viewForHeaderInSection not displaying label in table view - ios

Question

I am looking to change the background colour and text colour of the uitableview sections using viewForHeaderInSection like so:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
let sectionHeader = UIView()
let sectionText = UILabel()
sectionHeader.backgroundColor = .blue
sectionText.textColor = .red
sectionText.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .bold)
sectionText.text = painkillersArray[section]["label"] as? String
sectionHeader.addSubview(sectionText)
return sectionHeader
}
The background is working but the text is not appearing. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

you need to give frame to both the view and label and also you have to provide heightForHeaderInSection:-
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
let sectionHeader = UIView.init(frame: CGRect.init(x: 0, y: 0, width: tableView.frame.width, height: 50))
let sectionText = UILabel()
sectionText.frame = CGRect.init(x: 5, y: 5, width: sectionHeader.frame.width-10, height: sectionHeader.frame.height-10)
sectionText.text = "Custom Text"
sectionText.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .bold) // my custom font
sectionText.textColor = .red // my custom colour
sectionHeader.addSubview(sectionText)
return sectionHeader
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
return 60 // my custom height
}

Answer 2

===
EDIT: I removed the first code I wrote, which didn't handle autolayout correctly. Morevoer, as #rmaddy pointed out in the comment below, it would be better if you use the provided UITableViewHeaderFooterView as is.
Register
tableView.register(UITableViewHeaderFooterView.self, forHeaderFooterViewReuseIdentifier: "header")
in viewDidLoad and do
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
let header = tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterView(withIdentifier: "header")
header?.textLabel?.text = "foo"
return header
}
header?.textLabel?.textColor = .red won't work in the above method, so put customization code in
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
let header = tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterView(withIdentifier: "header")
header?.textLabel?.text = "foo"
return header
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
if let header = view as? UITableViewHeaderFooterView {
header.textLabel?.textColor = .red
header.backgroundView?.backgroundColor = .blue
}
}
===
To use autolayout constraints with more complex headers, provide a custom UITableViewHeaderFooterView subclass:
class CustomTableViewHeaderView: UITableViewHeaderFooterView {
func commonInit() {
let sectionHeader = UIView()
let sectionText = UILabel()
sectionHeader.backgroundColor = .blue
sectionText.textColor = .red
sectionText.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .bold)
sectionText.text = "foo"
sectionHeader.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
sectionText.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
sectionHeader.addSubview(sectionText)
addSubview(sectionHeader)
NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
sectionHeader.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leadingAnchor),
sectionHeader.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: trailingAnchor),
sectionHeader.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor),
sectionHeader.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: bottomAnchor),
sectionText.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: sectionHeader.leadingAnchor, constant: 16),
sectionText.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: sectionHeader.trailingAnchor),
sectionText.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: sectionHeader.topAnchor, constant: 8),
sectionText.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: sectionHeader.bottomAnchor, constant: -8),
])
}
override init(reuseIdentifier: String?) {
super.init(reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
commonInit()
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
commonInit()
}
}
and register it in viewDidLoad():
func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
...
tableView.register(CustomTableViewHeaderView.self, forHeaderFooterViewReuseIdentifier: "header")
...
}
Then simply dequeReusableHeaderFooterView:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
return tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterView(withIdentifier: "header")
}
Implement heightForHeaderInSection and estimatedHeightForHeaderInSection similarly.