Can I make a UITabBarController switch tabs programmatically?

Question

I have a UITabBarController template based app where the first tab is a UITableViewController with custom buttons in the cells. I need one button in one cell to call a specific tab in the parent UITabBarController. Im using this code in the didSelectRowAtIndexPath:

case 5:
            NSLog(@"Search");
            [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];
            // Get UITabBar instance and send it message
            UITabBarController *tabBar = (UITabBarController*)[self parentViewController];
            [tabBar setSelectedIndex:1];

            break;

When I tap on this row the app crashes without any log in the console. Im calling this in that UITableViewController which is the first tab in the UITabBarController.

PS I also want to avoid the blue selection on this cell that occurs when the user taps. So I added this code:

- (NSIndexPath *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
    switch (indexPath.row) {
        case 1:
            return nil;
            break;
    }
}

But it still selects blue when I tap on it. Could they be related issues?

you mean like [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5161730/iphone-how-to-switch-tabs-with-an-animation)? — CaptJak, Jul 16 '13 at 01:07
you can avoid the blue selection by setting the selection style `UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone` for your cells. What does `case 5`refer to in `didSelectRowAtIndexPath`? — zbMax, Jul 16 '13 at 07:11

unixo · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-29T13:48:06.553

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:NO];
    UITabBarController *tabController = (UITabBarController *) UIApplication.sharedApplication.keyWindow.rootViewController;
    [tabController setSelectedIndex:1];
}

the first message will deselect the row, avoiding the blue selection.

As your app is tab-based, the root controller of the key window is always an instance of UITabBarController.

Can I make a UITabBarController switch tabs programmatically?

1 Answers1