Swift: Is there any way to omit certain section header cells? - ios

Question

I have a dictionary which will be a data source for my tableView.
However, I want to add also other cells that are not the part of the dictionary, which means that they should not be under the section title that comes from dictionary.
To give you a better notion of what I'm trying to achieve I created this exemplary project available here
Here is the ViewController implementation, I tried to keep it as short as possible:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
let dict2:Dictionary<String,[String]> = ["SECTION1":["This should be under section", "This should be under section too"]]
var dictKeysSorted:[String] = []
#IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
dictKeysSorted = dict2.keys.sort()
self.tableView.delegate = self
self.tableView.dataSource = self
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return (dict2 as NSDictionary).objectForKey(dictKeysSorted[section])!.count + 1
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
return dictKeysSorted[section]
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
return 30.0
}
func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return dictKeysSorted.count
}
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell: CustomCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("cell") as! CustomCell
if indexPath.row == 0
{
cell.label.text = "This cell should be above section"
}
else
{
cell.label.text = (dict2 as NSDictionary).objectForKey(dictKeysSorted[indexPath.section])![indexPath.row-1] as? String
}
return cell
}
}
This is what I get:
My first idea was to create another record in my dictionary and simply omit it using if-statement in
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String?
But this is not the proper solution since it keeps returning an extra empty section header.
How to make tableView "omits" certain section headers?
Thanks in advance
PS. I found it difficult to name this thread properly, if you have any idea how to name it in a more relevant way, feel free to edit the title of this question.

Answer 1

You can implement the UITableViewDelegate method that returns the height of the header returning 0 for the header that you want to hide:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat
Here is the reference.
As stated in the doc, since iOS5 returning an empty header view or an empty title no longer result in an invisible header.
Please note that this will require you to return the default height for the sections that you want to show.