iOS dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier is always returning null - ios

I'm really frustrated at this point. Dequeueing a reusable cell with identifier is always returning null.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if(cell == nil) {
NSLog(#"INIT");
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
return cell;
}
What am i doing wrong here? Thanks.

You're doing everything right, everything is working as it should. iOS will create enough new cells to fill the screen (plus one). It will start reusing these cells only when your UITableView contains more rows than can fit on one screen and then the user scrolls.
You'll find that if you have a datasource will say, 100 items in it and then scroll, you'll only have your log message show probably 11 times (depends on how many cells fit on your screen) instead of 100 as iOS will start recycling cells as you scroll.
With large lists, it would use too much memory to create new views for every possible row in a UITableView. The alternative would be to allocate new views for rows as you scroll. However, this would create a performance bottleneck that would cause laggy scrolling in any UITableView.
Apple mention the performance bottleneck in their documentation on UITableViews.
Reuse cells. - Object allocation has a performance cost, especially if the allocation has to happen repeatedly over a short period—say, when the user scrolls a table view. If you reuse cells instead of allocating new ones, you greatly enhance table view performance.

Did you set your cell's reuse identifier? Init your cell with -initWithStyle:reuseIdentifier:, or set the identifier in IB.

Related

What basis UITableViewCell object become nil

I am asking very basic doubt belongs to Tableview, I created tableview programmatically without Storyboard/Xib.
The tableView numberOfRowsInSection it will return 14, the cell view fully dynamic and each cell height will different from one another.
My questaion is in tableview delegate method
static NSString *cellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell=(UITableViewCell *)[tableview dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifer];
if (cell == nil )
{
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifer];
// how many time entering this loop
}
// ( adding subview to cell view).
cell==nil means need to enter loop right. Depending on what parameter cell object become nil? how many times it will enter, is it once? not at all.
When I checked, it entered 6 times.
if I use cellIdentifier, it will enter 14 times because Identifier different and every time it will create space for cell, its right because each time name will different and while scrolling it will reused.
NSString *cellIdentifer= [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%ld,%ld",(long)indexPath.section,(long)indexPath.row];
which basis it will enter 6 times. why not one's or 14 times. Please suggest what I did wrong. Because if used #"Cell" identifier, while scrolling repeatedly view will overlap. If I used second one cell view object will not overlaps & looks like perfect, but device memory size will increase
ref by https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UITableViewCell_Class/index.html
If I right got your question you need register your class in viewDidLoad method or loadView where you created a tableview like that [tableView registerClass:[UITableViewCell class] forCellReuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier]; for right reuse in tableview
Code : 1
static NSString *cellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell=(UITableViewCell *)[tableview dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifer];
if (cell == nil ){
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifer];
// how many time entering this loop
}
In above code the loop will execute as number of visible rows in your tableview at first time. After that it will reuse cell as the cellIdentifier is same Cell and you need to update cell data as per indexpath.
it means if your table display 6 rows then it will execute for 6 times. Change rowheight and you can check.
Code : 2
NSString *cellIdentifer= [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%ld,%ld",(long)indexPath.section,(long)indexPath.row];
for above code the loop will execute total number of rows you have declared, Because it will create new cell for each indexpath.
If we give same Identifier to all cells, Disappearing cell uses the memory of Appearing cell. But, If we give different Identifier then every cell will have its own memory location and shows data perfectly.
Now suppose we have 1000 or more records to load in Table-view. If we will give different Identifiers, there will be lots of allocations in memory. This is the benefit of re-using cells.
Why 6 times ?
Because, if you give same identifiers, table will re-use cells. Maximum number of cells visible at the moment, are allocated at first. Then on scroll, appearing cell uses a memory location of a disappearing cell (cell dequeuing). So, every time you scroll, new cells are not allocated. Instead, already allocated cells are re-used
Why 14 times ?
Because, every cell has different identifier in this case. Every cell will have its own memory location.
Remember
Add subviews inside cell nil condition. Cell specific content should be assigned outside nil condition. Have a look at following code snippet:
-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
NSString *cellIdentifier = #"MY_CELL";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
/* Everything that is similar in all cells should be defined here
like background colors, label colors, indentation etc. */
}
/* Everything that is row specific should go here
like label text, progress view progress etc. */
return cell;
}
With same identifier:
When table cell is going to disappeared then this cell will be added in stack and these are reusable.
Now when we are going to show a cell then:
If we are using same identifier then controller will check that cell is available in stack with same identifier.
If yes, then we will get a table cell which is already used and UI was already set for this cell. So we need to reset UI before using it.
If not, then it will create new cell and trying to use it.
In your case I think 4-5 table cell is visible at a time so it is creating 6 table cell and reusing those cell.
With different identifier:
Table cell cell will not available in stack at creating cell for different indexpath. So it will create new one. so cell method will be called 14 times.

UITableViewCell being reused while still on-screen?

