iOS UITableView contents not visible - ios

Question

In a VC I have 2 tableViews - 1 main and other is added in a drop down menu. From drop down menu TableView "ddTableView", I have added 5 cells in Storyboard itself as prototype cells. Each cell contains an image and a Label. Have also set identifier for each cell. Have also set Accessory Type as "Disclosure Indicator" for each cell of ddTableView.
DataSource and Delegate for mainTV is set to the VC and delegate for ddTableView is set the VC. As the rows are added within the storyboard, I didn't set any datasource for ddTableView in my VC. I managed my delegate methods like this :-
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
if (tableView == ddTableView) {
// RETURNS NIL ???
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
NSLog(#"CELL Identifier = %#", cell.reuseIdentifier);
return cell;
} else {
}
}
-(void )tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
if (tableView == ddTableView) {
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
NSLog (#" CELL Clicked of - %#", cell.reuseIdentifier);
}
}
-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
if (tableView == ddTableView)
return 44;
else
return 60;
}
-(NSInteger) tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
if (tableView == ddTableView)
return 5;
else
return [chatMsgsArr count];
}
It does call respective delegate method. For cellForRowAtIndexPath it returns cell as nil. Why so ? And on execution, I don't see any contents of the table view - table is blank. I changed the bg color of image and text color also, but yet nothing is seen on execution.
Why so ? Where I may be going wrong ?

Answer 1

You have to allocate the cell, the first time cellForRowAtIndexPath is called. If the cell is not allocated it would return nil as you are getting right now.
What you need to do is allocate the cell only once, the first time you enter cellForRowAtIndexPath. After that you can reuse it as you have done.
If you are planning to use the default tableViewCell your method should look as follows:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
NSString *cellIdentifier = #"your_cell_identifier_name";
if (cell == nil)
{
UITableViewCell *cell = [UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
}
else
{
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
}
//write the code to populate your cell with data here
//return the cell object
return cell;
}
Hope this helps! :)

Answer 2

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] ;
}
if (tableView == ddTableView) {
NSLog(#"CELL Identifier = %d", indexpath.row);
} else {
NSLog(#"CELL Identifier = %#", [chatMsgsArr objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]);
}
return cell;
}