How does the NSTableView set content Mode(view-based or cell-based) by code?

Question

As title. How does the NSTableView set content Mode(view-based or cell-based) by code?

Thanks for helping

Answer 1

NSTableView defaults to being cell-based, which makes sense for backwards compatibility. Table views are view-based when the table view delegate implements -tableView:viewForTableColumn:row:. You can easily test by programmatically creating a table view as follows:

@implementation BAVAppDelegate

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
    NSView *contentView = self.window.contentView;
    NSTableView *tableView = [[NSTableView alloc] initWithFrame:(NSRect){{50, NSMaxY(contentView.frame) - 200}, {400, 200}}];
    tableView.dataSource = self;
    tableView.delegate = self;
    [contentView addSubview:tableView];

    NSTableColumn *column = [[NSTableColumn alloc] initWithIdentifier:@"column"];
    column.width = 400;
    [tableView addTableColumn:column];
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)tableView {
    return 3;
}

- (id)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView objectValueForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row {
    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", row];
}

//- (NSView *)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView viewForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row {
//    NSTextField *textField = [[NSTextField alloc] initWithFrame:(NSRect){.size = {100, 15}}];
//    textField.stringValue = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", row];
//    return textField;
//}

@end

If you run this code with that delegate method commented out, you get a cell-based table view:

And if you uncomment that delegate method, you get a view-based table view:

The documentation for -tableView:viewForTableColumn:row: states that

This method is required if you wish to use NSView objects instead of NSCell objects for the cells within a table view. Cells and views can not be mixed within the same table view.

which hints at it being the condition that determines whether a table view is cell- or view-based.