Alternative for switch statement, drill down Table Views? - ios

Question

I need to create a drill down effect with my table views that will expand four table views deep for each of my original cells in my master table view. So far i was successful in populating the master view, and second table view accordingly with this Object Oriented Method, here is the code in my master table view:
class FirstTableViewController: UITableViewController {
let aSport:[Sport] = {
var basketball = Sport()
basketball.name = "Basketball"
basketball.sportCategories = {
var temp = ["International Basketball","Wheelchair Basketball","Beach Basketball","Deaf Basketball","Dwarf Basketball"]
temp.sort(<)
return temp
}()
var golf = Sport()
golf.name = "Golf"
golf.sportCategories = {
var temp = ["Miniature Golf","Dart Golf","Sholf","Disc Golf","Footgolf"]
temp.sort(<)
return temp
}()
var football = Sport()
football.name = "Football"
football.sportCategories = {
var temp = ["Flag Football","Indoor Football","Arena Football","Non-Tackle Football","Paper Football"]
temp.sort(<)
return temp
}()
var swimming = Sport()
swimming.name = "Swimming"
swimming.sportCategories = {
var temp = ["Competitive Swimming","Synchronized Swimming","Duo Swimming","Relay Swimming"]
temp.sort(<)
return temp
}()
return [basketball,golf,football,swimming]
}()
override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return aSport.count
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
{
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("Cell", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! UITableViewCell
cell.textLabel?.text = aSport[indexPath.row].name
return cell
}
override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: AnyObject?) {
let cell = sender as! UITableViewCell
let row = tableView.indexPathForCell(cell)?.row
let detail = segue.destinationViewController as! SecondTableViewController
detail.selectedSport = aSport[row!]
}
}
class Sport {
var name: String = "sport name"
var sportCategories: NSArray = ["variations of selected sport"]
var detailText: NSArray = ["little description of sport"]
}
here is the code in my second table view controller:
class SecondTableViewController: UITableViewController {
var selectedSport = Sport();
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
}
override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
}
override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return selectedSport.sportCategories.count
}
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("Custom", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! UITableViewCell
cell.textLabel!.text = selectedSport.sportCategories[indexPath.row] as? String
cell.detailTextLabel!.text = selectedSport.detailText[indexPath.row] as? String
return cell
}
}
here are screenshots from my simulator so you get a visual:
https://40.media.tumblr.com/6ee47f49c2b223b514f8067c68ac6af1/tumblr_nqbe74HYGo1tupbydo1_500.png
when basketball is selected:
https://41.media.tumblr.com/ced0ee2ff111a557ec3c21f1fb765adf/tumblr_nqbe74HYGo1tupbydo2_500.png
Now as you can see, i was able to populate the first two views by creating a custom class, creating custom objects of that class and using the properties within the class. Now my dilemma is, each of the "sportCategories" properties have their OWN table views to expand to which will consist of a whole list of names of players in that respective sport. Now what method should i go about doing this? should i create a whole new class in my second table view controller to give the sportsCategories their own properties? or is there a way i can already expand off the work I've already done? a more efficient way?

Answer 1

If you only have one detail controller, you don't need the switch statement at all. The best (most object oriented) way to do this would be to use custom objects to populate your cells. You could create a Sport object that would have two properties, name (NSString), and categories (NSArray). In the master table view controller, you would create all the Sport objects, and add them to an array, sports. You would use sports to populate the array with,
let aSport = sports[indexPath.row] as! Sport
cell.textLabel.text = aSport.name
In didSelectRowAtIndexPath, you create an instance of DetailViewController, set the value of a property in that class (lets call it selectedSport), and push it,
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
let detailVC = DetailViewController()
detailVC.selectedSport = sports[indexPath.row]
navigationController?.pushViewController(detailVC, animated: true)
}
In DetailViewController, you would use selectedSport.categories to populate the table view. Since you have access to the whole Sport object, you could use selectedSport.name to provide the title for the controller.

Answer 2

If the hierarchy is just from the main view controller to one of 21 specific view controllers and back (not 21 nested view controllers), and the behaviour of all these 21 tables is very similar, then there isn't really much reason to have 21 view controllers. Have one view controllers for all the 21 displays, then before you switch to it you tell it what data to display, and of course it has to be able to display the data of all 21 views. (If you had 15 views looking one way and 6 views looking a different way, you would use two view controllers).
(I don't like making things depending on a row index. That just makes it very difficult if you want to arrange the rows in a different way).