replacing a cell on the fly in a static UITableView - ios

Question

in an App I am writing, i have a form built using storyboard around a UITableView with static cells in a UITableViewController. The table has 6 rows that collects different bits of information. Row 0,3,4,5 have textfield/textview/labels to collect/display some information, row 1 has a UICollectionView with a dozen or so icons. row 2 has a height of 50 but is empty for now.
this setup works well but i am trying to add some functionality and i am stumped.
depending on what I select in the UICollectionView (in row 1), i would like to load one of a number of different cells in row 2
for example, if i click on the 2nd icon (blood pressure), the cell to load in row 2 will be used to input the systolic and diastolic values. if I click on the 3rd icon (temperature), the cell to load in row 2 will be used to input the temperature, etc...
i've designed the cells in separate class files of UITableViewCell and the corresponding xib files. i know how to register them using
tableView.register(UINib(nibName: "myBPTableCell", bundle: nil), forCellReuseIdentifier: "myBPTableCell")
just not sure where to put the logic to update the table on the fly.
if eventTypeCollectionIndex == 4 {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "myBPTableCell", for: indexPath) as! myBPdTableCell
return cell
}
i was thinking in
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
but since this function has to return a cell, i am not sure how to return the pre-existing cells for anything other than row 2
thanks
Sami

Answer 1

You would want to define different cases in the cell for row at index method. And then when the user taps a button, reload the cell that you would want to change.
You would either use reload rows or self.tableView.reloadData()
So for example:
var didTap = false
func buttonTapped() {
didTap = true
// Reload table
}
And then either use a different nib for the cell:
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
if didTap {
// show new appearance
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "myBPTableCell", for: indexPath) as! myBPdTableCell
return cell
} else {
// show original
let cell2 = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "myBPTableCell2", for: indexPath) as! myBPdTableCell2
return cell2
}
}
Or you could update the properties of the same nib class:
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "myBPTableCell", for: indexPath) as! myBPdTableCell
if didTap {
// show new appearance
cell.backgroundColor = .white
} else {
// show original
cell.backgroundColor = .black
}
return cell
}
Edit based on comment:
You can also just do the following, where you have one cell for row 2 and then another cell for the other rows:
if indexPath.row == 2 {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "myBPTableCell", for: indexPath) as! myBPdTableCell
if didTap {
cell.backgroundColor = .white
} else {
cell.backgroundColor = .black
}
return cell
} else {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "myOtherCell", for: indexPath) as! myOtherCell
return cell
}