Custom UITableViewCell programmatically using Swift

Let’s make a few assumptions:

You have an iOS8 project with a Storyboard that contains a single UITableViewController. Its tableView has a unique prototype UITableViewCell with custom style and identifier: “cell”.

The UITableViewController will be linked to Class TableViewController, the cell will be linked to Class CustomTableViewCell.

You will then be able to set the following code (updated for Swift 2):

CustomTableViewCell.swift:

import UIKit

class CustomTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {

    let imgUser = UIImageView()
    let labUserName = UILabel()
    let labMessage = UILabel()
    let labTime = UILabel()

    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()

        imgUser.backgroundColor = UIColor.blueColor()

        imgUser.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        labUserName.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        labMessage.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        labTime.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

        contentView.addSubview(imgUser)
        contentView.addSubview(labUserName)
        contentView.addSubview(labMessage)
        contentView.addSubview(labTime)

        let viewsDict = [
            "image": imgUser,
            "username": labUserName,
            "message": labMessage,
            "labTime": labTime,
        ]

        contentView.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("V:|-[image(10)]", options: [], metrics: nil, views: viewsDict))
        contentView.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("V:[labTime]-|", options: [], metrics: nil, views: viewsDict))
        contentView.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("V:|-[username]-[message]-|", options: [], metrics: nil, views: viewsDict))
        contentView.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-[username]-[image(10)]-|", options: [], metrics: nil, views: viewsDict))
        contentView.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-[message]-[labTime]-|", options: [], metrics: nil, views: viewsDict))
    }

}

TableViewController.swift:

import UIKit

class TableViewController: UITableViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        //Auto-set the UITableViewCells height (requires iOS8+)
        tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
        tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 44
    }

    override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        return 1
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return 100
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("cell", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! CustomTableViewCell

        cell.labUserName.text = "Name"
        cell.labMessage.text = "Message \(indexPath.row)"
        cell.labTime.text = NSDateFormatter.localizedStringFromDate(NSDate(), dateStyle: .ShortStyle, timeStyle: .ShortStyle)

        return cell
    }

}

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You will expect a display like this (iPhone landscape):