Value On UITextField Changes On Scroll - ios

Question

Before asking this question I have googled a lot and not able to find a suitable answer.
I have a tableView with Three sections and n number of columns. The no. of rows in each section is also not fixed. The last two columns contains a UITextField and initially the value in each textfield is 0.00. So after entering the Value in each row if I close that section the textField value is revert back to 0.00. Can anybody tell me how to save this textField value.
Here is my code.
I'm using a custom Cell GenericTableViewCell and self.columnHeaderArray determines how many columns in tableview. columnHeaderArray Value contains the colum details like the column type, value etc...
in cellForRowAtIndexPath:
GenericTableViewCell *cell = nil;
if (cell == nil)
{
cell = [[GenericTableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:#"Cell"withColumns:self.columnHeaderArray];
for (GenericTableColumn *theColumn in self.columnHeaderArray)
{
[self processDataForCell:cell forColumn:theColumn atIndexPath:indexPath];
}
return cell;
}
}
processDataForCell is a method where I updated the column with values and textfield. In this method I check the column type and insert values into each column.
The code for that is.
switch (column.columnType)
{
case textField:
{
UITextField *lblTextField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 4, label.frame.size.width - 10, label.frame.size.height - 6)];
lblTextField.delegate = self;
lblTextField.text = theValue; // setting the textField value iniatally 0.00
lblTextField.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyleRoundedRect;
lblTextField.layer.borderWidth = 1.0;
lblTextField.layer.borderColor = [[UIColor blackColor] CGColor];
[label addSubview:lblTextField];
break;
}
}
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: I solved the issue thanks to #Ayazmon and #naturalnOva for their comments and leading me to solve this.
The Code:
In my .h file I declared a NSMutableDictionary named textFieldValues like
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSMutableDictionary <NSString *, NSString *> *textFieldValues;
And in viewDidLoad I instantiate this Dictionary as
self.textFieldValues = [NSMutableDictionary new];
In processDataForCell method I replaced my code with
switch (column.columnType)
{
case textField:
{
UITextField *lblTextField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 4, label.frame.size.width - 10, label.frame.size.height - 6)];
lblTextField.delegate = self;
lblTextField.tag = indexPath.row;
if ([self.textFieldValues count] != 0) {
// pass in the indexPath from cellForRow
NSString *key = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%ld-%ld", (long)indexPath.section, (long)indexPath.row];
lblTextField.text = self.textFieldValues[key];
} else {
lblTextField.text = theValue; // For setting the textField value iniatally 0.00
}
lblTextField.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyleRoundedRect;
lblTextField.layer.borderWidth = 1.0;
lblTextField.layer.borderColor = [[UIColor blackColor] CGColor];
[label addSubview:lblTextField];
break;
}
}
And for me UITextField delegate method textFieldShouldEndEditing(_:) is not being called. So I used textFieldShouldReturn method.
-(BOOL) textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField
{
NSString *key = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%ld-%ld", (long)indexPath.section, (long)indexPath.row];
self.textFieldValues[key] = textField.text;
return self.textFieldValues[key];
}
Thanku Guys

Answer 1

As you scroll your cell's off view they are deallocated. Each time the cell scrolls back into view it's re-initialized. If you want to retain the value of the textfield I'd save it's contents when you can and hold onto that value.
I have done this before by holding on to a dictionary of Strings that contain the values for my indexPaths. Each time the textfield resigns as first responder I then store the value of the field in my dictionary.
You should register the UITextField's delegate in your view controller and override textFieldDidEndEditing(_:) where you can access the value of the textfield.
Example:
Create a property for the field values:
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSMutableDictionary *textFieldValues;
Override the UITextFieldDelegate method:
-(void) textFieldDidEndEditing: (UITextField *)textField
{
NSString *key = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%ld-%ld", (long)indexPath.section, (long)indexPath.row];
self.textFieldValues[key] = textField.text;
}
Using your above code, assign a tag to the textfield and assign the fields contents using the dictionary:
UITextField *lblTextField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 4, label.frame.size.width - 10, label.frame.size.height - 6)];
lblTextField.delegate = self;
lblTextField.tag = indexPath.row;
// pass in the indexPath from cellForRow
NSString *key = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%ld-%ld", (long)indexPath.section, (long)indexPath.row];
lblTextField.text = self.textFieldValues[key];
lblTextField.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyleRoundedRect;
lblTextField.layer.borderWidth = 1.0;
lblTextField.layer.borderColor = [[UIColor blackColor] CGColor];
[label addSubview:lblTextField];
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

cellForRowAtIndexPath is called whenever you try to display a cell in UITableView and in your code you create a completely new cell for the given indexPath every time. So when you set the value to the lblTextField and then displaying it again it gets resetted. My advice is restore the value then in processDataForCell method set the restored value to lblTextField that way the value will have consistency.