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# prepareForReuse()

Prepares a reusable cell for reuse by the table view’s delegate.

```
func prepareForReuse()
```

## Discussion

If a [`UITableViewCell`](/documentation/UIKit/UITableViewCell) object has a reuse identifier, the table view invokes this method just before returning the object from the `UITableView` method [`dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITableView/dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier:)). To avoid potential performance issues, you should only reset attributes of the cell that are not related to content, for example, alpha, editing, and selection state. The table view’s delegate in [`tableView(_:cellForRowAt:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITableViewDataSource/tableView(_:cellForRowAt:)) should *always* reset all content when reusing a cell.

The table view doesn’t call this method if the cell object doesn’t have an associated reuse identifier, or if you use [`reconfigureRows(at:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITableView/reconfigureRows(at:)) to update the contents of an existing cell.

If you override this method, you must be sure to invoke the superclass implementation.

## See Also

[`initWithFrame:reuseIdentifier:`](/documentation/UIKit/UITableViewCell/initWithFrame:reuseIdentifier:)

Initializes and returns a table cell object.


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