Separating Data Source to another class in Swift

Question

I\'m trying to keep my view controllers clean as described in this article objc.io Issue #1 Lighter View Controllers. I tested this method in Objective-C and it works fine.

Answer 1

Create a property for data source and use it with your tableview.

class ViewController: UIViewController {

  @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
  var dataSource:TableDataSource!

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    dataSource = TableDataSource(items: ["One", "Two", "Three"], cellIdentifier: "Cell")

   tableView.dataSource = dataSource

  }
}

Answer 2

I used the below code, for more generic approach, as a try..

import UIKit

class CustomDataSource<ItemsType, CellType:UITableViewCell>: NSObject, UITableViewDataSource {

    typealias ConfigureCellClosure = (_ item: ItemsType, _ cell: CellType) -> Void
    private var items: [ItemsType]
    private let identifier: String
    private var configureCellClosure: ConfigureCellClosure


    init(withData items: [ItemsType], andId identifier: String, withConfigBlock config:@escaping ConfigureCellClosure) {

        self.identifier = identifier
        self.items      = items
        self.configureCellClosure = config
    }

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

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: self.identifier, for: indexPath) as! CellType
        configureCellClosure(items[indexPath.row], cell)
        return cell
    }

    func item(at indexpath: IndexPath) -> ItemsType {

        return items[indexpath.row]
    }

}

In view controller

   var dataSource: CustomDataSource<CellObject, CustomTableViewCell>?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

         dataSource = CustomDataSource<CellObject, CustomTableViewCell>(withData: customDataStore.customData(), andId: CustomTableViewCell.defaultReuseIdentifier) { (cellObject, cell) in
            cell.configureCell(with: cellObject)
        }
        customTableView.dataSource = dataSource

        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
}

Used this approach in my small project WorldCountriesSwift

Answer 3

Extending the accepted answer by "ayalcinkaya", which explains the how but not the why:

Most probably what is happening is that your TableDataSource is being deallocated as tableview.dataSource is a weak reference, that is why creating a property solves the problem, as it creates a strong reference and avoids the dataSource delegate being deallocated.