When implementing a UITableView in your iOS application you will usually select a master-detail application:

Once the project is selected the UITableView implementation is ready for you to start adapting in your application, but sometimes your need just a tableView.

The implementation of the tableView is very simple to do in Swift. Start by implementing the following functions:

optional public func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int 
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath)

This function is optional per documentation: “Default is 1 if not implemented”

optional public func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int 

Lets start the implementation of our tableView.

-Open Xcode and go to the file menu and select new and select new project or press Ctrl+Shift+N.
-Select the name of your project.
-Select the location where you want to save your project.

Go to ViewController (ViewController.swift). In your ViewController you need to add the following delegates:

UITableViewDelegate,UITableViewDataSource

It will look like this:

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate,UITableViewDataSource

Now you need to add the variables. Choose a variable where you are going to store the objects you are going to display in your tableView:

var tableView: UITableView  =   UITableView()
let animals : [String] = ["Dogs","Cats","Mice"]

Now you need to initialize and set your tableView variable:

tableView = UITableView(frame: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds, style: UITableViewStyle.Plain)
tableView.delegate      =   self
tableView.dataSource    =   self
tableView.registerClass(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")
self.view.addSubview(self.tableView)

Because you are using only one section you are not going to implement the following function:

optional public func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int 

Now you need to get the count of elements you are going to display in your tableView:

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int
    {
        return animals.count
        
    }

Now you need to assign the values in your array variable to a cell:

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
    {
        
        let cell:UITableViewCell=UITableViewCell(style: UITableViewCellStyle.Subtitle, reuseIdentifier: "cell")
        cell.textLabel!.text = animals [indexPath.row]
        return cell;
    }

Now you need to register when user taps a cell:

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath)
    {
        print(animals[indexPath.row])
        
    }

Your implementation should look like this:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate,UITableViewDataSource {
    var tableView: UITableView  =   UITableView()
    let animals : [String] = ["Dogs","Cats","Mice"]
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        tableView = UITableView(frame: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds, style: UITableViewStyle.Plain)
        tableView.delegate      =   self
        tableView.dataSource    =   self
        tableView.registerClass(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")
        self.view.addSubview(self.tableView)
        
        
    }
    
    
    
    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int
    {
        return animals.count
        
    }
    
    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
    {
        
        let cell:UITableViewCell=UITableViewCell(style: UITableViewCellStyle.Subtitle, reuseIdentifier: "cell")
        cell.textLabel!.text = animals [indexPath.row]
        return cell;
    }
    
    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath)
    {
        print(animals[indexPath.row])
        
    }
}

If you click on the Run in your Xcode project should look like this:

Please let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment below or on twitter @luisemedr