How can I keep track of the index path of a button in a table view cell?

Question

I have a table view where each cell has a button accessory view. The table is managed by a fetched results controller and is frequently reordered. I want to be able to press

Answer 1

Crawling up view hierarchies with .superview (like all of the existing answers demonstrate) is a really bad way to do things. If UITableViewCell's structure changes (which has happened before) your app will break. Seeing .superview.superview in your code should set off alarm bells.

The button and its handler should be added to a custom UITableViewCell subclass and layed out there. That's where it belongs.

The cell subclass can then delegate out the button event through a standard delegate interface, or a block. You should aim for something like this:

- (UITableViewCell *)cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    MyCustomCell *cell = ...;

    // ...

    cell.onButtonTapped = ^{
        [self buttonSelectedAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    }

    // OR

    cell.delegate = self;

    // ...
}

(Note: if you go the block route, you will need to use a __weak self reference to prevent retain cycles, but I thought that would clutter up the example).

If you take the delegate route you would then have this delegate method to implement:

- (void)cellButtonPressed:(UITableViewCell *)cell
{
    NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.tableView indexPathForCell:cell];
    // ...
}

Your code now has full access to the appropriate context when it handles the event.

Implementing this interface on your cell class should be straightforward.