How does cellForRowAtIndexPath work?

Question

I HAVE READ apple documentation and it's not understandable for such a beginner in Objective-C as me. I'm trying to implement multicolumn UITableView following this link example and it just doesn't work so i need to comprehend how cellForRowAtIndexPath work, cause for me personally this method seems pretty complicated.

1) What does it return? UITableViewCell? But why does it look so odd?

-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView 

• What is that? Could you please explain?

2) How does it get called and what is more important how am i to connect it to a certain UITableView??? What if i have two UITableView's named firstTableView and secondTableView and i want them to be different (to perform cellForRowAtIndexPath differently)? How am i supposed to link my UITableViews to this

-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

the method accepts NSIndexPath, not UITableView. What am i gonna do?

Answer 1

I'll try and break it down (example from documention)

/* 
 *   The cellForRowAtIndexPath takes for argument the tableView (so if the same object
 *   is delegate for several tableViews it can identify which one is asking for a cell),
 *   and an indexPath which determines which row and section the cell is returned for. 
 */ 
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    /*
     *   This is an important bit, it asks the table view if it has any available cells
     *   already created which it is not using (if they are offScreen), so that it can
     *   reuse them (saving the time of alloc/init/load from xib a new cell ).
     *   The identifier is there to differentiate between different types of cells
     *   (you can display different types of cells in the same table view)
     */

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"MyIdentifier"];

    /*
     *   If the cell is nil it means no cell was available for reuse and that we should
     *   create a new one.
     */
    if (cell == nil) {

        /* 
         *   Actually create a new cell (with an identifier so that it can be dequeued). 
         */

        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:@"MyIdentifier"] autorelease];

        cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;

    }

    /*
     *   Now that we have a cell we can configure it to display the data corresponding to
     *   this row/section
     */

    NSDictionary *item = (NSDictionary *)[self.content objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    cell.textLabel.text = [item objectForKey:@"mainTitleKey"];
    cell.detailTextLabel.text = [item objectForKey:@"secondaryTitleKey"];
    NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:[item objectForKey:@"imageKey"] ofType:@"png"];
    UIImage *theImage = [UIImage imageWithContentsOfFile:path];
    cell.imageView.image = theImage;

    /* Now that the cell is configured we return it to the table view so that it can display it */

    return cell;

}

This is a DataSource method so it will be called on whichever object has declared itself as the DataSource of the UITableView. It is called when the table view actually needs to display the cell onscreen, based on the number of rows and sections (which you specify in other DataSource methods).

Answer 2

1) The function returns a cell for a table view yes? So, the returned object is of type UITableViewCell. These are the objects that you see in the table's rows. This function basically returns a cell, for a table view. But you might ask, how the function would know what cell to return for what row, which is answered in the 2nd question

2)NSIndexPath is essentially two things-

• Your Section
• Your row

Because your table might be divided to many sections and each with its own rows, this NSIndexPath will help you identify precisely which section and which row. They are both integers. If you're a beginner, I would say try with just one section.

It is called if you implement the UITableViewDataSource protocol in your view controller. A simpler way would be to add a UITableViewController class. I strongly recommend this because it Apple has some code written for you to easily implement the functions that can describe a table. Anyway, if you choose to implement this protocol yourself, you need to create a UITableViewCell object and return it for whatever row. Have a look at its class reference to understand re-usablity because the cells that are displayed in the table view are reused again and again(this is a very efficient design btw).

As for when you have two table views, look at the method. The table view is passed to it, so you should not have a problem with respect to that.

Answer 3

Basically it's designing your cell, The cellforrowatindexpath is called for each cell and the cell number is found by indexpath.row and section number by indexpath.section . Here you can use a label, button or textfied image anything that you want which are updated for all rows in the table. Answer for second question In cell for row at index path use an if statement

In Objective C

-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView  cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{

 NSString *CellIdentifier = @"CellIdentifier";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

  if(tableView == firstTableView)
  {
      //code for first table view 
      [cell.contentView addSubview: someView];
  }

  if(tableview == secondTableView)
  {
      //code for secondTableView 
      [cell.contentView addSubview: someView];
  }
  return cell;
}

In Swift 3.0

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell 
{
  let cell:UITableViewCell = self.tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: cellReuseIdentifier) as UITableViewCell!

  if(tableView == firstTableView)   {
     //code for first table view 
  }

  if(tableview == secondTableView)      {
     //code for secondTableView 
  }

  return cell
}