Initializer does not override a designated initializer from its superclass

fulvio picture fulvio · Mar 13, 2015 · Viewed 52.5k times · Source

So I've just upgraded to Xcode 6.3 Beta 3 and a lot of error(s) are appearing relating to the following:

Initializer does not override a designated initializer from its superclass.

override init() {
    super.init()
}

For example this is a UIButton class:

class CustomButton: UIButton {

    var target: AnyObject!
    var selector: Selector!
    var action: (() -> Void)!

    override init() { // Initializer does not override a designated initializer from its superclass
        super.init() // Must call a designated initializer of the superclass 'UIButton'
    }

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    }

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
    }
}

This is one of my UIViewController classes:

class CustomAlertView: UIViewController {

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("NSCoding not supported")
    }

    required override init() { // Initializer does not override a designated initializer from its superclass
        super.init() // Must call a designated initializer of the superclass 'UIViewController'
    }

    override init(nibName nibNameOrNil: String?, bundle nibBundleOrNil: NSBundle?) {
        super.init(nibName: nibNameOrNil, bundle: nibBundleOrNil)
    }
}

Answer

Lluis Gerard picture Lluis Gerard · Mar 13, 2015

My solution is a quick fix, but I think is easier than what Apple purposes on the the Release Notes. For more information search for 19775924 http://adcdownload.apple.com//Developer_Tools/Xcode_6.3_beta_3/Xcode_6.3_beta_3_Release_Notes.pdf here. What Apple says is that you create an Objective-C file and extend it (having to add it to the header files and all) and it's on "Known Issues in Xcode 6.3 beta 3", so I think is easy to do what I did:

This is how I fixed it for UIButton:

class CustomButton : UIButton {
    init() {
        super.init(frame: CGRectZero)
    }

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }
}

And this is one of my ViewControllers (remove public if not needed):

public class GenericViewController: UIViewController {
    public init() {
        super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
    }

    required public init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }
}

I don't use IB so I also have UIView, because I do separate the view from the viewController (remove public if not needed):

public class GenericMenuView: UIView {
    public init() {
        super.init(frame: CGRectZero)
    }

    public required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }
}

I need this specially in views because I have a setupViews method that I override in all subclasses that is called on the init. And using AutoLayout I don't need any frames (so I don't override the init with the frame parameter).

So it seems you have to drop override. Oh! and be sure to not call self.init() or the class is never initialized (and it crashes after some internal timeout).