Programmatically highlight UITableView cell

Question

I have an iPad app which uses a UISplitViewController (with a UITableView on the left and a detail view on the right). My table view highlights the selected cell in blue when you tap on it.

When I call the following method, the cell is selected but not highlighted in blue:

[self.tableView selectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop];

I have spent literally days fiddling about with various delegate methods and hacks trying to get the cell to highlight programatically just as if it had been tapped. I can't do it.

I've managed to almost get there with this:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    if (shouldHighlightCell)
    {
        NSIndexPath *indexPathForCellToHighlight = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0];

        if ([indexPath isEqual:indexPathForCellToHighlight])
        {
            cell.selected = YES;
            shouldHighlightCell = NO;
        }
    }
}

It works as long as I also have this (otherwise it remains selected even when another cell is tapped):

- (NSIndexPath *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSIndexPath *ip = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0];

    if ([[self.tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:ip] isSelected])
    {
        [[self.tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:ip] setSelected:NO];
    }

    NSIndexPath *iToTheP = indexPath;
    return iToTheP;
}

I know this is a weird and convoluted workaround. I wouldn't mind, but it doesn't even work fully. The selected cell loses its highlight if it is scrolled off screen, whereas a cell that has been tapped remains highlighted when scrolled off screen.

I'm absolutely baffled by this. I'm sure this workaround shouldn't even be necessary, that there is a much simpler solution.

Answer 1

Please be sure the cell's selectionStyle is UITableViewCellSelectionStyleBlue and the tableView's allowsSelection is set to YES.

The method selectRowAtIndexPath:animated:scrollPosition: works fine for me. It does highlight the selected cell.