Swift 3 - Expandable table view cells without closing other ones - ios

Question

I am using Swift 3.
I've been following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWgr_wNtGPM , supplemented by this answer on StackOverflow.
However, the way that this works is that if I click on a cell, it expands while hiding other cells. How do I make it such that when I expand it, the other already-expanded cells stay expanded?

Answer 1

The best approach I suggest you for achieving this in an elegant way is implementing it through UIStackView elements.
Take a look this post http://www.atomicbird.com/blog/uistackview-table-cells

Answer 2

if you wanna do this yourself, you could try this way.
first step is you should create a model list just like:
var cellsData: [CustomData] = [];
the CustomData seem like:
class CustomData {
var isExpanded: Bool = false;
// whatever other variables
}
then your custom cell should whatever look like but you must do something in the tableView:didSelectItemAt like:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
let row = indexPath.row;
self.cellsData[row].isExpanded = !self.cellsData[row].isExpanded;
self.tableView.reloadRows(at: [indexPath], with: .none); // or the other animations
}
then in the "tableView:cellForRowAt" seems like:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "CustomCell", for: indexPath) as! CustomCell;
if(cell.isExpanded){
// do something when the cell is expanded
}else{
// do something when the cell is not expanded
}
}
remember, the cell is reusable, means if you have used the cell more than one time, then the cell will keep the state when it was used the last time.

Answer 3

You can use ExpyTableView, which makes an expandable section from your given header cell. Compatible down to iOS 8.0.
All you have to do is to import ExpyTableView and then:
class ViewController: ExpyTableViewDataSource, ExpyTableViewDelegate {
#IBOutlet weak var expandableTableView: ExpyTableView!
// First, set data source and delegate for your table view.
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
expandableTableView.dataSource = self
expandableTableView.delegate = self
}
// Then return your expandable cell instance from expandingCell data source method.
func expandableCell(forSection section: Int, inTableView tableView: ExpyTableView) -> UITableViewCell {
// this cell will be displayed at IndexPath with section: section and row 0
}
}
You can see your former table view section is now an expandable table view section. You can also download the example project and see more detailed examples.