iOS Getting Reference of Subview on UITableViewCell - ios

Question

I am creating custom control using UITableView. This control is just a table view with multiple row in one section. And let's called it MyCustomControl.
In every cell on the table view, I added a UITextField control.
----------------
| ------------ |
|| Text Field || -> CELL
| ------------ |
----------------
This cell is just default UITableViewCell, and I added the text field using [cell addSubview:textField];
I give access to every text field component on table view with method like this:
- (UITextField*) textFieldAtIndex:(NSInteger)index
{
NSIndexPath* indexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:index inSection:0];
UITableViewCell* cell = [self tableView:[self containerTableView] cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
UITextField* textField = [[cell subviews] lastObject];
return textField; // It should returning the reference of textField right??
}
Once upon a time, I use this MyCustomControl in a view controller somewhere in my project.
- (void) viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
CGPoint origin = CGPointMake(100.f, 100.f);
CGFloat width = 200.f;
// Create custom control with text field generated as many as given parameter
MyCustomControl* textGroup = [[MyCustomControl alloc] initWithOrigin:origin width:width textFieldCount:2];
// Here is the problem, I try to set current view controllers's text fields
// with the text field generated by MyCustomControl.
// Text field returned are new text field with same properties instead of reference.
self.txtUsername = [textGroup textFieldAtIndex:0]; // Text Field are copied!
self.txtPassword = [textGroup textFieldAtIndex:1]; // Not return a pointer!
[self.txtUsername setDelegate:self]; // Fail
[self.txtPassword setDelegate:self]; // Fail
[[self view] addSubview:textGroup];
[[self view] addSubview:[self txtUsername]]; // New text field appeared on view
}
I expected to have full control of text field in MyCustomControl accessed from method textFieldAtIndex: but instead of having reference to that text field I got a new copy of text field in my view controller. And I can't set the delegate for that text field neither all other stuffs like it's text.
How can I get the reference from text field in this table view cell?

Answer 1

Check my answer to this, they wanted a text field but the process is the same, much cleaner than some of the other solutions here:
How to get UITableView Label Text string - Custom Cell
Thats assuming you know the index path.

Answer 2

Make your custom cell class and IBOutlet of your textfield to it
Hide this textfield wherever you dont require in cellForRowAtIndexPath
Textfield has touchDown action method set it when you are creating new one (same as button has touchUpInside by default - you can see this options by selecting your control and click on connection inspector)
From Below approach you can get reference of your textfield
- (IBAction)actionTextField:(id)sender {
UIView *view = sender.superview;
while (view && ![view isKindOfClass:[UITableViewCell self]]) view = view.superview;
UITableViewCell *cell = (UITableViewCell *)view;
indexPathForDeletion = [self.tableViewListViewVC indexPathForCell:cell];
NSLog(#"cell is in section %d, row %d", indexPathForDeletion.section, indexPathForDeletion.row);
}

Answer 3

The cells of tableview in your custom control Class is not created at the time you create instance of your custom class, so it suggest that you are assigning the textfields before their creation that is the problem i guess.
To get a reference of textfield from each cell ,you can give tag value to each textfield at the time you creating cell and can access them by the tag value whenever you want in your current controller.