How to create a button programmatically?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.