Detecting clicks on a button in Swift

Question

How can I detect clicks on the following UIKit element in Swift, in an Xcode 6 playground?

let testLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, 120, 40))
testLabel.text = "My Button"

None, other than that I'm new to Swift. Would there be an easy way to detect clicks on a UIButton? — hawkharris, Aug 04 '14 at 23:35
Yes, that's what it's meant to do. Here's an example of how to make one programatically. http://stackoverflow.com/a/24102198/716216 — Mick MacCallum, Aug 04 '14 at 23:37
@hawkharris FYI: You can detect clicks on a UILabel using a UITapGestureRecognizer, but yes, in this case in makes more sense to use a UIButton — Lyndsey Scott, Aug 04 '14 at 23:42

Oscar Swanros · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-05T03:00:56.947

The UILabel class is used just to display text on the screen. Sure you can detect taps (not clicks) on it, but theres a UIKit class specifically crafted to handle actions on the screen, and that's UIButton.

Note: A playground is intended for you to test logic, not events, in your code. If you want to play around with iOS specific stuff, try creating a Single View Application Project under the iOS section from Xcode 6.

Implementing a UIButton, assuming you're inside an iOS Project on Xcode:

var button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 150, height: 60))
button.backgroundColor = UIColor.blackColor()
button.layer.cornerRadius = 3.0
button.setTitle("Tap Me", forState: .Normal)
button.addTarget(self, action: "buttonTapped", forControlEvents: .TouchUpInside)

Then, on the same ViewController class, create the buttonTapped method:

func buttonTapped() {
    println("Button tapped!")
}

swift 2.2 use -- button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(ViewController.buttonTapped), forControlEvents: .TouchUpInside) — uplearned.com, Apr 03 '16 at 12:36

Imanou Petit · Answer 2 · 2017-04-21T22:36:41.810

With Swift 3, UIButton - as a subclass of UIControl - has a method called addTarget(_:action:for:). addTarget(_:action:for:) has the following declaration:

func addTarget(_ target: Any?, action: Selector, for controlEvents: UIControlEvents)

Associates a target object and action method with the control.

The Playground code below shows how to detect a click on a button:

import PlaygroundSupport
import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        view.backgroundColor = .white

        // Create button
        let button = UIButton(type: UIButtonType.system)
        button.setTitle("Click here", for: UIControlState.normal)

        // Add action to button
        button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonTapped(sender:)), for: UIControlEvents.touchUpInside)

        // Add button to controller's view
        view.addSubview(button)

        // Set Auto layout constraints for button
        button.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        let horizontalConstraint = button.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor)
        let verticalConstraint = button.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([horizontalConstraint, verticalConstraint])
    }

    // trigger action when button is touched up
    func buttonTapped(sender: UIButton) {
        print("Button was tapped")
    }

}

// Display controller in Playground's timeline
let vc = ViewController()
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = vc

Detecting clicks on a button in Swift

2 Answers2