Create UITableView programmatically in Swift

Question

I try to implement UITableView programmatically without use of xib or Storyboards. This is my code:

ViewController.swift

import UIKi         


        

Answer 1

Note: As you mentioned you just started programming in Swift. I created a tableView programmatically. Copy and paste below code into your viewController and run the project...

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {

    private let myArray: NSArray = ["First","Second","Third"]
    private var myTableView: UITableView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let barHeight: CGFloat = UIApplication.shared.statusBarFrame.size.height
        let displayWidth: CGFloat = self.view.frame.width
        let displayHeight: CGFloat = self.view.frame.height

        myTableView = UITableView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: barHeight, width: displayWidth, height: displayHeight - barHeight))
        myTableView.register(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "MyCell")
        myTableView.dataSource = self
        myTableView.delegate = self
        self.view.addSubview(myTableView)
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
        print("Num: \(indexPath.row)")
        print("Value: \(myArray[indexPath.row])")
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return myArray.count
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "MyCell", for: indexPath as IndexPath)
        cell.textLabel!.text = "\(myArray[indexPath.row])"
        return cell
    }
}

Output:

Answer 2

Simple solution

import UIKit

class CustomTableViewController: UICollectionViewController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        tableView.register(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "Cell")
    }

    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return 10
    }

    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "Cell", for: indexPath as IndexPath)
        cell.textLabel!.text = "\(indexPath.row)"
        return cell
    }
}

Answer 3

I had a similar issue in that the data would not populate for my programmatic UITableView. This was because I was using a delegate/dataSource without a strong reference. Once I kept a reference to it (I had one class implementing both UITableViewDataSource and UITableViewDelegate), the data was populated.

Answer 4

It makes no sense that you are using a UITableViewController as the data source and delegate for your view controller's table view. Your own view controller should be the table view's data source and delegate.

Since you seem to want a view controller with a table view that doesn't take up the entire view, move every thing to your view controller as follows:

ViewController.swift:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let tableView: UITableView = UITableView()
        tableView.frame = CGRect(x: 10, y: 10, width: 100, height: 500)
        tableView.dataSource = self
        tableView.delegate = self

        self.view.addSubview(tableView)
    }

    func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        NSLog("sections")
        return 2
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        NSLog("rows")
        return 3
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        NSLog("get cell")
        let cell = UITableViewCell(style: UITableViewCellStyle.Value1, reuseIdentifier: "Cell")
        cell.textLabel!.text = "foo"
        return cell
    }  
}

Answer 5

import UIKit

class ViewController: UITableViewController {

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    tableView.register(TableCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "cell")
}

override func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
    return 1
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    return 10
}

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "cell", for: indexPath) as! TableCell
    cell.nameLabel.text = "TableViewCell programtically"
    cell.nameLabel.textAlignment = .center
    cell.nameLabel.textColor  = .white
    return cell
}

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> CGFloat {
    return 100
}
}

Answer 6

Swift 4 compatible

Instead of adding a UITableView to your UIViewController, you should consider creating a UITableViewController and avoid setting up delegates:

class YourTVC: TableViewController {

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    // setup custom cells if you use them
    tableView.register(CustomTableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "yourCell")
  }

  // MARK: tableView
  override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    return 3 // set to value needed
  }

  override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "yourCell", for: indexPath) as! CustomTableViewCell
    cell.textLabel?.text = "Cell at row \(indexPath.row)"
    return cell
  }

}