Custom UITableViewCell from nib in Swift

With Swift 5 and iOS 12.2, you should try the following code in order to solve your problem:

CustomCell.swift

import UIKit

class CustomCell: UITableViewCell {

    // Link those IBOutlets with the UILabels in your .XIB file
    @IBOutlet weak var middleLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var leftLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var rightLabel: UILabel!

}

TableViewController.swift

import UIKit

class TableViewController: UITableViewController {

    let items = ["Item 1", "Item2", "Item3", "Item4"]

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        tableView.register(UINib(nibName: "CustomCell", bundle: nil), forCellReuseIdentifier: "CustomCell")
    }

    // MARK: - UITableViewDataSource

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

    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "CustomCell", for: indexPath) as! CustomCell

        cell.middleLabel.text = items[indexPath.row]
        cell.leftLabel.text = items[indexPath.row]
        cell.rightLabel.text = items[indexPath.row]

        return cell
    }

}

The image below shows a set of constraints that work with the provided code without any constraints ambiguity message from Xcode:

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Swift 4

Register Nib

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    tblMissions.register(UINib(nibName: "MissionCell", bundle: nil), forCellReuseIdentifier: "MissionCell")
}

In TableView DataSource

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    guard let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "MissionCell", for: indexPath) as? MissionCell else { return UITableViewCell() }
    return cell
}

Here's my approach using Swift 2 and Xcode 7.3. This example will use a single ViewController to load two .xib files -- one for a UITableView and one for the UITableCellView.

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For this example you can drop a UITableView right into an empty TableNib.xib file. Inside, set the file's owner to your ViewController class and use an outlet to reference the tableView.

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and

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Now, in your view controller, you can delegate the tableView as you normally would, like so

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {

    @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!

    ...

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.

        // Table view delegate
        self.tableView.delegate = self
        self.tableView.dataSource = self

        ...

To create your Custom cell, again, drop a Table View Cell object into an empty TableCellNib.xib file. This time, in the cell .xib file you don't have to specify an "owner" but you do need to specify a Custom Class and an identifier like "TableCellId"

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Create your subclass with whatever outlets you need like so

class TableCell: UITableViewCell {

    @IBOutlet weak var nameLabel: UILabel!

}

Finally... back in your View Controller, you can load and display the entire thing like so

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.

    // First load table nib
    let bundle = NSBundle(forClass: self.dynamicType)
    let tableNib = UINib(nibName: "TableNib", bundle: bundle)
    let tableNibView = tableNib.instantiateWithOwner(self, options: nil)[0] as! UIView

    // Then delegate the TableView
    self.tableView.delegate = self
    self.tableView.dataSource = self

    // Set resizable table bounds
    self.tableView.frame = self.view.bounds
    self.tableView.autoresizingMask = [.FlexibleWidth, .FlexibleHeight]

    // Register table cell class from nib
    let cellNib = UINib(nibName: "TableCellNib", bundle: bundle)
    self.tableView.registerNib(cellNib, forCellReuseIdentifier: self.tableCellId)

    // Display table with custom cells
    self.view.addSubview(tableNibView)

}

The code shows how you can simply load and display a nib file (the table), and second how to register a nib for cell use.

Hope this helps!!!