I have what probably seems like a really weird problem (it does to me!)
I am using a UITableView to display cells which each contain a UIWebView. I realise that this is a bad idea on the face of it, but I can't really do this any other way.
I am caching the heights of each cell when the UIWebView finishes loading, and then calling:
[self.tableView beginUpdates];
[self.tableView reloadRowsAtIndexPaths:#[cellIndexPath]
withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationNone];
[self.tableView endUpdates];
All of the germane code is in a Gist here.
I also have the UIWebViews cached in a dictionary on the data source, so it can be reused when the cell is reloaded.
This seems to sort of work, but I am encountering a lot of issues whereby the cells' contents will randomly disappear. I have added some logging into determine what's going on, and in what order, and it seems like some of the cells are being reused while they're still on-screen.
I see this in my logs while scrolling down:
2014-02-11 13:45:49.091 EApp[45936:70b] Generating cell for 1: Panning
2014-02-11 13:45:49.245 EApp[45936:70b] Generating cell for 2: Calibration
2014-02-11 13:45:50.063 EApp[45936:70b] Generating cell for 3: Aperture Priority
2014-02-11 13:45:50.063 EApp[45936:70b] Reusing cell: Stopping down
"Stopping down" in this case is a cell that is still on-screen. The "generating cell" items are logged inside the data source's cellForRowAtIndexPath and the "reusing" messages inside the cells' prepareForReuse.
Does anyone know what could be happening here? I know this seems complex.
The following line in your prepareForReuse is probably the culprit:
if ([self.contentWebView isDescendantOfView:self.contentWebView]) {
[self.contentWebView removeFromSuperview];
}
As the contentWebView is never a descendant of itself, it will not be removed from the cell, and the contentView will contain two webviews after the cellForRowAtIndexPath:
You probably meant to say:
if ([self.contentWebView isDescendantOfView:self.contentView]) {
[self.contentWebView removeFromSuperview];
}
Or simply:
[self.contentWebView removeFromSuperview];
One of the features/limitations of UITableView is that you don't know if, and can't depend on, a cell is being created or reused. You should always be able to handle both.
GENERALLY, when you call -reloadRowsAtIndexPaths:withRowAnimation:, you will get the cell from that indexPath to reuse. If that indexPath was on screen, it will be a cell that was on screen.
I don't know if it's the problem, but in the code you provided, you don't even initialize your cell...
I'm even surprise it works.
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"FeedItemCell";
EFeedItemCell *cell = [self.tableViewController.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
you should add to it :
if (!cell) {
cell = [EfeedItemCell alloc] initWithReus....];
}
From your code it seems that you are caching the webViews and then are adding them to cells programmatically. This can create random problems similar to what I had faced in the passed.
You must use EFeedItemCellWebView in your storyboard. Just add a UIWebView and change the class name to your custom class. And then when the data is loaded just simply change its contents in - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath;

Creating a reusable UIView similar to UITableViewCell

Ahoy!
I'm trying to create a reusable UIView (for various reasons) similar to the UITableViewCell implementation used in UITableViewController. I'd like to use the reusable view in a UIScrollView so I know i'm not trying to achieve something that's entirely unattainable.
The default implementation of this is:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
//declare cell identifier
static NSString *cellIdentifier = #"cell_identifier";
//dequeue cell
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
//check cell is valid
if(cell == nil)
{
//create a new cell
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
}
//
//return cell
return cell;
}
From this, it's worth noting that the cell is dequeued from the UITableView. If the cell is invalid, a new cell is created. My question is, how does this cell then become "queued" for reuse later?
My current attempted implementation looks like this:
- (TestScrollViewCell *)scrollView:(TestScrollView *)_scrollView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
//declare cell identifier
static NSString *cellIdentifier = #"cell_identifier";
//dequeue cell
TestScrollViewCell *cell = (TestScrollViewCell *)[scrollView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
//check cell is valid
if(cell == nil)
{
//create a new cell
cell = [[TestScrollViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
}
//
//return cell
return cell;
}
I'm thinking that adding a NSMutableDictionary to my TestScrollView to store the cellIdentifier and the TestScrollViewCell (UIView) and then plucking them back out based on the dictionary key would be a good start but is this really a true implementation of "reusable" cells?
The issue I can see is that I would then be adding the UIView to the ScrollView which is positioned based on the frame. Dequeing a view in this sense wouldn't allow me to then add the view to the scroll view without affecting the first view (by modifying the frame) but surely this is how UITableViewCells work, as well as section headers/footers?
I've been looking at this implementation which seems to be following the same route I was intending on implementing but i'm not 100% sold that this is a true implementation of reusable cells.
Has anyone had any luck with this previously? I'm trying to take Apple's lead on this one but other than UITableViewCell and MKAnnotationView (MapKit) there aren't any accessible implementations of this for me to glean from.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It's not just the view, it's the whole UITableViewController you'll need to recreate. The reuse flow goes like this:
dequeueReusableCell gets empty reused cell from some storage, I guess, from NSMutableArray (grab first object from array, then delete it from array and return it). If array is empty, method returns nil. You check for cell value, if it's nil, you create a new instance of cell class. If it's not nil, you fill it with your data.
This goes for every visible cell, that is, every cell that can fit on screen. Any non-visible cells are not initialized. When user scrolls the table, cell that are gone completely off-screen (not a single pixel visible) sent to reuseQueue – all their subviews and values return to default values or just nilled, and then cell gets added to the end of our NSMutableArray that is the queue.
I hope I explained well enough.
EDIT: Oh, and one more thing - you'll need different reuse queues for each reuse identifier.

