Long press on UITableView

Question

First add the long press gesture recognizer to the table view:

UILongPressGestureRecognizer *lpgr = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] 
  initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleLongPress:)];
lpgr.minimumPressDuration = 2.0; //seconds
lpgr.delegate = self;
[self.myTableView addGestureRecognizer:lpgr];
[lpgr release];

Then in the gesture handler:

-(void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
{
    CGPoint p = [gestureRecognizer locationInView:self.myTableView];

    NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.myTableView indexPathForRowAtPoint:p];
    if (indexPath == nil) {
        NSLog(@"long press on table view but not on a row");
    } else if (gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {
        NSLog(@"long press on table view at row %ld", indexPath.row);
    } else {
        NSLog(@"gestureRecognizer.state = %ld", gestureRecognizer.state);
    }
}

You have to be careful with this so that it doesn't interfere with the user's normal tapping of the cell and also note that handleLongPress may fire multiple times (this will be due to the gesture recognizer state changes).

I've used Anna-Karenina's answer, and it works almost great with a very serious bug.

If you're using sections, long-pressing the section title will give you a wrong result of pressing the first row on that section, I've added a fixed version below (including the filtering of dummy calls based on the gesture state, per Anna-Karenina suggestion).

- (IBAction)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
{
    if (gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {

        CGPoint p = [gestureRecognizer locationInView:self.tableView];

        NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.tableView indexPathForRowAtPoint:p];
        if (indexPath == nil) {
            NSLog(@"long press on table view but not on a row");
        } else {
            UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
            if (cell.isHighlighted) {
                NSLog(@"long press on table view at section %d row %d", indexPath.section, indexPath.row);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer in Swift 5 (Continuation of Ricky's answer in Swift)

Add the UIGestureRecognizerDelegate to your ViewController

 override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    //Long Press
    let longPressGesture = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleLongPress))
    longPressGesture.minimumPressDuration = 0.5
    self.tableView.addGestureRecognizer(longPressGesture)
 }

And the function:

@objc func handleLongPress(longPressGesture: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
    let p = longPressGesture.location(in: self.tableView)
    let indexPath = self.tableView.indexPathForRow(at: p)
    if indexPath == nil {
        print("Long press on table view, not row.")
    } else if longPressGesture.state == UIGestureRecognizer.State.began {
        print("Long press on row, at \(indexPath!.row)")
    }
}

Here are clarified instruction combining Dawn Song's answer and Marmor's answer.

Drag a long Press Gesture Recognizer and drop it into your Table Cell. It will jump to the bottom of the list on the left.

Then connect the gesture recognizer the same way you would connect a button.

Add the code from Marmor in the the action handler

- (IBAction)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)sender {
if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {

    CGPoint p = [sender locationInView:self.tableView];

    NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.tableView indexPathForRowAtPoint:p];
    if (indexPath == nil) {
        NSLog(@"long press on table view but not on a row");
    } else {
        UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
        if (cell.isHighlighted) {
            NSLog(@"long press on table view at section %d row %d", indexPath.section, indexPath.row);
        }
    }
}

}