not empty assign value to FullData
guard let text = cell.doorTextField.text, text.isEmpty else {
FullData.finalEntryInstructions = cell.doorTextField.text!
return
}
FullData.finalEntryInstructions = "No"
}

Answer 2

You can create a tag for the doorTextField (for instance 111)
Now you can retrieve the value.
#IBAction func nextButton(_ sender: Any) {
//save the value of textfield when button is touched
guard let textField = self.tableViewview.viewWithTag(111) as! UITextField? else { return }
prit(textField.text)
.....
}