Attach parameter to button.addTarget action in Swift

I am trying to pass an extra parameter to the buttonClicked action, but cannot work out what the syntax should be in Swift.

button.addTarget(self, action: "buttonClicked:", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)

Any my buttonClicked method:

func buttonClicked(sender:UIButton)
{
    println("hello")
}

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks for your help.

You cannot pass custom parameters in addTarget:.One alternative is set the tag property of button and do work based on the tag.

button.tag = 5
button.addTarget(self, action: "buttonClicked:", 
    forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)

Or for Swift 2.2 and greater:

button.tag = 5
button.addTarget(self,action:#selector(buttonClicked),
    forControlEvents:.TouchUpInside)

Now do logic based on tag property

@objc func buttonClicked(sender:UIButton)
{
    if(sender.tag == 5){
    
        var abc = "argOne" //Do something for tag 5
    }
    print("hello")
}

If you want to send additional parameters to the buttonClicked method, for example an indexPath or urlString, you can subclass the UIButton:

class SubclassedUIButton: UIButton {
    var indexPath: Int?
    var urlString: String?
}

Make sure to change the button's class in the identity inspector to subclassedUIButton. You can access the parameters inside the buttonClicked method using sender.indexPath or sender.urlString.

Note: If your button is inside a cell you can set the value of these additional parameters in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method (where the button is created).

I appreciate everyone saying use tags, but really you need to extend the UIButton class and simply add the object there..

Tags are a hopeless way round this. Extend the UIButton like this (in Swift 4)

import UIKit
class PassableUIButton: UIButton{
    var params: Dictionary<String, Any>
    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        self.params = [:]
        super.init(frame: frame)
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        self.params = [:]
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    }
}

then your call may be call (NOTE THE colon ":" in Selector(("webButtonTouched:")))

let webButton = PassableUIButton(frame: CGRect(x:310, y:40, width:40, height:40))
webButton.setTitle("Visit",for: .normal)
webButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(YourViewController.webButtonTouched(_:)), for:.touchUpInside)
webButton.params["myvalue"] = "bob"

then finally catch it all here

@IBAction func webButtonTouched(_ sender: PassableUIButton) {
    print(sender.params["myvalue"] ?? "")
}

You do this one time and use it throughout your project (you can even make the child class have a generic "object" and put whatever you like into the button!). Or use the example above to put an inexhaustible number of key/string params into the button.. Really useful for including things like urls, confirm message methodology etc

As an aside, it's important that the SO community realise this there is an entire generation of bad practice being cut'n'paste round the internet by an alarming number of programmers who don't understand/haven't been taught/missed the point of the concept of object extensions

For Swift 3.0 you can use following

button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(YourViewController.YourMethodName(_:)), for:.touchUpInside)

func YourMethodName(_ sender : UIButton) {
    print(sender.tag)
    
}

Swift 4.2

Result:

testButton.on(.touchUpInside) { (sender, event) in
    // You can use any reference initialized before the code block here
    // You can access self by adding [weak self] before (sender, event)
    // You can then either make self strong by using a guard statement or use a optional operator (?)
    print("user did press test button")
}

In the file UIButton+Events.swift I've created an extension method for UIButton that binds a UIControl.Event to a completion handler called EventHandler:

import UIKit

fileprivate var bindedEvents: [UIButton:EventBinder] = [:]

fileprivate class EventBinder {
    
    let event: UIControl.Event
    let button: UIButton
    let handler: UIButton.EventHandler
    let selector: Selector
    
    required init(
        _ event: UIControl.Event,
        on button: UIButton,
        withHandler handler: @escaping UIButton.EventHandler
    ) {
        self.event = event
        self.button = button
        self.handler = handler
        self.selector = #selector(performEvent(on:ofType:))
        button.addTarget(self, action: self.selector, for: event)
    }
    
    deinit {
        button.removeTarget(self, action: selector, for: event)
        if let index = bindedEvents.index(forKey: button) {
            bindedEvents.remove(at: index)
        }
    }
}

private extension EventBinder {
    
    @objc func performEvent(on sender: UIButton, ofType event: UIControl.Event) {
        handler(sender, event)
    }
}

extension UIButton {
    
    typealias EventHandler = (UIButton, UIControl.Event) -> Void
    
    func on(_ event: UIControl.Event, handler: @escaping EventHandler) {
        bindedEvents[self] = EventBinder(event, on: self, withHandler: handler)
    }
}

The reason why I used a custom class for binding the event is to be able to dispose the reference later when the button is deintialised. This will prevent a possible memory leak from occurring. This wasn't possible within the UIButton its extension, because I'm not allowed to implement a property nor the deinit method.

If you have a loop of buttons like me you can try something like this

var buttonTags:[Int:String]? // can be [Int:Any]
let myArray = [0:"a",1:"b"]
for (index,value) in myArray {

     let button = // Create a button
        
     buttonTags?[index] = myArray[index]
     button.tag = index
     button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction(_:)), for: .touchDown)

}
@objc func buttonAction(_ sender:UIButton) {

    let myString = buttonTags[sender.tag]
    
}

Swift 4.0 code (Here we go again)

The called action should marked like this because that is the syntax for swift function for exporting functions into objective c language.

@objc func deleteAction(sender: UIButton) {
}

create some working button:

let deleteButton = UIButton(type: .roundedRect)
deleteButton.setTitle("Delete", for: [])
deleteButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector( 
MyController.deleteAction(sender:)), for: .touchUpInside)

Swift 5.0 code

I use theButton.tag but if i have plenty type of option, its be very long switch case.

theButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(theFunc), for: .touchUpInside) 
theButton.frame.name = "myParameter"

.

@objc func theFunc(sender:UIButton){ 
print(sender.frame.name)
}

This is more of an important comment. Sharing references of sytanx that is acceptable out of the box. For hack solutions look at other answers.

Per Apple's docs, Action Method Definitions have to be either one of these three. Anything else is unaccepted.

@IBAction func doSomething()
@IBAction func doSomething(sender: UIButton)
@IBAction func doSomething(sender: UIButton, forEvent event: UIEvent)

For Swift 2.X and above

button.addTarget(self,action:#selector(YourControllerName.buttonClicked(_:)),
                         forControlEvents:.TouchUpInside)

Swift 3.0 code

self.timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: timeInterval, target: self, selector:#selector(fetchAutocompletePlaces(timer:)), userInfo:[textView.text], repeats: true)

func fetchAutocompletePlaces(timer : Timer) {
    
  let keyword = timer.userInfo
}

You can send value in 'userinfo' and use that as parameter in the function.