Using autolayout in a tableHeaderView

Question

I have a UIView subclass that contains a multi-line UILabel. This view uses autolayout.

Answer 1

I'll add my 2 cents since this question is highly indexed in Google. I think you should be using

self.tableView.sectionHeaderHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
self.tableView.estimatedSectionHeaderHeight = 200 //a rough estimate, doesn't need to be accurate

in your ViewDidLoad. Also, to load a custom UIView to a Header you should really be using viewForHeaderInSection delegate method. You can have a custom Nib file for your header (UIView nib). That Nib must have a controller class which subclasses UITableViewHeaderFooterView like-

class YourCustomHeader: UITableViewHeaderFooterView {
    //@IBOutlets, delegation and other methods as per your needs
}

Make sure your Nib file name is the same as the class name just so you don't get confused and it's easier to manage. like YourCustomHeader.xib and YourCustomHeader.swift (containing class YourCustomHeader). Then, just assign YourCustomHeader to your Nib file using identity inspector in the interface builder.

Then register the Nib file as your header view in the main View Controller's viewDidLoad like-

tableView.register(UINib(nibName: "YourCustomHeader", bundle: nil), forHeaderFooterViewReuseIdentifier: "YourCustomHeader")

And then in your heightForHeaderInSection just return UITableViewAutomaticDimension. This is how the delegates should look like-

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
     let headerView = tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterView(withIdentifier: "YourCustomHeader") as! YourCustomHeader
     return headerView
}

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
     return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}

This is a much simpler and the appropriate way of doing without the "Hackish" ways suggested in the accepted answer since multiple forced layouts could impact your app's performance, especially if you have multiple custom headers in your tableview. Once you do the above method as I suggest, you would notice your Header (and or Footer) view expand and shrink magically based on your custom view's content size (provided you are using AutoLayout in the custom view, i.e. YourCustomHeader, nib file).