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

This extension requires Xcode7 beta6

extension NSBundle {
    enum LoadViewError: ErrorType {
        case ExpectedXibToExistButGotNil
        case ExpectedXibToContainJustOneButGotDifferentNumberOfObjects
        case XibReturnedWrongType
    }

    func loadView(name: String) throws -> T {
        let topLevelObjects: [AnyObject]! = loadNibNamed(name, owner: self, options: nil)
        if topLevelObjects == nil {
            throw LoadViewError.ExpectedXibToExistButGotNil
        }
        if topLevelObjects.count != 1 {
            throw LoadViewError.ExpectedXibToContainJustOneButGotDifferentNumberOfObjects
        }
        let firstObject: AnyObject! = topLevelObjects.first
        guard let result = firstObject as? T else {
            throw LoadViewError.XibReturnedWrongType
        }
        return result
    }
}

Create an Xib file that contains just 1 custom UITableViewCell.

Load it.

let cell: BacteriaCell = try NSBundle.mainBundle().loadView("BacteriaCell")