How to create a button programmatically?

How do I programmatically create graphical elements (like a UIButton) in Swift? I tried to create and add button into a view, but wasn't able to.


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.


You can add UIButton,UIlable and UITextfield programmatically in this way.

UIButton code

// var button   = UIButton.buttonWithType(UIButtonType.System) as UIButton
let button = UIButton(type: .System) // let preferred over var here
button.frame = CGRectMake(100, 100, 100, 50)
button.backgroundColor = UIColor.greenColor()
button.setTitle("Button", forState: UIControlState.Normal)
button.addTarget(self, action: "Action:", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
self.view.addSubview(button)

UILabel Code

var label: UILabel = UILabel()
label.frame = CGRectMake(50, 50, 200, 21)
label.backgroundColor = UIColor.blackColor()
label.textColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
label.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center
label.text = "test label"
self.view.addSubview(label)

UITextField code

var txtField: UITextField = UITextField()
txtField.frame = CGRectMake(50, 70, 200, 30)
txtField.backgroundColor = UIColor.grayColor()
self.view.addSubview(txtField)

Hope this is helpful for you.


For Swift 3

let button = UIButton()
button.frame = CGRect(x: self.view.frame.size.width - 60, y: 60, width: 50, height: 50)
button.backgroundColor = UIColor.red
button.setTitle("your Button Name", for: .normal)
button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)
self.view.addSubview(button)

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

For Swift 4+

 let button = UIButton()
 button.frame = CGRect(x: self.view.frame.size.width - 60, y: 60, width: 50, height: 50)
 button.backgroundColor = UIColor.red
 button.setTitle("Name your Button ", for: .normal)
 button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction), for: .touchUpInside)
 self.view.addSubview(button)

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

Swift 3

let btn = UIButton(type: .custom) as UIButton
btn.backgroundColor = .blue
btn.setTitle("Button", for: .normal)
btn.frame = CGRect(x: 100, y: 100, width: 200, height: 100)
btn.addTarget(self, action: #selector(clickMe), for: .touchUpInside)
self.view.addSubview(btn)

func clickMe(sender:UIButton!) {
  print("Button Clicked")
}

Output

enter image description here


How to do this using Swift 3.0.

func createButton() {
    let button = UIButton(type: .system)
    button.frame = CGRect(x: 100.0, y: 100.0, width: 100.0, height: 100.0)
    button.setTitle(NSLocalizedString("Button", comment: "Button"), for: .normal)
    button.backgroundColor = .green
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(buttonAction(sender:)), for: .touchUpInside)
    view.addSubview(button)
}

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