NSClassFromString in Swift 2.1

Question

I guess I read most of the SO questions and Google answers on this, but still cannot get it working. Take this code example:

import UIKit

class Person: NSObject {

    var name = "Pieter"

}

let PersonClass: AnyClass? = NSClassFromString("Person")
let person = PersonClass()
print(person.name)

Changing NSClassFromString("Person") into NSClassFromString("MyAppName.Person") does not make a difference. Adding as! NSObject.Type behind the PersonClass declaration neither. Adding @obcj(Person before the class declaration neither.

The real-life goal is to read class names from a database and load the appropriate storyboard / UIViewController accordingly. So I am looking for a way to pass the UIViewController class name as a String and instantiate the UIStoryboard with it.

How to do that?

Edit: here is what I currently try for the real-life scenario after your suggestions:

let storyboard = UIStoryboard(name: "MyStoryboard", bundle: nil)
let MyClassName = "MyApp.MyTableViewController"
let MyClass = NSClassFromString(MyClassName) as! UITableViewController.Type
let controller = storyboard.instantiateInitialViewController() as! MyClass

It gives an error saying "MyClass" is not a type. I cannot remove it or I will get an error that it cannot convert from AnyClass.

Did you check all answers from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24030814/swift-language-nsclassfromstring ? This one looks close to what you want: http://stackoverflow.com/a/32265287/1187415. — Martin R, Dec 28 '15 at 11:06

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 28 '15 at 11:57

0

Try the code given below

let viewController = storyboard?.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("ViewController") as! ViewController

This code allow you to instantiate the storyboard view controller. But you can not pass the View Controller class name.

You have to pass the storyboard identifier of the view controller. Please review the below picture for it.

edited Dec 28 '15 at 11:57

luk2302

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answered Dec 28 '15 at 11:39

Sukhdeep Singh Kalra

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Dear friend, please read his complete question. His real life goal is to instantiate the view controller class from storyboard. – Sukhdeep Singh Kalra Dec 28 '15 at 11:55
Please do not vote down before reading the complete question. – Sukhdeep Singh Kalra Dec 28 '15 at 11:57
No he's not. The question says he wants to read the *class name* (and not the identifier) from a database and instantiate a view controller. – HAS Dec 28 '15 at 12:10
Dear friend, he wants to instantiate the class and he is using storyboard. But there is no way to do it without identifier while using the storyboard – Sukhdeep Singh Kalra Dec 28 '15 at 12:12
When you do not use the storyboard, you can use the class name, but in case of storyboard, we have to initialise it using the storyboard id. – Sukhdeep Singh Kalra Dec 28 '15 at 12:13

NSClassFromString in Swift 2.1

1 Answers1