UIStackView in UITableView cell causes jerking when scrolled - ios

Question

I have a UITableView cell with a stack view inside. When the cell is tapped the data source changes and the table view is reloaded. The stack view will now have more views inside and the cell is bigger. However sometimes when I scroll the table there is jerky behaviour. It's almost like the cell size was calculated wrong or something (even though it looks fine). Once the tableview has jerked once it is fine and doesn't do it again until I tap the cell and it adds more stack views.
I am using UITableViewAutomaticDimension on the table view. I have tried removing the cell and the table doesn't jerk. It's defiantly the stack view causing issues.
I set my estimated row height to as close as possible to the calculated height tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 270. No affect. I have also tried implementing the delegate and it makes no difference. I have tried many combinations or sizes and the result is the same. Any idea on what I am doing wrong here? Do stack views in cells just suck?

Answer 1

I think you are on the right track about estimatedRowHeight causing trouble. I encounter this jerking problem and in pretty much every tableView with varying element size. What usually does the job is "caching" cell heights and returning them in delegate, something like:
class MyViewController: UIViewController {
fileprivate var cachedCellHeights = [IndexPath: CGFloat]()
//your code here
}
extension MyViewController: UITableViewDelegate {
public func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplay cell: UITableViewCell, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
cachedCellHeights[indexPath] = cell.frame.height
}
public func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, estimatedHeightForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> CGFloat {
if let height = cachedCellHeights[indexPath] {
return height
}
return 270
}
}
It should work as long as you configure your cell (i.e. add new views to stack view) in tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath).
The same applies to section headers.