UILabel appears multiple times in UITableViewCell - ios

Question

I'm currently creating my UITableViewCells programmatically like so:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"Home-Cell" forIndexPath:indexPath];
UILabel *newLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initwithframe:cell.frame];
[newLabel setText:self.data[indexPath.row]];
[cell addSubview:newLabel];
return cell;
}
This seems to create a new UILabel each time the cell is reused though, which I definitely don't want. I tried doing the following:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"Home-Cell" forIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cell == nil) {
UILabel *newLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initwithframe:cell.frame];
[cell addSubview:newLabel];
}
[newLabel setText:self.data[indexPath.row]];
return cell;
}
but then the UILabel seems to never be created. Perhaps this is because I'm using prototype cells with Storyboard and thus the cells are never nil?

Answer 1

You have two solutions.
Create a custom table view cell that already has the label.
If you want to add the label in code, don't register a class for the cell. Then the dequeued cell can be nil and you can add the label at that time (like in your 2nd set of code). This also requires using the dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier method that doesn't also take an indexPath.

Answer 2

You should create a UITableViewCell subclass and add "newLabel" as a property.

Answer 3

The cell is never nil because the method you use to dequeue the table view cell always returns a cell, creating one if it doesn't already exist in the reuse queue.
A better solution would be to create the label in the cell prototype in the storyboard.

Answer 4

This implementation is against MVC architecture where controller managers stuff and do not deal with view. Here, you are trying to add stuff in view from controller. It is suggested to subclass UITableViewCell as below and add your custom UI controls in there
MyTableViewCell.h
#interface MyTableViewCell : UITableViewCell {
}
#property (nonatomic, strong) UILabel *myLabel;
#end
Then you can implement layoutSubviews in your MyTableViewCell.m file to define the look and feel of your cell.
MyTableViewCell.m
- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)iStyle reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)iReuseIdentifier {
if ((self = [super initWithStyle:iStyle reuseIdentifier:iReuseIdentifier])) {
self.myLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:<Your_Frame>];
// Set more Label Properties
[self.contentView addSubview:self.myLabel];
}
return self;
}
- (void)layoutSubviews {
[super layoutSubviews];
// Override run time properties
}
Finally use your custom cell like this:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
MyTableViewCell *cell = (MyTableViewCell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"Home-Cell" forIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[MyTableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:#"Home-Cell"];
}
cell.myLabel.text = self.data[indexPath.row];
return cell;
}
As a side note, I hope you know that you get textLabel and detailTextLabel free from default UITableViewCell implementation.