Uploaded October 2012 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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By pavel@techytube, for more from this author visit:
techytube.com/author/pavel
An outlet is a property that is annotated with the symbol IBOutlet and whose value you can set graphically in a nib/xib file or a storyboard (which is new in iOS 5). You declare an outlet in the interface of a class, and you make a connection between the outlet and another object in the nib/xib file or storyboard. When the file is loaded, the connection is established.
You define an outlet as a property with the type qualifier of IBOutlet, as below:
@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UITextField *nameField;
The symbol IBOutlet is used only by Xcode, to determine when a property is an outlet, it has no actual value, and the Assistant editor gives us some nice tips about which IBOutlet property corresponds to which view on the screen when hovering on the small circle on the left of the property declaration.
Through an outlet, an object in your code can obtain a reference to an object defined in a nib file or storyboard and then loaded from that file. The object containing an outlet is often a custom controller object such as a view controller. You frequently define outlets so that you can send messages to view objects of the UIKit framework (in iOS) and the AppKit framework (in OS X).
Subscribe to our channel here for notifications on new video trainings. For more videos on technology, visit our website at http://www.techytube.com.
By pavel@techytube, for more from this author visit:
techytube.com/author/pavel
An outlet is a property that is annotated with the symbol IBOutlet and whose value you can set graphically in a nib/xib file or a storyboard (which is new in iOS 5). You declare an outlet in the interface of a class, and you make a connection between the outlet and another object in the nib/xib file or storyboard. When the file is loaded, the connection is established.
You define an outlet as a property with the type qualifier of IBOutlet, as below:
@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UITextField *nameField;
The symbol IBOutlet is used only by Xcode, to determine when a property is an outlet, it has no actual value, and the Assistant editor gives us some nice tips about which IBOutlet property corresponds to which view on the screen when hovering on the small circle on the left of the property declaration.
Through an outlet, an object in your code can obtain a reference to an object defined in a nib file or storyboard and then loaded from that file. The object containing an outlet is often a custom controller object such as a view controller. You frequently define outlets so that you can send messages to view objects of the UIKit framework (in iOS) and the AppKit framework (in OS X).
