How to pass an int value on UIButton click inside UITableView

So I have a view controller with a single UITableView that shows a string to the user. But I needed a way to have the user select this object by id using a normal UIButton so I added it as a subview and the click event works as expected.

The issue is this - how can I pass an int value to this click event? I've tried using attributes of the button like button.tag or button.accessibilityhint without much success. How do the professionals pass an int value like this?

Also it's important that I can get the actual [x intValue] from the int later in the process. A while back I thought I could do this with a simple

NSLog(@"the actual selected hat was %d", [obj.idValue intValue]);

But this doesn't appear to work (any idea how I can pull the actual int value directly from the variable?).

The working code I have is below

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
    }

  if ([self.hats count] > 0) {
      Hat* obj = [self.hats objectAtIndex: [indexPath row]];

    NSMutableString* fullName = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
    [fullName appendFormat:@"%@", obj.name];
    [fullName appendFormat:@" %@", obj.type];

    cell.textLabel.text = fullName;
    cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDetailDisclosureButton;

    //add the button to subview hack
    UIButton* button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
    button.frame = CGRectMake(50, 5, 50, 25);
    [button setTitle:@"Select" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    button.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    button.adjustsImageWhenHighlighted = YES;

    button.tag = obj.idValue; //this is my current hack to add the id but no dice :(

    [button addTarget:self action:@selector(action:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    [cell.contentView addSubview:button];
    //hack
  }

    return cell;  
}

- (void)action:(id)sender {
  int* hatId = ((UIButton *)sender).tag; //try to pull the id开发者_运维百科 value I added above ...

  //do something w/ the hatId 
}

NSInteger hatId = ((UIButton *)sender).tag;

I would go about this in an entirely different way. I would have a NSMutableDictionary that contained button objects with the tag as keys. Probably in the table's data source. Then when anything happens with that button or tag, you can easily get at one or the other. Then when you need a tag for a given button you can use the allKeysForObject method on the dictionary, which is likely only one per object. If you need the button for the tag you can use the tag as a key value to get the button pointer. This is assuming that tag values aren't reused and are unique (if they are you'd have to clear them out of the dictionary when the buttons go away).

Alternatively you could also subclass UIButton and store the tag value more appropriately. I think an idealist would tell you this is the answer, as far as how you are trying to make it work with your hack. =)

Hope that helps some.

The final solution consisted of a few changes:

1.) Instead of using type int I switched to NSNumber (thanks to a few of the comments made) also I found int to be more of a problem when it comes to memory management because I'm new :(

2.) Instead of setting the tag to an id I used some concepts mentioned in the comments and pushed the entire object to get more detail about it when I pulled it from action later.

Here is the revised method where I set the object

  if ([self.hats count] > 0) {
      Hat* obj = [self.hats objectAtIndex: [indexPath row]];

    NSMutableString* fullName = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
    [fullName appendFormat:@"%@", obj.name];
    [fullName appendFormat:@" %@", obj.type];

    cell.textLabel.text = fullName;
    cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDetailDisclosureButton;

    //add the button to subview hack
    UIButton* button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
    button.frame = CGRectMake(50, 5, 50, 25);
    [button setTitle:@"Select" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    button.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    button.adjustsImageWhenHighlighted = YES;

    button.tag = obj;

    [button addTarget:self action:@selector(action:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    [cell.contentView addSubview:button];
    //hack
  }

    return cell;  
}

And here is the revised action where I pull out the object, then any property I want

- (void)action:(id)sender {
  Hat* obj = ((UIButton *)sender).tag;
  NSNumber* hatId = obj.idValue;
  //then if I wanted the actual value of hatId I could do
  NSLog(@"print the hatId out as is %d", [hatId intValue]);
}

One last comment about the button reuse mentioned - I'm yet to find a running problem with this but I am interested in another solution that would still allow me to have a custom button in each table cell.