uitableview custom cell has nil values

Hello,

Sorry i placed it in the wrong forum. the way this ui works is still unfamiliar to me if I don't know the valid forums that are available. I know to put it in swift next time as this is a swift programming language issue.

I've been learning how to do tableviews.

I have implemented a custom tableviewcell on a view which is part of my main screen and it's controller.

I've implemented methods for the datasource and delegate

this is the main code of the datasource function.

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: identifier, for: indexPath) as! PanicAlertTableViewCell
        let sender = sender_list[indexPath.row]
        let number = indexPath.row
        let count = String.localizedStringWithFormat("%I)", number)
           print(sender_list[number])
        cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyle.none
        if sender.is_sound == "0" {
            cell.btnOff.isHidden = true
        }
        cell.delegate = self
        cell.set(number: count, alert: sender.name, indexPath: indexPath)
        return cell

    }

these are the other 2 functions used with the tableview

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        NSLog("Counting rows")
        return sender_list.count
  
    }

func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        return 1
    }

Here is the class in question:

class PanicAlertTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
   
    public var delegate : PanicAlertTableViewCellDelegate?
   


    var indexPath: IndexPath?




    @IBOutlet weak var lblNumber: UILabel!
   
    @IBOutlet weak var lblAlert: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var btnOff: UIButton!
   
    func set(number: String, alert: String, indexPath: IndexPath) {
        self.lblNumber.text = number
        self.lblAlert.text = alert
        self.indexPath = indexPath
    }
   
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()
        // Initialization code
    }


    override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
        super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)


        // Configure the view for the selected state
    }


   
   
    @IBAction func btnOff(_ sender: UIButton) {
        if (indexPath != nil && delegate != nil) {
            delegate!.panicButtonClicked(cell: self, indexPath: indexPath!)
        }
       
       
    }
}

sender_list is an array of PanicSender objects however the number items in this array are always changing, so i run the reloadData method on the tableview.

however when it goes to set the number and name with the labels in the cell it crashes with BAD_EXC_INSTRUCTION

I learnt that the cell itself has to have an identifier. this identifier is PanicIdentifier.

however it doesn't load the awakeFromNib function (I have a breakpoint on the function but the program never stops)

All three components are connected with the storyboard.

I imagine i'm just missing something as this is my first time using tableviews.

It appears as though there are some solutions but feel like i'm following a rabbit hole. I've looked at these articles:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20725151/how-to-properly-init-a-custom-uitableviewcell

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29321383/iboutlet-is-nil-but-it-is-connected-in-storyboard-swift

Thanks for any help in advance!