Setting background color of a table view cell on iPhone

Question

I want to achieve the effect where one cell of the table view will have blue background, the next one will have white, the next one will have blue again, and then white and

Answer 1

The cell.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithRed...] method in lostInTransit's answer works, as long as you do not use the built-in label of a UITableViewCell.

I found that if you use the built-in label, e.g. by setting cell.text, you end up with a opaque white block under the label and only the two ends of the cell show your desired color.

I found no way to edit the built-in label so it is non-opaque (you can access it via UILabel* cellLabel = [cell.contentView.subviews objectAtIndex:0]).

I solved the problem by adding my own custom UILabel. Like this:

UILabel* cellLabel = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:cell.frame] autorelease];
cellLabel.text = @"Test with non-opaque label";
cellLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
cellLabel.opaque = NO;

[cell.contentView addSubview:cellLabel];
cell.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];