How do you load custom UITableViewCells from Xib files?

Question

The question is simple: How do you load custom UITableViewCell from Xib files? Doing so allows you to use Interface Builder to design your cells. The answer app

Answer 1

Register

After iOS 7, this process has been simplified down to (swift 3.0):

// For registering nib files
tableView.register(UINib(nibName: "MyCell", bundle: Bundle.main), forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")

// For registering classes
tableView.register(MyCellClass.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")

(Note) This is also achievable by creating the cells in the .xib or .stroyboard files, as prototype cells. If you need to attach a class to them, you can select the cell prototype and add the corresponding class (must be a descendant of UITableViewCell, of course).

Dequeue

And later on, dequeued using (swift 3.0):

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
{
    let cell : UITableViewCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "cell", for: indexPath)

    cell.textLabel?.text = "Hello"

    return cell
}

The difference being that this new method not only dequeues the cell, it also creates if non-existant (that means that you don't have to do if (cell == nil) shenanigans), and the cell is ready to use just as in the example above.

(Warning) tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier:for:) has the new behavior, if you call the other one (without indexPath:) you get the old behavior, in which you need to check for nil and instance it yourself, notice the UITableViewCell? return value.

if let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "cell", for: indexPath) as? MyCellClass
{
    // Cell be casted properly
    cell.myCustomProperty = true
}
else
{
    // Wrong type? Wrong identifier?
}

And of course, the type of the associated class of the cell is the one you defined in the .xib file for the UITableViewCell subclass, or alternatively, using the other register method.

Configuration

Ideally, your cells have been already configured in terms of appearance and content positioning (like labels and image views) by the time you registered them, and on the cellForRowAtIndexPath method you simply fill them in.

All together

class MyCell : UITableViewCell
{
    // Can be either created manually, or loaded from a nib with prototypes
    @IBOutlet weak var labelSomething : UILabel? = nil
}

class MasterViewController: UITableViewController 
{
    var data = ["Hello", "World", "Kinda", "Cliche", "Though"]

    // Register
    override func viewDidLoad()
    {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        tableView.register(MyCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "mycell")
        // or the nib alternative
    }

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

    // Dequeue
    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
    {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "mycell", for: indexPath) as! MyCell

        cell.labelSomething?.text = data[indexPath.row]

        return cell
    }
}

And of course, this is all available in ObjC with the same names.