Question

I have a UILabel for each cell at cellForRowAtIndexPath.

UILabel *cellLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
cellLabel.text = myString;

I want to access that string “myString” at didSelectRowAtIndexPath using indexpath.

NSString *anotherString = cell.textLabel.text;

returns null.

Now if at cellForRowAtIndexPath, I did something like cell.textLabel.text = theString; then the didSelectRowAtIndexPath returns the appropriate cell.

My question is, how can I access the text in the UILabel I apply to the cell, at didSelectRowAtIndexPath?

Also, logging the cell in didSelectRowAtIndexPath returns cell: <UITableViewCell: 0x5dcb9d0; frame = (0 44; 320 44); autoresize = W; layer = <CALayer: 0x5dbe670>>

Edit:

    NSString *myString = [[results objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] valueForKey:@"name"];
//cell.textLabel.text = myString;

CGFloat width = [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.width - 50;
CGFloat height = 20;
CGRect frame = CGRectMake(10.0f, 10.0f, width, height);

UILabel *cellLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
cellLabel.text = myString;
cellLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
cellLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
cellLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
cellLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14.0f];
[cell.contentView addSubview:cellLabel];
[cellLabel release];

return cell;

Answer 1

In this line of code:

NSString *anotherString = cell.textLabel.text;

How are you obtaining the cell? Is it nil? Also, the textLabel field you’re accessing is the default label in the a UITableViewCell and not the label you are adding in -cellForRowAtIndexPath. Here is how you can get the cell from -didSelectRowAtIndexPath:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tv 
                 didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *cell = [self tableView:tv cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];

}

The issue at this point, though, is that you can’t access the UILabel by name, however, you can access it if you’ve set a tag. So, when you create your UILabel, set the tag like this:

UILabel *cellLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
cellLabel.text = myString;
cellLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
cellLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
cellLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
cellLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14.0f];

// Set the tag to any integer you want
cellLabel.tag = 100;

[cell.contentView addSubview:cellLabel];
[cellLabel release];

So, now you can access the UILabel by tag:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tv 
          didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *cell = [self tableView:tv cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];

    UILabel *label = (UILabel*)[cell viewWithTag:100];

    NSLog(@"Label Text: %@", [label text]);
}