Changing UITableView's section header/footer title without reloading the whole table view

Question

Is there any way to reload the section header/footer of a table view without calling [tableView reloadData];?

In fact, I want to show the number of cells in a table view's section in its section footer. The table view is editable and I delete or insert rows using

– insertRowsAtIndexPaths:withRowAnimation:
– deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:withRowAnimation:

It seems that these methods do not update the section footer. Strangely, when I call these methods the table view data-source method

- (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)table titleForFooterInSection:(NSInteger)section

is called (twice!) but it does not update the table view with the new values!!

Anyone has any idea how to fix this problem?

score 36 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '13 at 23:53

36

If you just have a basic text header or footer, you can access them directly:

[tableView footerViewForSection:indexPath.section].textLabel.text = [self tableView:tableView titleForFooterInSection:indexPath.section];

similarly for the header:

[tableView headerViewForSection:indexPath.section].textLabel.text = [self tableView:tableView titleForHeaderInSection:indexPath.section];

answered Jul 30 '13 at 23:53

Nico teWinkel

870
11
19

4

But accessing the `textLabel` directly doesn't change the frame to fit the new text. Do I have to call `sizeToFit` on the footer/header view? – Blip May 27 '15 at 00:03
You'll need to call beginUpdates/endUpdates to have the table view recalculate its layout – Vadim Yelagin Jun 14 '15 at 08:26
Gold! tableView.headerViewForSection(indexPath.section)?.textLabel.text = tableView(tableView, titleForHeaderInSection: indexPath.section) – DogCoffee Aug 08 '15 at 13:13
Note that this doesn't respect the styling of the OS. Such as the all uppercase font that is applied to grouped section headers. – Ben Guild Sep 11 '16 at 04:33

Craig Miller · Answer 2 · 2015-11-29T22:07:16.510

25

This should work:

    UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(false)
    tableView.beginUpdates()

    if let containerView = tableView.footerViewForSection(0) {
        containerView.textLabel!.text = "New footer text!"

        containerView.sizeToFit()
    }

    tableView.endUpdates()
    UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(true)

edited Nov 29 '15 at 22:07

answered Nov 29 '15 at 22:00

Craig Miller

543
8
9

It does work pretty fine in iOS 9, Swift 2.2. And it's much more cleaner than harcoding frame rectangles, which should certainly be avoided. – maganap Jun 07 '16 at 08:22

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 03 '10 at 16:34

I managed to do it in an indirect way: I created a UILabel and set it as section header/footer.

- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForFooterInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    // update sectionFooterView.text    
    return sectionFooterView;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    // create sectionFooterView in Interface Builder, change the frame here
    // use Font-size:15 , BG-Color: clearColor , text-Color: RGB=(97,105,118) 
    // and Text-alignment:Center to look like table view's original footer
    sectionFooterView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 10, 320, 12);
}

Does anyone know a way to do this without setting a custom footer view?

This is the way to do it. Whenever you call `[sectionFooterView setText: @"Some text"]` it will update on-screen. — Tony the Tech, Jul 18 '13 at 15:03

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 20 '17 at 10:55

6

This is how you do it in Swift 3.0

tableView.beginUpdates()
tableView.headerView(forSection: indexPath.section)?.textLabel?.text = "Some text"
tableView.endUpdates()

edited Dec 20 '17 at 10:55

Kevin R

8,230
4
41
46

answered Jun 30 '17 at 12:10

Daniel Tovesson

2,550
1
30
41

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 27 '14 at 18:38

Here's another way to do it:

UITableViewHeaderFooterView *headerView=[self.tableView headerViewForSection:1];
CATransition *animation = [CATransition animation];
animation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseInEaseOut];
animation.type = kCATransitionFade;
animation.duration = 0.35;
[headerView.textLabel.layer addAnimation:animation forKey:@"kCATransitionFade"];
headerView.textLabel.text=[self tableView:self.tableView titleForHeaderInSection:1];
[headerView.textLabel sizeToFit];

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 13 '19 at 14:32

Here's a UITableView extension that's a handy shortcut for refreshing the tableView header/footer titles, based on some of the answers above (note the artificial uppercasing of the header title).

extension UITableView {

    func refreshHeaderTitle(inSection section: Int) {
        UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(false)
        beginUpdates()

        let headerView = self.headerView(forSection: section)
        headerView?.textLabel?.text = self.dataSource?.tableView?(self, titleForHeaderInSection: section)?.uppercased()
        headerView?.sizeToFit()

        endUpdates()
        UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(true)
    }

    func refreshFooterTitle(inSection section: Int) {
        UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(false)
        beginUpdates()

        let footerView = self.footerView(forSection: section)
        footerView?.textLabel?.text = self.dataSource?.tableView?(self, titleForFooterInSection: section)
        footerView?.sizeToFit()

        endUpdates()
        UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(true)
    }

    func refreshAllHeaderAndFooterTitles() {
        for section in 0..<self.numberOfSections {
            refreshHeaderTitle(inSection: section)
            refreshFooterTitle(inSection: section)
        }
    }
}

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 31 '11 at 02:06

2

Check the documentation for UITableView, or more specifically -reloadSections:withRowAnimation:

answered Aug 31 '11 at 02:06

Tim

597
1
5
15

This works but it's not the most efficient since it won't just update the section header/footer, but will also update all the cells. Seems like Ali's answer is the way to go. – Adrian Schönig Jan 31 '12 at 08:24
2

I think that apple expects that if you change the footer or header, the content will change too. But yes, if you want to customize much more than just text displaying semi-statically, then using viewForFooter/Header can be easier. Just be aware that the default section headers and footers do a lot of formatting for you, and overriding them like this for something trivial may also not be the best option. – Tim Feb 02 '12 at 22:01

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 07 '19 at 21:11

I have found that the footer text doesn't update correctly if the text changes from filling one line to multiple ones back to one line. Reseting the label width and height would solve this issue.

    UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(false)
    textLabel.frame = CGRect(x: textLabel.frame.minX,
                             y: textLabel.frame.minY,
                             width: 0,
                             height: 0)
    tableView.beginUpdates()
    textLabel.text = "Your text"
    textLabel.sizeToFit()
    tableView.endUpdates()
    UIView.setAnimationsEnabled(true)

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 18 '20 at 20:27

0

It worked for me to just reload the section with reloadSections on my table view

answered Apr 18 '20 at 20:27

andre

88
2
5

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 20 '23 at 09:41

0

self.controller?.reloadData()

Because footer is part of the whole controller and not under a tableView. We have to reload the whole controller for the FooterView to get updated.

answered Feb 20 '23 at 09:41

GOKuLkrish

11
3

score -2 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 24 '18 at 13:03

-2

You can also do it this way

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForFooterInSection section: Int) -> String? {
    switch section {
        case 0:
            return "Some string"
        default:
            return ""
    }
}

answered Apr 24 '18 at 13:03

Adam Golczak

48
4

With your solution you can't change string outside titleForFooterInSection. – ShadeToD Apr 09 '20 at 11:08

Changing UITableView's section header/footer title without reloading the whole table view

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