Setting static cells in uitableview programmatically

Question

I am programmatically creating a tableview in objective c. How can I make the cells static programmatically?

Thanks

Answer 1

I you want to create cells structure for example for a settings screen or something like that and you maybe need just to modify some cells content but not their number or sections structure you can overload method of your UITableViewController subclass like this:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *aCell = [super tableView:tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];

    // Configure the cell...
    if ([aCell.reuseIdentifier isEqualToString:@"someIdentifier"]){
        //some configuration block
    }

    else if ([aCell.reuseIdentifier isEqualToString:@"someOtherIdentifier"]) {
        //other configuration block
    }
    return aCell;
}

But you can make it in a better way with a little bit more code;

1) In the begining of your .m file add typedef:

typedef void(^IDPCellConfigurationBlock)(UITableViewCell *aCell);

2) add cellConfigurations property to your TablviewControllerSubclass extention:

@interface IPDSettingsTableViewController ()

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSDictionary *cellConfigurations;
@property (nonatomic) id dataModel;

@end

3) Modify your static cells of TableviewController subclass in storyboard or xib and add unique cellReuseIdentifier for each cell you want to modify programmatically

4) In your viewDidLoad method setup cellsConfiguration blocks:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [self SetupCellsConfigurationBlocks];
}

- (void)SetupCellsConfigurationBlocks
{
    //Store configurations code for each cell reuse identifier
    NSMutableDictionary *cellsConfigurationBlocks = [NSMutableDictionary new];        


    //store cells configurations for a different cells identifiers
    cellsConfigurationBlocks[@"someCellIdentifier"] = ^(UITableViewCell *aCell){
        aCell.backgroundColor = [UIColor orangeColor];
    };

    cellsConfigurationBlocks[@"otherCellIdentifier"] = ^(UITableViewCell *aCell){
        aCell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"some image name"];
    };

    //use waek reference to self to avoid memory leaks
    __weak typeof (self) weakSelf = self;
    cellsConfigurationBlocks[@"nextCellIdentifier"] = ^(UITableViewCell *aCell){
        //You can even use your data model to configure cell
        aCell.textLabel.textColor = [[weakSelf.dataModel someProperty] isEqual:@YES] ? [UIColor purpleColor] : [UIColor yellowColor];
        aCell.textLabel.text      = [weakSelf.dataModel someOtherProperty];
    };
    weakSelf.cellConfigurations = [cellsConfigurationBlocks copy];
}

5) overload tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath method like this:

#pragma mark - Table view data source

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *aCell = [super tableView:tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];

    // configure cell
    [self configureCell:aCell withConfigurationBlock:self.cellConfigurations[aCell.reuseIdentifier]];
    return aCell;
}

- (void)configureCell:(UITableViewCell *)aCell withConfigurationBlock:(IDPCellConfigurationBlock)configureCellBlock
{
    if (configureCellBlock){
        configureCellBlock(aCell);
    }
}