Handling an empty UITableView. Print a friendly message

Question

I have a UITableView that in some cases it is legal to be empty. So instead of showing the background image of the app, I would prefer to print a friendly message in the scr

Answer 1

So for a safer solution:

extension UITableView {
func setEmptyMessage(_ message: String) {
    guard self.numberOfRows() == 0 else {
        return
    }
    let messageLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.bounds.size.width, height: self.bounds.size.height))
    messageLabel.text = message
    messageLabel.textColor = .black
    messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
    messageLabel.textAlignment = .center;
    messageLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14.0, weight: UIFontWeightMedium)
    messageLabel.sizeToFit()

    self.backgroundView = messageLabel;
    self.separatorStyle = .none;
}

func restore() {
    self.backgroundView = nil
    self.separatorStyle = .singleLine
}

public func numberOfRows() -> Int {
    var section = 0
    var rowCount = 0
    while section < numberOfSections {
        rowCount += numberOfRows(inSection: section)
        section += 1
    }
    return rowCount
  }
}

and for UICollectionView as well:

extension UICollectionView {
func setEmptyMessage(_ message: String) {
    guard self.numberOfItems() == 0 else {
        return
    }

    let messageLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.bounds.size.width, height: self.bounds.size.height))
    messageLabel.text = message
    messageLabel.textColor = .black
    messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
    messageLabel.textAlignment = .center;
    messageLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 18.0, weight: UIFontWeightSemibold)
    messageLabel.sizeToFit()
    self.backgroundView = messageLabel;
}

func restore() {
    self.backgroundView = nil
}

public func numberOfItems() -> Int {
    var section = 0
    var itemsCount = 0
    while section < self.numberOfSections {
        itemsCount += numberOfItems(inSection: section)
        section += 1
    }
    return itemsCount
  }
}

More Generic Solution:

    protocol EmptyMessageViewType {
      mutating func setEmptyMessage(_ message: String)
      mutating func restore()
    }

    protocol ListViewType: EmptyMessageViewType where Self: UIView {
      var backgroundView: UIView? { get set }
    }

    extension UITableView: ListViewType {}
    extension UICollectionView: ListViewType {}

    extension ListViewType {
      mutating func setEmptyMessage(_ message: String) {
        let messageLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0,
                                                 y: 0,
                                                 width: self.bounds.size.width,
                                                 height: self.bounds.size.height))
        messageLabel.text = message
        messageLabel.textColor = .black
        messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0
        messageLabel.textAlignment = .center
        messageLabel.font = UIFont(name: "TrebuchetMS", size: 16)
        messageLabel.sizeToFit()

        backgroundView = messageLabel
    }

     mutating func restore() {
        backgroundView = nil
     }
}