Howto fill UITableView with sections and rows dynamically?

Question

I have some problems with UITableView and sections/rows. Iam parsing the section names, all row names and row count per section from a xml.

I have 3 NSMutableArrays:

nameArray (with all row names) sectionArray (all section names) secCountArray (row count per section)

For the cellForRowAtindexPath to work, do I have to return the rows for the displayed section? The next step I would do is to build an 2d Array with sections and all rows for each section.

Does anyone knows any better solution?

Here comes the code:

// Customize the appearance of table view cells.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath    *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
    cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault     reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
    cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
}

// Set up the cell
int xmlEntryIndex = [indexPath indexAtPosition: [indexPath length] -1];

//???
cell.textLabel.text = [[theParser.nameArray objectAtIndex: 1]valueForKey:@"name"];


return cell;
}

Thanks!

Answer 1

You could have one array for the whole table view. The array contains arrays for every section. Then the cellForRowAtIndexPath could look like:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath    *)indexPath {
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
        cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
    }

    [[cell textLabel] setText: [[[myArray objectAtIndex: indexPath.section] objectAtIndex: indexPath.row]];
    return cell;
}

I hope this help you in your problem.

Edit: With the modern Objective-C and ARC I would write this as

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    ....
    [self.tableView registerClass:[MyCellClass class] forCellReuseIdentifier:kMyCellIdentifier];
} 
...
- (UITableViewCell*)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath {    

    MyCellClass *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:kMyCellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];

    cell.textLabel.text = myArray[indexPath.section][indexPath.row];

    return cell;
}

Answer 2

You could have one _section array and one _row array for the whole tableview.

like your view controller.h file declare array

NSMutableArray *arrSection, *arrRow;

then your view controller.m file paste below code..

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
arrSection = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"section1", @"section2", @"section3", @"section4", nil];
    arrRow = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
[arrSection enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
        NSMutableArray *tempSection = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        [arrSection enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
            [tempSection addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"row%d", idx]];
        }];
        [arrRow addObject:tempSection];
    }];
    NSLog(@"arrRow:%@", arrRow);
}

#pragma mark - Table view data source

-(NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    return [arrSection count];
}

-(NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    return [arrSection objectAtIndex:section];
}

-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    return [[arrRow objectAtIndex:section] count];
}

-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell* cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:nil];
    if(!cell)
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleValue1 reuseIdentifier:nil];
    cell.textLabel.text = [[arrRow objectAtIndex:[indexPath section]] objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]];
    return cell;
}

This method does not involve defining and creating your own custom view. In iOS 6 and up, you can easily change the background color and the text color by defining the

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView 
    willDisplayHeaderView:(UIView *)view 
    forSection:(NSInteger)section

delegate method.

For example:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayHeaderView:(UIView *)view forSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // Background color
    view.tintColor = [UIColor blackColor];

    // Text Color
    UITableViewHeaderFooterView *header = (UITableViewHeaderFooterView *)view;
    [header.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];

    // Another way to set the background color
    // Note: does not preserve gradient effect of original header
    // header.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
}

you can see display dynamic section and row May be helpful for you..