I know how to add an IBAction to a button by dragging from the interface builder, but I want to add the action programmatically to save time and to avoid switching back and forth constantly. The solution is probably really simple, but I just can't seem to find any answers when I search it. Thank you!
10 Answers
Try this:
Swift 4
myButton.addTarget(self,
action: #selector(myAction),
for: .touchUpInside)
Objective-C
[myButton addTarget:self
action:@selector(myAction)
forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
You can find a rich source of information in Apple's Documentation. Have a look at the UIButton's documentation, it will reveal that UIButton is a descendant of UIControl, which implements the method to add targets.
--
You'll need to pay attention to whether add colon or not after myAction
in
action:@selector(myAction)
Here's the reference.

- 37,241
- 25
- 195
- 267

- 47,228
- 12
- 98
- 108
-
What if I want to pass a parameter to the selector when my button is pressed (eg. I have a button inside a UITableViewCell and I want to pass the object in that cell when the cell's button is pressed)? – acecapades Mar 15 '12 at 05:59
-
1@acecapades I think you are mixing two things. You can't attach a paramater like you could do with performSelector. The action pattern used by the UIControl descendant UIButton is to notifiy some target with a certain selector when controlEvent is triggered. When this happens in your case you could go up the superviews to see who is encapsulating your button and ask a method to resolve the tablecell to model relation and then do whatever you want with that. – Nick Weaver Mar 15 '12 at 08:25
-
1I see. That makes sense. I think I understand what you're saying. Thanks for the tip Nick! – acecapades Mar 16 '12 at 08:01
-
can someone translate this in swift? – Jun 29 '16 at 05:28
Swift answer:
myButton.addTarget(self, action: "click:", for: .touchUpInside)
func click(sender: UIButton) {
print("click")
}
Documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uicontrol/1618259-addtarget

- 37,241
- 25
- 195
- 267

- 3,483
- 1
- 24
- 36
-
What's the ":" for after "click" in the call to UIControl.addTarget? – dumbledad Jan 04 '16 at 11:29
-
1Selectors have a `:` as placeholders for function arguments. Since `click` takes the `sender` argument, that is replaced with a `:` in the selector string. – Etan Jan 14 '16 at 10:29
-
This worked recently for me for Swift 3. button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(ViewController.click), for: UIControlEvents.touchUpInside) func click() { print("click") } Thanks @Glauco Neves for pointing us down the right track – uplearned.com Oct 12 '16 at 10:21
CGRect buttonFrame = CGRectMake( 10, 80, 100, 30 );
UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame: buttonFrame];
[button setTitle: @"My Button" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
[button addTarget:self action:@selector(btnSelected:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[button setTitleColor: [UIColor redColor] forState: UIControlStateNormal];
[view addSubview:button];

- 141
- 1
- 2
try this:
first write this in your .h file of viewcontroller
UIButton *btn;
Now write this in your .m file of viewcontrollers viewDidLoad.
btn=[[UIButton alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(50, 20, 30, 30)];
[btn setBackgroundColor:[UIColor orangeColor]];
//adding action programatically
[btn addTarget:self action:@selector(btnClicked:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:btn];
write this outside viewDidLoad method in .m file of your view controller
- (IBAction)btnClicked:(id)sender
{
//Write a code you want to execute on buttons click event
}

- 874
- 1
- 10
- 11
CGRect buttonFrame = CGRectMake( x-pos, y-pos, width, height ); //
CGRectMake(10,5,10,10)
UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame: buttonFrame];
button setTitle: @"My Button" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
[button addTarget:self action:@selector(btnClicked:)
forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[button setTitleColor: [UIColor BlueVolor] forState:
UIControlStateNormal];
[view addSubview:button];
-(void)btnClicked {
// your code }

- 461
- 4
- 20
For Swift 3
Create a function for button action first and then add the function to your button target
func buttonAction(sender: UIButton!) {
print("Button tapped")
}
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction),for: .touchUpInside)

- 936
- 13
- 13
UIButton *btnNotification=[UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
btnNotification.frame=CGRectMake(130,80,120,40);
btnNotification.backgroundColor=[UIColor greenColor];
[btnNotification setTitle:@"create Notification" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[btnNotification addTarget:self action:@selector(btnClicked) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:btnNotification];
}
-(void)btnClicked
{
// Here You can write functionality
}

- 30,974
- 45
- 160
- 276

- 41
- 9
-
-
UIButton *btnNotification=[UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom]; btnNotification.frame=CGRectMake(130,80,120,40);//Button Frame Setting btnNotification.backgroundColor=[UIColor greenColor]; [btnNotification setTitle:@"create Notification" forState:UIControlStateNormal];//Set the title for button [btnNotification addTarget:self action:@selector(btnClicked) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];//add Target For button [self.view addSubview:btnNotification];} -(void)btnClicked { // Here You can write functionality } – user2677311 Oct 08 '13 at 12:35
-
-(void)btnClicked { //here what ever you want you can set the action for button //Example:go to next viewcontroller nextviewController *nextPage=[nextviewController alloc]init]; [self.navigationController pushviewcontroller:nextPage animated:YES ]; } – user2677311 Oct 08 '13 at 12:39
UIButton
inherits from UIControl
. That has all of the methods to add/remove actions: UIControl Class Reference. Look at the section "Preparing and Sending Action Messages", which covers – sendAction:to:forEvent:
and – addTarget:action:forControlEvents:
.

- 5,149
- 1
- 18
- 13
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
[button addTarget:self
action:@selector(aMethod1:)
forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[button setTitle:@"Show View" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
button.frame = CGRectMake(80.0, 210.0, 160.0, 40.0);
[view addSubview:button];

- 125
- 2
- 13
IOS 14 SDK: you can add action with closure callback:
let button = UIButton(type: .system, primaryAction: UIAction(title: "Button Title", handler: { _ in
print("Button tapped!")
}))
Getting a reference to the control sender
let textField = UITextField()
textField.addAction(UIAction(title: "", handler: { action in
let textField = action.sender as! UITextField
print("Text is \(textField.text)")
}), for: .editingChanged)

- 2,852
- 2
- 26
- 44