Resize a UITableView Header without autolayout - ios

Question

Is it possible to resize a UITabeView Header after the text is set to it?
In my xib I got a TableView with a header with a height of 42 for 1 line of text. For 2 lines I need a height of 52 and for 3 I need 62. The title is set dynamically to the header. But the heightForHeaderInSection func is called before the header text is set by the Lifecycle. So maybe lines 2 & 3 are not shown.
I wrote a method which tells me how many lines of text the header got but how to update the header? if i call tableView.reloadData() I end up in an infinity loop. And if I set var for every lineamoun
t I found the heightForheaderInSection is never called.
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: headerCell) as! SectionHeader
cell.titleLabel.text = self.sectionTitle
linesOfHeader = cell.getNumberOfLines()
return cell
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
if(linesOfHeader == 1) { return 44}
else if(linesOfHeader == 2) {return 52}
else { return 62}
}

Answer 1

a better solution to support dynamic header height is using "UITableViewAutomaticDimension" like this:
In viewDidLoad add these lines:
self.tableView.sectionHeaderHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
self.tableView.estimatedSectionHeaderHeight = 50
and remove the function heightForHeaderInSection
Then allow the label to extend to the required number of lines
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: headerCell) as! SectionHeader
cell.titleLabel.text = self.sectionTitle
cell.titleLabel.numberOfLines = 3
return cell
}
if the header height overlap the cells height as well add these two lines to viewDidLoad
self.tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
self.tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 40 // estimated cell height