How to uncheck all rows using UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark

Question

I've got a UITableView with each row containing a checkbox using UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark. I can't figure out how to uncheck all the checkboxes using the didSelectRowAtIndexPath method.

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {  

    UITableViewCell *oldCell;

    int count = [self.myTableRowNamesArray count];

    for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < count; ++i) {                                
        // Uncheck all checkboxes
        // OF COURSE THIS DOESN'T WORK
        // BECAUSE i IS AN INTEGER AND INDEXPATH IS A POINTER
        FOO: oldCell = [myTableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(int)i];
        // GOOD CODE:
        oldCell = [penanceOptionsTableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:i inSection:0]];
        oldCell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone;
    }
    UITableViewCell *newCell = [myTableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    newCell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark;
}

Answer 1

Instead of modifying the .accessoryType of all cells in didSelectRowAtIndexPath:, I suggest storing the selected index in some ivar, and change the .accessoryType in the data source's -tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: method, i.e.

-(void)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath { 
   self.selectedIndexPath = indexPath;
   [tableView reloadData];
}

-(UITableViewCell*)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath {
   ...
   cell.accessoryType = [indexPath compare:self.selectedIndexPath] == NSOrderedSame
                          ? UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark
                          : UITableViewCellAccessoryNone;
   ...
}

With this, only visible cells will be affected, and the million other cells outside of the screen won't need to be modified.

---

Quite right, here's a full implementation in Swift in the general case of selecting a cell .. you'd use selectedIndexPath elsewhere in the class as you see fit. For example, in cellForRowAtIndexPath to choose the appropriate cell prototype.

//  SelectingTableViewController

import UIKit

class SelectingTableViewController: UITableViewController   
    {
    internal var selectedIndexPath:NSIndexPath? = nil

    override func viewDidLoad()
        {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 68.0
        tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension

        self.clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear = false;
        }

    override func tableView
        (tableView:UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath:NSIndexPath)
            {
            print("did select....")

            // in fact, was this very row selected,
            // and the user is clicking to deselect it...
            // if you don't want "click a selected row to deselect"
            // then on't include this clause.
            if selectedIndexPath == indexPath
                {
                print("(user clicked on selected to deselect)")
                selectedIndexPath = nil
                tableView.reloadRowsAtIndexPaths(
                    [indexPath],
                    withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimation.None)

                tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath, animated:false)
                return
                }

            // in fact, was some other row selected??
            // user is changing to this row? if so, also deselect that row
            if selectedIndexPath != nil
                {
                let pleaseRedrawMe = selectedIndexPath!
                // (note that it will be drawn un-selected
                // since we're chaging the 'selectedIndexPath' global)
                selectedIndexPath = indexPath
                tableView.reloadRowsAtIndexPaths(
                    [pleaseRedrawMe, indexPath],
                    withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimation.None)
                return;
                }

            // no previous selection.
            // simply select that new one the user just touched.
            // note that you can not use Apple's willDeselectRowAtIndexPath
            // functions ... because they are freaky
            selectedIndexPath = indexPath
            tableView.reloadRowsAtIndexPaths(
                [indexPath],
                withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimation.None)

            }

    }