Is it possible to have differing heights in a UITableView Cell when I use several different ways of displaying the cell?

Question

I\'ve spent several days trying to figure this out, but there doesn\'t seem to be a solution. I have a very basic UITableView cell with two labels in it. One of them will be

Answer 1

The height of a table view cell is decided by the table based on the rowHeight property, or on the return value of optional func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat from the table view delegate.

The height that may be set by the programmer for the UITableViewCell through its frame property is ignored!

Hence you need to figure out the desired height of each cell programatically. Then you need to implement optional func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat from the table view delegate for each of the cells.

If the size of a cell changes while the table view is displayed, you need to either:

• reload the table with reloadData() from UITableView, or
• update the cell with func reloadRowsAtIndexPaths(_ indexPaths: [NSIndexPath], withRowAnimation animation: UITableViewRowAnimation) from UITableView.

Edit

Actually since you are using constraints in you view it should work without using ``.

Try to replace the code in if categories[parent] == "words" { .. } with:

        cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(childWordsCellIdentifier, forIndexPath: indexPath) as UITableViewCell

        // Reset content
        for subview in cell.contentView.subviews {
            subview.removeFromSuperview()
        }
        cell.prepareForReuse()


        let words                   = self.page.valueForKey("words")!.allObjects as! [Word]
        let wordsInOrder            = words.sort({Int($0.order!) < Int($1.order!) })
        let word                    = wordsInOrder[indexPath.row - 1]


        let wordLabel               = UILabel(frame: CGRectZero)
        wordLabel.text              = word.valueForKey("sanskrit") as? String
        wordLabel.font              = UIFont(name: "EuphemiaUCAS-Bold", size: 16)
        wordLabel.numberOfLines     = 0
        wordLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        wordLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.greenColor().CGColor
        wordLabel.layer.borderWidth = 1.0

        let englishWordLabel           = UILabel(frame: CGRectZero)
        englishWordLabel.text          = "Foobar don't want to play my game with my anymore."
        englishWordLabel.font          = UIFont(name: "STHeitiTC-Light", size: 16)
        englishWordLabel.numberOfLines = 0

        let stackView = UIStackView()
        stackView.axis = .Horizontal
        stackView.distribution = .FillProportionally
        stackView.alignment = .Fill  // EDIT
        stackView.spacing = 15
        stackView.layoutMargins = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 20, bottom: 0, right: 20)
        stackView.layoutMarginsRelativeArrangement = true

        stackView.addArrangedSubview(wordLabel)
        stackView.addArrangedSubview(englishWordLabel)

        stackView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

        cell.contentView.addSubview(stackView)
        cell.contentView.leadingAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(stackView.leadingAnchor).active = true
        cell.contentView.topAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(stackView.topAnchor).active = true
        cell.contentView.trailingAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(stackView.trailingAnchor).active = true
        cell.contentView.bottomAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(stackView.bottomAnchor).active = true

        cell.contentView.layoutIfNeeded()

Also I would have used two different cells classes for this task rather than removing the views in the contentView.

Please let me know how it goes!