Qt : setData method in a QAbstractItemModel

Question

I\'m new to model view and I have been following this tutorial while checking the documentation at the same time and I stumbled upon this little detail : The code of the tut

Answer 1

To quote from the video tutorial regarding setData:

...this function needs to return true if the operation was successful, or else the view will not update itself.

Strictly speaking, this statement is false. The documentation for QAbstractItemModel only says that setData returns true if the data was set successfully, and false otherwise; it does not mention what the consequences of this might be. Specifically, it does not mention anything about updating the view.

Looking at the Qt source code, the return value of setData does get checked in a few places, and some of those checks can sometimes help trigger an update. But there are literally dozens of things that can trigger an update, so the return value of setData is in no way essential for updating items.

Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that setData should return true, otherwise the view may not update itself (under certain circumstances).