Reload section without reloading section header

Question

I have a UITableView, where there is a UISegmentedControl in the header view. It should work exactly like in the App Store app: As the user scrolls

Answer 1

Here's another way which you could use and still use animations.

Let's say you have a dynamic DataSource, which changes when you select something, and you want to update just the rows of that section, while leaving the section header on top, untouched.

/** I get the desired handler from the handler collection. This handler is just a
 simple NSObject subclass subscribed to UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDataSource
 protocols. **/
id handler = [self.tableViewHandlers objectForKey:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:index]];

/**  Get the rows which will be deleted  */
NSInteger numberOfRows = [self.tableView numberOfRowsInSection:sectionIndex];
NSMutableArray* indexPathArray = [NSMutableArray array];

for (int rowIndex = 0; rowIndex < numberOfRows; rowIndex++){
    [indexPathArray addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:rowIndex inSection:sectionIndex]];
}

/**  Update the handler  */
[self.tableView setDataSource:handler];
[self.tableView setDelegate:handler];

/**  Get the rows which will be added  */
NSInteger newNumberOfRows = [handler tableView:self.tableView numberOfRowsInSection:sectionIndex];
NSMutableArray* newIndexPathArray = [NSMutableArray array];

for (int rowIndex = 0; rowIndex < newNumberOfRows; rowIndex++){
    [newIndexPathArray addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:rowIndex inSection:sectionIndex]];
}

/**  Perform updates  */
[self.tableView beginUpdates];
[self.tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:indexPathArray withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
[self.tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:newIndexPathArray withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
[self.tableView endUpdates];

As a note, please stick to the specified order of operations, UITableView demands it. If you have only one handler (datasource and delegate), it's easy to modify the above code to achieve the same results.

Answer 2

Try this:

BOOL needsReloadHeader = YES;
UIView *oldHeaderView = nil;

-(UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    UIView *headerToReturn = nil;
    if(needsReloadHeader == YES) {
        headerToReturn = [[UIView alloc] init];
        // ...
        // custom your header view in this block
        // and save
        // ...
        oldHeaderView = headerToReturn;
    } else {
        headerToReturn = oldHeaderView;
    }
    return headerToReturn;
}

Your just need to change 'needsReloadHeader' to 'NO' in other places.

Answer 3

Maybe you should try with

[self.tableView reloadRowsAtIndexPaths:[self.tableView indexPathsForVisibleRows] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationLeft] //or UITableViewRowAnimationRight

However, I'm not sure but I think it can rise some error in the case where you have less rows to reload than previously.

---

Edit

I think you could deal with [tableView beginUpdates] and [tableView endUpdates] to solve your problem.

For example, you have 2 arrays of data to display. Let name them oldArray and newArray. A sample of how what you could do :

- (void)selectedSegmentIndexChanged:(UISegmentedControl *)sender
{
    [self.tableView setDataSource: newArray];
    int nbRowToDelete = [oldArray count];
    int nbRowToInsert = [newArray count];

    NSMutableArray *indexPathsToInsert = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    for (NSInteger i = 0; i < nbRowToInsert; i++) {
        [indexPathsToInsert addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:i inSection:section]];
    }

    NSMutableArray *indexPathsToDelete = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    for (NSInteger i = 0; i < nbRowToDelete; i++) {
        [indexPathsToDelete addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:i inSection:section]];
    }

    [self.tableView beginUpdates];
    [self.tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:indexPathsToDelete withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationLeft];
    [self.tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:indexPathsToInsert withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationRight];
    [self.tableView endUpdates];
}

Answer 4

If you are using Swift 2.0, feel free to use this extension.

Be warned: passing in the wrong oldCount or newCount will crash you program.

extension UITableView{

func reloadRowsInSection(section: Int, oldCount:Int, newCount: Int){

    let maxCount = max(oldCount, newCount)
    let minCount = min(oldCount, newCount)

    var changed = [NSIndexPath]()

    for i in minCount..<maxCount {
        let indexPath = NSIndexPath(forRow: i, inSection: section)
        changed.append(indexPath)
    }

    var reload = [NSIndexPath]()
    for i in 0..<minCount{
        let indexPath = NSIndexPath(forRow: i, inSection: section)
        reload.append(indexPath)
    }

    beginUpdates()
    if(newCount > oldCount){
        insertRowsAtIndexPaths(changed, withRowAnimation: .Fade)
    }else if(oldCount > newCount){
        deleteRowsAtIndexPaths(changed, withRowAnimation: .Fade)
    }
    if(newCount > oldCount || newCount == oldCount){
        reloadRowsAtIndexPaths(reload, withRowAnimation: .None)
    }
    endUpdates()

}

Answer 5

The simple answer is just don't reload the sections animated, just use UITableViewRowAnimationNone.

Right now you're using UITableViewRowAnimationLeft and UITableViewRowAnimationRight, which slides your section in and out as well.

However, even with UITableViewRowAnimationNone, rows will still be animated if the number of cells before the update differ from the ones after the update.

Also, a nice read on this topic, here.

Cheers.

Answer 6

An objective-c version of Intentss extension

@interface UITableView (Extensions)

- (void)reloadRowsInSection:(NSUInteger)sectionIndex withRowAnimation:(UITableViewRowAnimation)rowAnimation oldCount:(NSUInteger)oldCount newCount:(NSUInteger)newCount;

@end


@implementation UITableView (Extensions)

- (void)reloadRowsInSection:(NSUInteger)sectionIndex withRowAnimation:(UITableViewRowAnimation)rowAnimation oldCount:(NSUInteger)oldCount newCount:(NSUInteger)newCount {

    NSUInteger minCount = MIN(oldCount, newCount);

    NSMutableArray *insert = [NSMutableArray array];
    NSMutableArray *delete = [NSMutableArray array];
    NSMutableArray *reload = [NSMutableArray array];

    for (NSUInteger row = oldCount; row < newCount; row++) {
        [insert addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:row inSection:sectionIndex]];
    }

    for (NSUInteger row = newCount; row < oldCount; row++) {
        [delete addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:row inSection:sectionIndex]];
    }

    for (NSUInteger row = 0; row < minCount; row++) {
        [reload addObject:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:row inSection:sectionIndex]];
    }

    [self beginUpdates];

    [self insertRowsAtIndexPaths:insert withRowAnimation:rowAnimation];
    [self deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:delete withRowAnimation:rowAnimation];
    [self reloadRowsAtIndexPaths:reload withRowAnimation:rowAnimation];

    [self endUpdates];
}

@end