Programmatically add buttons to array before viewDidLoad in swift

Question

When using the storyboard, you can draw 2 buttons onto it, and add then add them to an array by creating:

@IBOutlet private var cardButtons: [UIButton]!

This outlet collection is now an array of both buttons that loads before viewDidLoad as a variable.

How do I create this array of buttons programmatically without using storyboard?

I've tried this but it gives me a declaration error:

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    var cardButtons = [CardView]()
    let cardOne = CardView()
    cardButtons.append(cardOne)

    ...rest of viewController standard class
}

Use a singleton and load them through AppDelegate.

El Tomato
– El Tomato

2017-12-31 11:07:04 +00:00
Commented Dec 31, 2017 at 11:07 — El Tomato
– El Tomato, Commented Dec 31, 2017 at 11:07

florieger · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-31 11:08:20Z

1

There a several points of time in the ViewController's lifecycle where you might want to fill the cardButtons array. For example you could do this in viewDidLoad.

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    var cardButtons = [CardView]()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let cardOne = CardView()
        cardButtons.append(cardOne)
    }
}

Keep in mind that viewDidLoad is called every time the View is loaded into memory. In my example cardOne would be recreated every time. To avoid this you could store cardOne in a instance var, as you did initially.

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    var cardButtons = [CardView]()
    let cardOne = CardView()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        cardButtons.append(cardOne)
    }
}

As I said, there several points of time in the ViewController's lifecycle where you might want to fill the cardButtons array. Other functions could be:

viewDidAppear(), to fill the area every time the view appears.
init(), if you are not using storyboard at all.

answered Dec 31, 2017 at 11:08

florieger

1,40013 silver badges22 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Spencer Bigum Over a year ago

Perfect thanks - I ended up doing it slightly different than suggested, but this helped me a lot!

Spencer Bigum · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-31 11:36:30Z

0

Here is what I ended up doing:

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    let uiView: UI = {
        var ui:UI = UI()
        let cardOne = CardView()
        let cardTwo = CardView()
        ui.addButton(item: cardOne)
        ui.addButton(item: cardTwo)
        return ui
    }()
...rest of viewController standard class
}

class UI {
    var cardButtons = [CardView]()

    func addButton(button: CardView){
        cardButtons.append(button)
    }
}

answered Dec 31, 2017 at 11:36

Spencer Bigum

1,9413 gold badges20 silver badges30 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Programmatically add buttons to array before viewDidLoad in swift

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related