How to create a button programmatically?

ios, swift, uibutton

Solution

Here is a complete solution to add a `UIButton` programmatically with the targetAction. Swift 2.2

override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()

  let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 100, y: 100, width: 100, height: 50))
  button.backgroundColor = .greenColor()
  button.setTitle("Test Button", forState: .Normal)
  button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), forControlEvents: .TouchUpInside)

  self.view.addSubview(button)
}

func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
  print("Button tapped")
}

It is probably better to use `NSLayoutConstraint` rather than `frame` to correctly place the button for each iPhone screen.

Updated code to Swift 3.1:

override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()

  let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 100, y: 100, width: 100, height: 50))
  button.backgroundColor = .green
  button.setTitle("Test Button", for: .normal)
  button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)

  self.view.addSubview(button)
}

func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
  print("Button tapped")
}

Updated code to Swift 4.2:

override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()

  let button = UIButton(frame: CGRect(x: 100, y: 100, width: 100, height: 50))
  button.backgroundColor = .green
  button.setTitle("Test Button", for: .normal)
  button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)

  self.view.addSubview(button)
}

@objc func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
  print("Button tapped")
}

The above still works if `func buttonAction` is declared `private` or `internal`.

Problem

Original source

Related problems

• Make a UIButton programmatically in Swift