When are @IBOutlets set?

Question

smkuehnhold OP

Created Aug ’22

Replies 2

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Howdy!

FYI This is mostly just a rephrasing of my question from the other week.

I have a superview which owns some subviews defined in a XIB. Until now, I have assumed that the @IBOutlet defined in the owner/superview are set during the call to UINib.instantiate(withOwner:options:). Is assumption this incorrect?

In practice at least, this assumption seems to mostly hold true. But now I have run into a case where only some of the IBOutlets remain unset even after I instantiate and add to the view hierarchy.

What gives?

Thanks, smkuehnhold

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Answer 1

Frameworks Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’22

Accepted Answer

Outlets are set during the instantiation process, however keep in mind that if you have weak outlets, and there is nothing holding a strong reference to them by the end of the instantiation process (such as, for views, being inserted into a view hierarchy that has a strong reference at its root) then those references may be nil'd out by the end of the instantiation process.

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Answer 2

smkuehnhold OP

Aug ’22

That's very reassuring to know :). The way I have it now, these owned subviews are passed deep into the view hierarchy. Which means it is likely, as you alluded, I am dropping the reference somewhere.

Appreciate the clarification,

smkuehnhold

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