Though this is one of the most asked question but i could not find one comprehensive answer. I need to have custom cells in UITableView. Some containing labels or text fields and some with images and buttons. I have made separate classes for each type of cell. I am using GroupStyle table with multiple sections. Right now I am adding cells in cellForIndexPath with switch-case for section and if-else for rows in section:
id cell;
switch(indexPath.section) {
case 0:
if(indexPath.row==0) {
CellA *cell = [[[CellA alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Celld%",indexPath.row]] autorelease];
//configure cell
return cell;
}
else if(indexPath.row==1) {
CellB *cell = [[[CellB alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Celld%",indexPath.row]] autorelease];
//configure cell
return cell;
}
break;
case 1:
if(indexPath.row==0) {
CellC *cell = [[[CellC alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Celld%",indexPath.row]] autorelease];
//configure cell
return cell;
}
break;
default:
break;
}
return cell;
I have to return cell at the end as well because due to definition of cells inside code blocks, cell becomes unrecognizable. To solve it, i declared cell with id on top.But i know this is not the right way. How can I resolve this declare and access issue of multiple types of cells?
There are 4-5 rows at the moment which fit one screen and do not need scrolling. So, I am not reusing cells. But more rows will squeeze in while editing. And in another table, there are more rows which can scroll of the screen. This means I must reuse cells. So, second part of my question is; how can I reuse multiple custom cells?
To answer your first question, you may as well return nil
as you have no good value to return. If it ever hits this case, an exception will be thrown; as it is now, it's likely to give you an EXC_BAD_ACCESS somewhere inside the framework code.
To answer your second question, each type of cell should have a unique reuseIdentifier. For example, all the CellA's could have a reuseIdentifier of @"CellA". Then you would reuse them exactly as you would in the case that all the cells were the same: when you need a CellA call [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"CellA"]
, when you need a CellB call [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"CellB"]
, and so on. For example,
case 0:
if (indexPath.row == 0) {
CellA *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"CellA"];
if (!cell) {
cell = [[[CellA alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"CellA"] autorelease];
}
// configure cell
return cell;
}
else if (indexPath.row == 1) {
CellB *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"CellB"];
if (!cell) {
cell = [[[CellB alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"CellB"] autorelease];
}
// configure cell
return cell;
}
break;
case 1:
if (indexPath.row == 0) {
CellC *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"CellC"];
if (!cell) {
cell = [[[CellC alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"CellC"] autorelease];
}
// configure cell
return cell;
}
break;