willDisplayHeaderView being called but text attributes in titleForHeaderInSection remain unchanged - ios

Question

I have a custom tableView with the willDisplayHeaderView below.
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
let tableViewHeaderFooterview = UITableViewHeaderFooterView()
tableViewHeaderFooterview.textLabel?.font = UIFont.hmFont(13)
tableViewHeaderFooterview.textLabel?.textColor = UIColor.hmDarkGrey()
}
I have another tableViewController that subclasses from the custom tableView with the titleForHeaderInSection below.
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
if section == 0 {
return "YOUR SUBSCRIPTION"
} else if section == 1 {
return "SIGN OUT"
}
return nil
}
My willDisplayHeaderView is called but I am not seeing the changes in the header view titles when I run my app on simulator. I have been searching for answers the past couple hours on here but so far no solution has worked. I thought at first I might be forgetting to set my delegate/datasource but that didn't work.

Answer 1

Let's take a look at your code
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
let tableViewHeaderFooterview = UITableViewHeaderFooterView()
tableViewHeaderFooterview.textLabel?.font = UIFont.hmFont(13)
tableViewHeaderFooterview.textLabel?.textColor = UIColor.hmDarkGrey()
}
In the function declaration you've got a view called view that your function is being called with. In other words, iOS is looking up this function on your class and saying, "I'm about to show this view, just so you know." In the first line of your implementation though, you're creating a new view called tableViewHeaderFooterview and setting some properties on it. Those changes are not going to be reflected in the view that iOS is telling you about.
At this point you have a few choices: 1) muck around with view's subviews looking for labels (messy and bad), 2) try to cast it to UITableHeaderFooterView (if let header = view as? UITableViewHeaderFooterView { header.textLabel.font = whatever }), or 3) register your own UIView subclass and configure it how you want ahead of time:
class MyHeader: UITableViewHeaderFooterView {
...
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView.registerClass(MyHeader.self, forHeaderFooterViewReuseIdentifier: "myHeader")
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
if let header = tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterView(withIdentifier: "myHeader") as? MyHeader {
myHeader.label.text = "YOUR SUBSCRIPTION";
return myHeader
}
return nil
}