IBOutlet returning nil after IBAction Implementation (IOS) - ios

Question

I have 3 UIButton created through the Interface Builder of Xcode.
Have the IBOutlet and IBAction defined in the Controller.h like this:
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *btnToday;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *btnToday_less_1;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *btnToday_less_2;
- (IBAction) setBtnToday: (UIButton *) sender;
- (IBAction) setBtnToday_less_1: (UIButton *) sender;
- (IBAction) setBtnToday_less_2: (UIButton *) sender;
In my Controller.m have this:
#synthesize btnToday;
#synthesize btnToday_less_1;
#synthesize btnToday_less_2;
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
[btnToday setTitle:#"Today" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
[btnToday_less_1 setTitle:#"Yesterday" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
[btnToday_less_2 setTitle:#"Day before yesterday" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
}
The above code works OK, but if I implement the IBAction it does not.
The implementation looks like this:
-(IBAction)setBtnToday:(UIButton *)sender{ /* a method call */ }
-(IBAction)setBtnToday_less_1:(UIButton *)sender{ /* a method call */ }
-(IBAction)setBtnToday_less_2:(UIButton *)sender{ /* a method call */ }
If I do a NSLog of any of the IBOutlet they return nil. If remove the code of the IBAction from the Controller.m file it starts working again.
What am i doing wrong?
note: does not work means it compile without Errors and run but the text I am trying set on the UIButton are not updated.

Answer 1

You can't override setBtnToday:, setBtnToday_less_1:, and setBtnToday_less_2: like that because those are exactly the setter methods that the runtime is relying on to set up the buttons you configured in your xib file.
When you create a (non readonly) property the compiler synthesizes both a "getter" and "setter" method for your property. By default the getter method is - (<property type>)<property name> and the setter is - (void)set<CamelCase property name>. And those IBAction methods you posted are exactly the setters for your three button properties. By writing them explicitly (and making them do nothing) you're preventing the compiler from synthesizing the default setter implementations and that in turn prevents the xib loading code from working in the expected way.
If you're trying to implement methods to respond to the buttons being tapped you should just name them something else, like - (IBAction)btnTodayTapped:(id)sender, - (IBAction)btnToday_less_1_tapped:(id)sender, etc. Alternatively you could make one method, - (IBAction)buttonTapped:(id)sender and have that method inspect the sender to determine which button was tapped.