Swift View Controller with UITableView sections - ios

Question

I've been searching for awhile without luck. I am trying to find an example of a View Controller with a UITableView that has sections. The examples I've see are all dealing with a Table View Controller which I cannot use as I have need of buttons in the same view which control the content of the table view. Anyone have an example, know of an example or have an idea about to implement such? Thanks.
Edit
I've got a table view in a view controller, get the data from an api call, separate the sections and data in an array of a struct. I then send this to be bound to the table view. Doing so throws
[UIView tableView:numberOfRowsInSection:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance
but I don't understand where the problem is.
Code for the tablview
//MARK: Tableview delegates
func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
if let count = incidentDataSection?.count{
return count
}
return 0
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
if (incidentDataSection?.count)! > 0{
return incidentDataSection![section].incidents.count
}
return 0
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
return incidentDataSection?[section].title
}
/*
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, iconForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIImage? {
return incidentDataSection?[section].icon
}*/
//if clicked, will openn details view passing in the details
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
//let incidentDetails = incidentData?[indexPath.row]
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
if let section = incidentDataSection?[indexPath.section] {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "IncidentTableViewCell") as! IncidentTableViewCell
cell.roadNameLabel.text = section.incidents[indexPath.row].RoadWay
cell.whenLabel.text = section.incidents[indexPath.row].DateCreated
cell.statusLabel.text = section.incidents[indexPath.row].DateCleared
return cell
}
return UITableViewCell()
}
incidentDataSection is an array of a struct which has the section title and the different items.
Answer
Though I received some fairly good feedback, the cause was actually a typo. Looking closely at
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
return incidentDataSection?[section].title
}
you'll notice the problem is that there is no underscore before tableView:. What was happening is that the datasource and delegate were skipping over the functions since with and without call different protocols in swift 3. Thanks to thislink I was able to figure out the cause. My bad for forgetting to mention this was in Swift 3. Might had saved everyone some time.

Answer 1

You need a tableview instance in your view controller.
Implement the protocols UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource in your view controller as a UITableViewController.
Don't forget bind the tableview in XIB with tableview in the class.
Look this sample:
class Sample01ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
var tableView: UITableView?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView?.delegate = self
}
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewDidAppear(true)
self.tableView?.reloadData()
}
// ...

Answer 2

You have the required methods implemented, however it sounds like you need to "subclass" or "subcribe" to the UITableView's delegate and dataSource. By using:
class MyViewController : UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
#IBOutlet var tableView : UITableView!
}
Now that you have those protocols you will need to set your tableView's delegate and dataSource to your viewController. You can do this using storyboard by drag and drop, or inside of your viewDidLoad() which is what I always do because it is easy for other developers to see from the start of opening your code where your delegate and dataSources are assigned to. Using:
#override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView.delegate = self
tableView.dataSource = self
}
Then your delegate methods and dataSource methods in your viewcontroller will be called for that tableView. Then you can add the IBOutlets to UIButton/UILabel/UISwitch, etc... and do what you will with your ViewController without being limited to simply using a table view inside of that view controller. I Almost always use this methods when using UITableViews/UICollectionViews even if I set the tableView/collectionView to be the size of the whole view because I like the freedom of using a UIViewController over a UITableViewController/UICollectionViewController.
*Note numberOfRows() is not required but I always override it as well, just kind of a habit at this point. Also you sound new to iOS development, so if you aren't already, the next thing I would look into after getting your tableView up and running is pulling your data from your API on a background thread to keep your mainThread open for user response on your UI, DispatchQueue. This is really important if you are displaying images from the API.