I have IBOutlets for my game view controller UIButtons that need to be organized better

Question

I have IBOutlets for my UIButtons like what is shown below. This is continued 30 times. I am wondering if there is a way to make it where I do not have to list each button outlet like this and make it more organized?

If anyone can point me in the right direction I will deeply appreciate it.

@property (weak,nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *level1Button;
@property (weak,nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *level2Button;
@property (weak,nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *level3Button;

Answer 1

Instead of lots of outlets, you can use an outlet collection. In your .h file:

@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutletCollection(UIButton) NSArray *buttons;

Then, you can control-drag your buttons to that line and they will all be in the array, in the order that you dragged them.

Answer 2

Another option is (example with 6 UIButtons):

Create the buttons. e.g in viewDidLoad:

//This is an array with your buttons positions
self.cgPointsArray = @[[NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(25, 130)],[NSValue valueWithCGPoint: CGPointMake(70,  130)],
                       [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(115,  130)],[NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(160,  130)],
                       [NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(205,  130)],[NSValue valueWithCGPoint:CGPointMake(250,  130)]];

// for loop to allocate the buttons
for (int i = 0; i < [self.cgPointsArray count]; i++)
{
    NSValue *value = [self.cgPointsArray objectAtIndex:i];
    CGPoint point = [value CGPointValue];

    UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
    button.frame = CGRectMake(point.x, point.y, 20, 20);
    [button setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
    [button addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonClicked:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    button.tag = i;
    [self.view addSubview:button];
}

Then you can manage the event through the tags in:

- (void) buttonClicked: (id) sender
{
    UIButton *tempButton = (UIButton*) sender;
    int tag = tempButton.tag;

    if (tag == 0)
    {
        //Do something
    }
    else if (tag == 1)
    {
        //Do something
    }
    else if (tag == 2)
    {
        //Do something
    }
    else if (tag == 3)
    {
        //Do something
    }
    else if (tag == 4)
    {
        //Do something
    }
    else if (tag == 5)
    {
        //Do something
    }

}