UITableView with Sections Repeating Cells

Question

I am trying to add section titles to my UITableView. I am able to create the sections and count the number of elements in each section properly, but when I call my cellForRowAtIndexPath method, the table repeats the data in both sections.

Here is where I prep the UITableView Section Stuff:

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
    int sections = 0;
    if (sectionOneCount>0) {
        sections++;
    }

    if (sectionTwoCount>0) {
        sections++;
    }
    return sections;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    if (section==0) {
        return sectionOneCount;
    }
    else {
        return sectionTwoCount;
    }
}

- (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    if(section == 0) {
        return @"Section One Title";
    }
    else {
        return @"Section Two Title";
    }
}

Here is my cellForRowAtIndexPath method:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"MainCell";

    ProfileTableViewCell *cell = [mainTableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[ProfileTableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    }

    cell.label1.text = [[items objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] valueForKey:@"label1"];
    cell.label2.text = [[items objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] valueForKey:@"label2"];

    return cell;
}

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong here? Thanks!

P.S. Here is some sample data that I am working with. I only have two possible sections, one for each type (in this case, red and blue). I have one main array called items (as you can see in my cellForRowAtIndexPath methods).

{
    "parentArray": {
        "id": 5,
        "items": [
            {
                "type": "red",
                "title": "RedItem1"
            },
            {
                "type": "red",
                "title": "RedItem2"
            },
            {
                "type": "blue",
                "title": "BlueItem1"
            },
            {
                "type": "blue",
                "title": "BlueItem2"
            },
            {
                "type": "blue",
                "title": "BlueItem3"
            }
        ]
    }
}

you need to utilize `indexPath.section` in an `if-else` or `switch` block to perform different logic for different sections. check similar question: [UITableView, how do I know what Section during cellForRowAtIndexPath?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1676394/uitableview-how-do-i-know-what-section-during-cellforrowatindexpath) — staticVoidMan, Sep 14 '14 at 09:51
Thanks, I've been researching this a while and none of the answers I've seen worked with my code thus far. I'll keep on looking. Thanks! — Brandon, Sep 14 '14 at 09:54
Also, even if i do use an if-else statement, which is what I tried originally, all my data is stored in one array. So I'm not sure how that is supposed to be handled. — Brandon, Sep 14 '14 at 09:56
hm... ok, so... how do you know which object in the array is for which section? rather, what were you going for? cuz an array of N dictionaries or N arrays could hold values for N possible sections — staticVoidMan, Sep 14 '14 at 09:58
They're coming out in order. So all of the ones for section 1 come out first, and I have a global integer that increments. Then all of the results for section 2 come out, and I have another global int. Then I include those two integers in my numberOfRowsInSection method. — Brandon, Sep 14 '14 at 10:00
There is a maximum of two sections, because there are only two types that I'm dealing with. — Brandon, Sep 14 '14 at 10:01
ok, so give me example data and i think i can show you two ways to handle this — staticVoidMan, Sep 14 '14 at 10:02
also, how are you calculating `sectionOneCount`/`sectionTwoCount`? I am assuming, as per the example, that you are getting proper values of `sectionOneCount == 2` and `sectionTwoCount == 3`. will this be correct? — staticVoidMan, Sep 14 '14 at 10:13
Yep, I am. Everything seems to be working, but these rows are just repeating. I've just seen this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/18912120/2905222 Im gonna give this a shot — Brandon, Sep 14 '14 at 10:14

staticVoidMan · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-14T10:58:51.553

To continue using your logic...

Assuming your sectionOneCount and sectionTwoCount are proper and in the proper order, you can use sectionOneCount as an offset for populating section 2's contents.

Example:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"MainCell";

    ProfileTableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

    if(indexPath.section == 0) {
        cell.label1.text = items[indexPath.row][@"label1"];
        cell.label2.text = items[indexPath.row][@"label2"];
    }
    else if (indexPath.section == 1) {
        cell.label1.text = items[indexPath.row + sectionOneCount][@"label1"];
        cell.label2.text = items[indexPath.row + sectionOneCount][@"label2"];
    }

    return  cell;
}

PS: When using storyboard, you don't need the if (cell == nil) block

Alternatively...

Suppose your items looked like

{
  "items": [// array of sections
    [//array of section 1 items
      {
        "type": "red",
        "title": "redItem1"
      },
      {
        "type": "red",
        "title": "redItem2"
      }
    ],
    [// array of section 2 items
      {
        "type": "blue",
        "title": "blueItem1"
      },
      {
        "type": "blue",
        "title": "blueItem2"
      },
      {
        "type": "blue",
        "title": "blueItem3"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

Basically:

{
  "items": [//array of 2 things
    [ /*array of all redItems*/ ],
    [ /*array of all blueItems*/ ]
  ]
}

This would be:

Scalable, you could easily just add a new greenItems array and more
Remove any dependency on the sectionCount variables
Order of the inner color items wouldn't matter

And... your main delegate methods would simply be:

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    return items.count;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    return [items[section]].count;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"MainCell";

    UITableView *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

    //no need for if-else anymore as the following is dynamic enough

    cell.label1.text = items[indexPath.section][indexPath.row][@"label1"];
    cell.label2.text = items[indexPath.section][indexPath.row][@"label2"];

    return  cell;
}

PS: This code wouldn't need to be touched even if you updated the datasource with more sections.

@Brandon : my pleasure :) but i would recommend you to create a better structure for your datasource so you need not bother about manually calculating the `sectionCount`s — staticVoidMan, Sep 14 '14 at 10:24
Got it, ill take a look at making that better. Appreciate your help!! — Brandon, Sep 14 '14 at 10:27

UITableView with Sections Repeating Cells

1 Answers1

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