How to get textLabel of selected row in swift?

Question

So i am trying to get the value of the textLabel of the row I select. I tried printing it, but it didn't work. After some research I found out that this code worked, but only in Objective-C;

    - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath    *)indexPath
    {
        NSLog(@"did select  and the text is %@",[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath].textLabel.text);]
    }

I could not find any solution for Swift. Printing the indexpath.row is possible though, but that is not what I need.

so what should I do? or what is the 'Swift-version' of this code?

Answer 1

If you want to print the text of a UITableViewCell according to its matching NSIndexPath, you have to use UITableViewDelegate's tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath: method and get a reference of the selected UITableViewCell with UITableView's cellForRowAtIndexPath: method.

For example:

import UIKit

class TableViewController: UITableViewController {

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return 4
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("Cell", forIndexPath: indexPath)

        switch indexPath.row {
        case 0: cell.textLabel?.text = "Bike"
        case 1: cell.textLabel?.text = "Car"
        case 2: cell.textLabel?.text = "Ball"
        default: cell.textLabel?.text = "Boat"
        }

        return cell
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
        let selectedCell = tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath)
        print(selectedCell?.textLabel?.text)
        // this will print Optional("Bike") if indexPath.row == 0
    }

}

---

However, for many reasons, I would not encourage you to use the previous code. Your UITableViewCell should only be responsible for displaying some content given by a model. In most cases, what you want is to print the content of your model (could be an Array of String) according to a NSIndexPath. By doing things like this, you will separate each element's responsibilities.

Thereby, this is what I would recommend:

import UIKit

class TableViewController: UITableViewController {

    let toysArray = ["Bike", "Car", "Ball", "Boat"]

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return toysArray.count
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("Cell", forIndexPath: indexPath)
        cell.textLabel?.text = toysArray[indexPath.row]
        return cell
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
        let toy = toysArray[indexPath.row]
        print(toy)
        // this will print "Bike" if indexPath.row == 0
    }

}

As you can see, with this code, you don't have to deal with optionals and don't even need to get a reference of the matching UITableViewCell inside tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath: in order to print the desired text.

Answer 2

Try this:

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {

    let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow() //optional, to get from any UIButton for example

    let currentCell = tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath) as UITableViewCell

    print(currentCell.textLabel!.text)

Answer 3

Maintain an array which stores data in the cellforindexPath method itself :-

[arryname objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];

Using same code in the didselectaAtIndexPath method too.. Good luck :)

Answer 4

Swift 3

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow
    let currentCell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath!)!
    print(currentCell.textLabel!.text)
}

Answer 5

Swift 4

To get the label of the selected row:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath) as! TableViewCell
    print(cell.textLabel?.text)
}

To get the label of the deselected row:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didDeselectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath) as! TableViewCell
    print(cell.textLabel?.text)
}

Answer 6

If you're in a class inherited from UITableViewController, then this is the swift version:

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didDeselectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
    let cell = self.tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath)
    NSLog("did select and the text is \(cell?.textLabel?.text)")
}

Note that cell is an optional, so it must be unwrapped - and the same for textLabel. If any of the 2 is nil (unlikely to happen, because the method is called with a valid index path), if you want to be sure that a valid value is printed, then you should check that both cell and textLabel are both not nil:

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didDeselectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
    let cell = self.tableView.cellForRowAtIndexPath(indexPath)
    let text = cell?.textLabel?.text
    if let text = text {
        NSLog("did select and the text is \(text)")
    }
}