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

Using a Container View Controller is the right way to do it according to Apple.

I put all my empty state views in a separate Storyboard. Each under it's own UIViewController subclass. I add content directly under their root view. If any action/button is needed, you now already have a controller to handle it.
Then its just a matter of instantiating the desired view controller from that Storyboard, add it as a child view controller and add the container view to the tableView's hierarchy (sub view). Your empty state view will be scrollable as well, which feels good and allow you to implement pull to refresh.

Read chapter 'Adding a Child View Controller to Your Content' for help on how to implement.

Just make sure you set the child view frame as (0, 0, tableView.frame.width, tableView.frame.height) and things will be centered and aligned properly.