Question

How to set an IBAction for the edit button in the NavigationBar created using the following code
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [self editButtonItem];

Answer 1

Since you are assigning the left bar button programmatically, you must create the button yourself. When you instantiating the button, you can also set the callback action something like this:

UIBarButtonItem *editButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]
     initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemEdit
     target:self
     action:@selector(editButtonPressed:)];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = editButton;

When the edit button is pressed, the following method will be called

- (void)editButtonPressed:(id)sender
{
   // do something
}