Aligning text in UITableView - ios

Question

I have a cell. Whenever the text in cell row is equal to "(null)" I want the label to be on the right hand side of the the cell.
Here is my code at the moment, but it isn't doing anything. No errors, it just doesn't align to the right hand side of the cell. Any ideas?
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"ChatListItem";
NSDictionary *itemAtIndex = (NSDictionary *)[messages objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
if([[itemAtIndex objectForKey:#"user"] isEqualToString:#"(null)"]){
cell.textLabel.textAlignment=UITextAlignmentRight;
cell.detailTextLabel.textAlignment=UITextAlignmentRight;
}
cell.textLabel.text = [itemAtIndex objectForKey:#"text"];
cell.detailTextLabel.text = [itemAtIndex objectForKey:#"user"];
return cell;
}

Answer 1

First, did you step through the code and check the contents of the value for keys "user" and "text"?
If all is as expected, you should do the following:
Replace UITextAlignmentRight with NSTextAlignmentRight to silence compiler warnings.
Explicitly set NSTextAlignmentRight and NSTextAlignmentLeft, otherwise you will not get the correct update in recycled cells.
Finally, make sure the label's width is fixed. Otherwise, the width of the label will be based on its content, so that the alignment (within the label) loses its effect.

Answer 2

The only working solution for your case (without subclassing of the UITableViewCell of course)
is as follows:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"ChatListItem";
NSDictionary *dict = [_tableData objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
cell.textLabel.text = dict[#"text"];
cell.detailTextLabel.text = dict[#"user"];
if ([dict[#"user"] isEqualToString:#"(null)"]) {
[self performSelector:#selector(alignText:) withObject:cell afterDelay:0.0];
}
return cell;
}
- (void)alignText:(UITableViewCell*)cell
{
CGRect frame = cell.textLabel.frame;
frame.origin.x = cell.frame.size.width - (frame.size.width + 10.0);
cell.textLabel.frame = frame;
frame = cell.detailTextLabel.frame;
frame.origin.x = cell.frame.size.width - (frame.size.width + 10.0);
cell.detailTextLabel.frame = frame;
[cell setNeedsDisplay];
}
As for me, I would better make a subclass.