How to create an instance of a class from a String in Swift

Question

I have tried creating an instance of a class using a string in numerous ways with none of them working in Swift 3.

Below are pre-Swift 3 solutions I have tried that are not working

- Making class an objective-c class

@objc(customClass) class customClass {     ... }  //Error here: cannot convert value of type 'AnyClass?' to expected argument type 'customClass' let c: customClass = NSClassFromString("customClass") 

- Specifying class using NSString value (both with and without using @objc attribute)

@objc(customClass) class customClass {     ... }  //Error here: cannot convert value of type 'String' to expected argument type 'AnyClass' (aka 'AnyObject.Type') var className = NSStringFromClass("customClass")  let c: customClass = NSClassFromString(className) 

I'm not doing something right but have not found any solutions online.

How do I create an instance of a class using a string in Swift 3?

Answer 1

You can try this:

func classFromString(_ className: String) -> AnyClass! {      /// get namespace     let namespace = Bundle.main.infoDictionary!["CFBundleExecutable"] as! String      /// get 'anyClass' with classname and namespace      let cls: AnyClass = NSClassFromString("\(namespace).\(className)")!      // return AnyClass!     return cls } 

use the func like this:

class customClass: UITableView {}     let myclass = classFromString("customClass") as! UITableView.Type let instance = myclass.init() 

Answer 2

Apple provides a way to achieve this without having to use NSClassFromString.

Bundle.main.classNamed("MyClassName")

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/bundle/1407299-classnamed