UITableView not displaying content when its parent is not UITableViewController - ios

Question

In XCode 5, when you add a UITableViewController with more than 1 prototype cell which all contain labels etc., the content is displayed because the UITableViewController automatically sets the data source and delegate of the table view and sends a reloadData message to it.
iOS Developer Library - Basics of Table View Creation
But when you drag a UITableView to a UIViewController I believe you have to create instance methods similar to the default ones below in order for the content to be reloaded and made visible.
My question is how can I target a UITableView somewhere within a UIViewController and set its data source and delegate and have it reloaded and its content displayed properly?
Here is the default code for the UITableViewController:
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
// Return the number of sections.
return 0;
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
// Return the number of rows in the section.
return 0;
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
// Configure the cell...
return cell;
}
Here is my code that works with UITableViewController but not in UIViewController for the UITableView that it contains:
...
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSArray *menuItems;
...
- (void) viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
self.menuItems = #[#"rowOne", #"rowTwo", #"rowThree", #"rowFour"];
}
...
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
// Return the number of sections.
return 1;
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
// Return the number of rows in the section.
return [self.menuItems count];
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
NSString *CellIdentifier = [self.menuItems objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
return cell;
}

Answer 1

IN your code where u have created your cell if it not exists? And also make cell identifier as static.
You should create cell if it not exists in cellForRowAtINdexPath like as following:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"CellIdentifier";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
if(cell == nil)
{
//Create your cell
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc]initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
//Configure your cell
return cell;
}

Answer 2

You can set data source and delegate in a few ways. If you add table view to view controller in storyboard just control drag from table view to view controller and select delegate and do it again and select data source.
You can also create outlet and in your view controller in viewDidLoad do it by:
self.tableView.dataSource = self;
self.tableView.delegate = self;
The other way is create table view in code and add it to your view controller view. You can do it in viewDidLoad like that:
tableView = [[UITableView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(TABLE_VIEW_FRAME) style:UITableViewStylePlain];
tableView.dataSource = self;
tableView.delegate = self;
[self.view addSubview:tableView];
If you want to reload the data just call:
[self.tableView reloadData];
Hope this help.

Answer 3

Make sure you implement UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDataSource protocols and set these in the initWithNibName or initWithCoder initializers.
This is how your .h file should look like:
#interface TestViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource>
Here is what you need to do in the .m file:
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
if (self) {
self.tableView.delegate = self;
self.tableView.dataSource = self;
}
return self;
}
if you are using storyboards, please use initWithCode as given below:
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
if (self) {
self.tableView.delegate = self;
self.tableView.dataSource = self;
}
return self;
}

Answer 4

You are only dequeuing the cell but you are not creating one if dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier returns nil. You should implement in following way.
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
// here you can configure the cell
return cell