How to hide UITableViewSections in Swift? - ios

Question

I have a static grouped table view that has 5 sections (all the sections have headers, no footers). I created all of this using a Storyboard. Now, how can I hide the first/top UITableViewSection (including the header). I tried making an outlet to the UITableViewSection but it tells me that it is not valid (undeclared type):
#IBOutlet var section: UITableViewSection!
I did it this way because I was planning on doing:
section.hidden = true
Can it not be done this way?
My delegates and data sources are set up 100% correctly.

Answer 1

Swift 5:
You can use the delegate method heightForHeaderInSection
:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
if (section == 0) {
return 0.0
}
return UITableView.automaticDimension
}
Earlier than Swift 5: Use UITableViewAutomaticDimension instead of UITableView.automaticDimension
If it's not working with height 0.0, use height 0.1
If you want no cells in a particular section, use the delegate method:
func numberOfRowsInSection(section: Int) -> Int {
if (section == 0) {
return 0
}
else {
// return the number of rows you want
}
}
Or to a neater switch-case syntax:
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
switch section {
case 0:
return 0.0
default:
return UITableView.automaticDimension
}
}
I tested both and they are working fine.

Answer 2

I also wish you could just make an #IBOutlet to a section and hide it, but sadly it seems not, so...
Based on various suggestions here, I've established the following, which doesn't require any interfering with explicit size values, and preserves whatever you may have set on a storyboard/XIB already. It just makes the header nil and row count 0 for any section you want to hide (which results in a size of 0.0).
Obviously, you can configure sectionShouldBeHidden to work however you need; hiding #1 & #3 are just arbitrary examples.
Swift v5
private func sectionShouldBeHidden(_ section: Int) -> Bool {
switch section {
case 1, 3: return true
default: return false
}
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
if sectionShouldBeHidden(section) {
return nil // Show nothing for the header of hidden sections
} else {
return super.tableView(tableView, titleForHeaderInSection: section) // Use the default header for other sections
}
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
if sectionShouldBeHidden(section) {
return 0 // Don't show any rows for hidden sections
} else {
return super.tableView(tableView, numberOfRowsInSection: section) // Use the default number of rows for other sections
}
}
Update: Unfortunately, the above is only enough if the style of the table view is Plain. When it's Grouped, there's also additional space added between each section, which needs taking care of too.
This extra space is the section's footer, so can be handled like so:
override public func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForFooterInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
if sectionShouldBeHidden(section) {
return CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude // Use the smallest possible value for hidden sections
} else {
return super.tableView(tableView, heightForFooterInSection: section) // Use the default footer height for other sections
}
}

Answer 3

I tried all the solutions here with no success. At the end, adding these delegate methods this one worked:
Swift 5:
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return section == 4 ? 0 : return super.tableView(tableView, numberOfRowsInSection: section)
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
return section == 4 ? 0.1 : super.tableView(tableView, heightForHeaderInSection: section)
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForFooterInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
return section == 4 ? 0.1 super.tableView(tableView, heightForFooterInSection: section)
}
Note that you need to return 0.1 in height, returning 0 won't do it.

Answer 4

0.0 did not work for me. I had to do this in order to make it work.
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
switch section {
case 0:
return 0.01
default:
return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}
}

Answer 5

For group UITableView with static cells only this solution works:
self.tableView.sectionHeaderHeight = 0;
self.tableView.sectionFooterHeight = 0;
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForFooterInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
let count = self.tableView(tableView, numberOfRowsInSection: section)
if count == 0 {
return CGFloat(Double.leastNormalMagnitude)
}
return 44.0
}

Answer 6

For anyone wanting to hide sections because they are using a static grouped tableView with a dynamic number of sections, the solution below may be of help. In my case, each section with data to display needed to have a custom header. Any section that did not have data, needed to be hidden fully.
The answer above was of great help in my scenario. However, for those who don't always know which section(s) will need to be hidden here is a solution for you extending on the above.
In my scenario, I have up to 12 entries in an array that I want to show in up to 12 sections (amongst other sections in a grouped tableView). If there are less than 12 entries to display, I want to hide the unnecessary sections by giving them 0 height and 0 rows. I also wanted to hide the headerView.
To do this, I did the following:
Set up your tableView as per the excellent answer #sasquatch gave
above.
In the numberOfRowsInSection(section: Int) and tableView(_
tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) functions, check whether the rows/height should be 0.
In my case, I was using sections 1 - 12 for my dynamic data so I used code as below:
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
//For section 0 and 13, just 1 row is ok
if section == 0 || section == 13 {
return 1
}
//For sections 1 - 12, determine if we have data to populate it, or if we should hide it
if section <= dynamicDataToDisplay.count {
return 2
}
//If it's section 1 - 12, but we don't have a corresponding data entry in dynamicDataToDisplay, then just return 0 rows
return 0
}
The code for the heightForHeader function is similar in logic:
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
switch section {
case 0:
return 45.0
case 13:
return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
default:
if dynamicDataToDisplay.count >= section {
return 25.0
} else {
return 0.0
}
} //end switch
}
Even after setting up these functions, I found that I was still getting headers appearing for the sections I wanted to hide. I guess I thought that viewForHeaderInSection would not be called if the numberOfRows was 0 and heightOfHeader was also 0, but it was still being called.
Adding the following helped ensure that the header wasn't unnecessarily created:
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
//set up header for dynamic data sections
if 1 ... 12 ~= section {
if tableView.numberOfRows(inSection: section) == 0 {
return nil
}
//Continue with the header set up for valid sections with rows to display data
......
}
}
This solution might help anyone who is still getting a header being created despite its height and rows being set to 0.