Removing old data from reusable cell

I have a uitableview with each cell having a scroll view as the subview.
the scrollview has a bunch of images in it.
so when i change the data in the data source and after calling the reload table
the images doesn't change but when i remove the dequeue the new data is reloaded.
is there any method to remove the contents in the dequeue so that i don't get the old data
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"looser"];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
scrollview=[[myscrollView alloc]initwitharray:imagearray];
[cell.contentView addSubview:scrollview];
}
}
A tableview works as follows:
It has room for a certain amount of cells on the screen, let's say 7 as an example. The tableview will ask you for the 7 cells of indexes 0 through 6.
If the top cell leaves the screen by scrolling, it will be placed in the reusable cell queue. There are now 6 cells on the tableview.
A new one comes up at the bottom now, the tableview asks for the cell at index 7. You call dequeueReusableCell, and you get the one that was at the top earlier.
The tableView has no idea what your cell is like, as it can be subclassed, so it will not make any changes to it. It is up to you to use your knowledge of how the tablecell is constructed to empty it, then fill it with the correct new data.
The reason tableview works like this is for performance. In stead of having maybe 100 views that would have to be checked (or mostly, ignored, which also costs time) for every scroll movement, it has a maximum of 7.
So in short, no. There are no default methods to remove data from reusable cells in UITableView, since UITableView can not and should not know what kind of cells they are. It is up to you to clear the cells when the tableview gives them to you.
Create a custom cell and it generates a method
- (void) prepareForReuse{}
Which do you cleanse all data from a cell and the output will be an empty cell.
No, not while the cell is in the cache. When you dequeue a reusable cell you should clear out the old data first before using it again.
Maybe you should just remove the stuff you don't want.

TableView Cell reuse and unwanted checkmarks - this is killing me

Apple's iOS TableView and cell reuse is killing me. I searched and searched and studied, but can't find good docs or good answers. The problem is that when the TableView reuses cells things like Checkmarks (cell accessory) set on a selected Cell are repeated in the cells further down in the table view. I understand that cell reuse is by design, due to memory constraints, but if you have a list with say 50 items, and it starts setting extra checkmarks where they're not wanted, this makes whole endeavor useless.
All I want to do is set a checkmark on a cell I've selected. I've tried this using my own custom cell class, and standard cells generated by a boiler plate TableView class, but it always ends up the same.
Apple even have an example project called TouchCell you can download from the dev center, that is supposed to show a different way of setting a checkmark using a custom cell with an image control on the left. The project uses a dictionary object for a data source instead of a muteable array, so for each item there is a string value and bool checked value. This bool checked value is supposed to set the checkmark so it can track selected items. This sample project also displays this goofy behavior as soon as you populate the TableView with 15+ cells. The reuse of cells starts setting unwanted check marks.
I've even tried experimenting with using a truely unique Cell Identifier for each cell. So instead of each cell having something like #"Acell" I used a static int, cast to a string so the cells got #"cell1", #"cell2" etc. During testing though, I could see that hundreds of new cells where generated during scrolling, even if the table only had 30 items.
It did fix the checkmark repeat problem, but I suspect the memory usage was going way too high.
It's as though the cells that are not currently in the viewable area of the table are created all over again when they are scrolled back into view.
Has anyone come up with an elegant solution to this irritating behavior?
cell reusing can be tricky but you have to keep 2 things in mind:
Use one identifier for one type of cell - Using multiple identifiers is really only needed when you use different UITableViewCell-subclasses in one table view and you have to rely on their different behaviour for different cells
The cell you reuse can be in any state, which means you have to configure every aspect of the cell again - especially checkmars / images / text / accessoryViews / accessoryTypes and more
What you need to do is to create a storage for your checkmark states - a simple array containing bools (or NSArray containing boolean NSNumber objects respectively) should do it. Then when you have to create/reuse a cell use following logic:
-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *reuseIdentifier = #"MyCellType";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
if(cell == nil) {
/* create cell here */
}
// Configure cell now
cell.textLabel.text = #"Cell text"; // load from datasource
if([[stateArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] boolValue]) {
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark;
} else {
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone;
}
return cell;
}
then you will have to react on taps:
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
[stateArray replaceObjectAtIndex:indexPath.row withObject:[NSNumber numberWithBool:![[stateArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] boolValue]]];
[tableView reloadRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
}
Just remember to use NSMutableArray for your data store ;)

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