Custom UITableViewCell in Swift programmatically - ios

Question

I'm looking to programmatically create a UITableView and corresponding custom UITableViewCell in Swift. The table view is working great, but it doesn't seem like the cell labels are instantiating - they come back as nil.
I also don't know how to refer to the content view size when sizing elements.
UITableViewCell
import UIKit
class BusUITableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
var routeNumber: UILabel!
var routeName: UILabel!
required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
}
override init(style: UITableViewCellStyle, reuseIdentifier: String!) {
super.init(style: style, reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
}
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
// Initialization code
routeName = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 50)) // not sure how to refer to the cell size here
contentView.addSubview(routeNumber)
contentView.addSubview(routeName)
}
override func setSelected(selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)
// Configure the view for the selected state
}
}
UITableView delegate and source
import Foundation
import UIKit
class BusUITableView: NSObject, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
var routeService: RouteService = RouteService()
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
var busRoutes: [Route] = routeService.retrieve()
return busRoutes.count
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
var cell:BusUITableViewCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("cell") as BusUITableViewCell
var busRoutes: [Route] = routeService.retrieve()
cell.routeName.text = "test" // test string doesn't work, returns nil
return cell
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
}
}
View Controller
mainTableView.registerClass(BusUITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")

Answer 1

If you aren't linking to a prototype cell in a storyboard then you need to register the class for your cell against your tableView using registerClass(_ cellClass: AnyClass,
forCellReuseIdentifier identifier: String)
In your case you would use something like this
tableview.register(BusUITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier:"cell")
Also, without a NIB file, awakeFromNib won't be invoked.
Edit: .registerClass() has been renamed to .register()

Answer 2

Considering you are doing this "programmatically" (no nib file), you're awakeFromNib() will never invoke. You can create a nib, and link it to this backing file, and still create and use the cell programmatically. Or ... choose a different place (like the initializer) to create and add subviews to the cell.