UITableViewCell height incorrect, sizeToFit sizes incorrectly - ios

Question

I am attempting to create a custom UITableViewCell, and having issues with the cell frame having the proper height. This is troubling because the cell sizes correctly for iPhones 4s/5s running iOS 8.4, but not for iPhones 6/6+ running the same OS.
Chaos ensues around calling sizeToFit on messageLabel. Some of the labels almost appear to have extra, blank lines below, but clearly are not as tall as the cell makes them out to be.
Below is the custom cell. The label that appears to cause the trouble is the messageLabel. To view the frames of the labels, let borders = true
//
// NotesTableViewCell.swift
// urchin
//
// Created by Ethan Look on 6/17/15.
// Copyright (c) 2015 Tidepool. All rights reserved.
//
import Foundation
import UIKit
let noteCellHeight: CGFloat = 128
let noteCellInset: CGFloat = 16
let labelSpacing: CGFloat = 6
class NoteCell: UITableViewCell {
let borders = false
var cellHeight: CGFloat = CGFloat()
let usernameLabel: UILabel = UILabel()
let timedateLabel: UILabel = UILabel()
var messageLabel: UILabel = UILabel()
func configureWithNote(note: Note) {
usernameLabel.text = note.user!.fullName
usernameLabel.font = UIFont(name: "OpenSans-Bold", size: 17.5)!
usernameLabel.textColor = UIColor.blackColor()
usernameLabel.sizeToFit()
let usernameX = noteCellInset
let usernameY = noteCellInset
usernameLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: usernameX, y: usernameY)
let dateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "EEEE M.d.yy h:mm a"
var dateString = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(note.timestamp)
dateString = dateString.stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString("PM", withString: "pm", options: NSStringCompareOptions.LiteralSearch, range: nil)
dateString = dateString.stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString("AM", withString: "am", options: NSStringCompareOptions.LiteralSearch, range: nil)
timedateLabel.text = dateString
timedateLabel.font = UIFont(name: "OpenSans", size: 12.5)!
timedateLabel.textColor = UIColor.blackColor()
timedateLabel.sizeToFit()
let timedateX = contentView.frame.width - (noteCellInset + timedateLabel.frame.width)
let timedateY = usernameLabel.frame.midY - timedateLabel.frame.height / 2
timedateLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: timedateX, y: timedateY)
messageLabel.frame.size = CGSize(width: contentView.frame.width - 2 * noteCellInset, height: CGFloat.max)
let hashtagBolder = HashtagBolder()
let attributedText = hashtagBolder.boldHashtags(note.messagetext)
messageLabel.attributedText = attributedText
messageLabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = false
messageLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.ByWordWrapping
messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0
messageLabel.sizeToFit()
let messageX = noteCellInset
let messageY = usernameLabel.frame.maxY + 2 * labelSpacing
messageLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: messageX, y: messageY)
contentView.addSubview(usernameLabel)
contentView.addSubview(timedateLabel)
contentView.addSubview(messageLabel)
cellHeight = noteCellInset + usernameLabel.frame.height + 2 * labelSpacing + messageLabel.frame.height + noteCellInset
if (borders) {
usernameLabel.layer.borderWidth = 1
usernameLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.redColor().CGColor
timedateLabel.layer.borderWidth = 1
timedateLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.redColor().CGColor
messageLabel.layer.borderWidth = 1
messageLabel.layer.borderColor = UIColor.redColor().CGColor
self.contentView.layer.borderWidth = 1
self.contentView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.blueColor().CGColor
}
self.contentView.frame.size = CGSize(width: self.contentView.frame.width, height: cellHeight)
}
}
And heightForRowAtIndexPath:
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
let cell = NoteCell(style: .Default, reuseIdentifier: nil)
cell.configureWithNote(notes[indexPath.row])
return cell.cellHeight
}
The project is open source and on Github, so feel free to clone the repository and check out all of the code yourself.
Thank you!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, you can't do it that way because tableView(_:heightForRowAtIndexPath) is called first and the value you return is used to create the cell that you will dequeue in tableView(_:cellForRowAtIndexPath). The cell can't set its own size because by the time it could do so (e.g. awakeFromNib or prepareForResuse), the table view will already have a height value for it. There are some whacky workarounds for this that I've used, but it's easier to just use self-sizing table view cells.
Check it:
http://www.appcoda.com/self-sizing-cells/

Answer 2

Instead of creating an entirely new cell in heightForRowAtIndexPath:, I simply create the UI elements that determine the cell height (usernameLabel and messageLabel), size them appropriately with sizeToFit, then do a simple calculation to determine the cell height.
By doing this, I never create a new cell which is later dequeued.
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
let usernameLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRectZero)
usernameLabel.font = UIFont(name: "OpenSans-Bold", size: 17.5)!
usernameLabel.text = notes[indexPath.row].user!.fullName
usernameLabel.sizeToFit()
let messageLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.frame.width - 2*noteCellInset, height: CGFloat.max))
let hashtagBolder = HashtagBolder()
let attributedText = hashtagBolder.boldHashtags(notes[indexPath.row].messagetext)
messageLabel.attributedText = attributedText
messageLabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = false
messageLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.ByWordWrapping
messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0
messageLabel.sizeToFit()
let cellHeight = noteCellInset + usernameLabel.frame.height + 2 * labelSpacing + messageLabel.frame.height + noteCellInset
return cellHeight
}