Random Ads between cells

Question

I am trying to put Ads totally randomly between cells inside a UITableView. I am gonna show my main file to you understand what I am doing and how I want:

Table View Controller:

class Page1: UITableViewController, UISearchBarDelegate {
    
    @IBOutlet weak var searchBar: UISearchBar!
    var employeesSearching = [Employee]()
    var isSearching : Bool = false
    
    @IBOutlet weak var GoogleBannerView: GADBannerView!

    let collation = UILocalizedIndexedCollation.current()
    var sections: [[Any]] = []
    var objects: [Any] = [] {
        didSet {
            let selector: Selector = #selector(getter: UIApplicationShortcutItem.localizedTitle)
            sections = Array(repeating: [], count: collation.sectionTitles.count)
            let sortedObjects = collation.sortedArray(from: objects, collationStringSelector: selector)
            for object in sortedObjects {
                let sectionNumber = collation.section(for: object, collationStringSelector: selector)
                sections[sectionNumber].append(object as AnyObject)
            }
            self.tableView.reloadData()
        }
    }
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        self.searchBar.delegate = self
        self.tableView.contentOffset = CGPoint(x: 0, y: searchBar.frame.height) //hide searchBar
        
        Shared.instance.employees.sort {
            (first, second) in
            first.name.compare(second.name, options: .diacriticInsensitive) == .orderedAscending
        }
    }
    
    func getMatches(letter: String, withArray array: [Employee]) -> [Employee] {
        return array.filter({ ($0.name.compare(letter, options: .diacriticInsensitive, range: $0.name.startIndex..<$0.name.index($0.name.startIndex, offsetBy: 1), locale: nil) == .orderedSame)})
    }
    
    override func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        if isSearching { return 1 }
        return collation.sectionTitles.count
    }
    
    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        let letter = collation.sectionTitles[section]
        if isSearching {
            return employeesSearching.count
        } else {
            let matches = getMatches(letter: letter, withArray: Shared.instance.employees)
            if !matches.isEmpty { return matches.count }
        }
        return 0
    }
    
    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
        if isSearching { return nil }
        let letter = collation.sectionTitles[section]
        let matches = getMatches(letter: letter, withArray: Shared.instance.employees)
        if matches.count == 0 { return nil }
        return collation.sectionTitles[section] }
    
    override func sectionIndexTitles(for tableView: UITableView) -> [String]? {
        if isSearching { return nil }
        return collation.sectionIndexTitles }
    
    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, sectionForSectionIndexTitle title: String, at index: Int) -> Int {
        return collation.section(forSectionIndexTitle: index) }
    
    override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        if indexPath.row == 3 || indexPath.row == 9 || indexPath.row == 14 {
            let cellAd = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "cellAd", for: indexPath)
        
            GoogleBannerView?.adUnitID = "ca-app-pub-6043248661561548/4628935113"
            GoogleBannerView?.rootViewController = self
            GoogleBannerView?.load(GADRequest())
        
            return cellAd
        }
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "cell", for: indexPath) as! TableViewCell1
        if isSearching {
            cell.nameLabel.text = employeesSearching[indexPath.row].name
            cell.positionLabel.text = employeesSearching[indexPath.row].position
        } else {
            let letter = collation.sectionTitles[indexPath.section]
            let matches = getMatches(letter: letter, withArray: Shared.instance.employees)
            
            cell.nameLabel.text = matches[indexPath.row].name
            cell.positionLabel.text = matches[indexPath.row].position
        }
        return cell
    }
    ...
}

How do I smuggle a UITableViewCell as! AdCell randomly into the UITableView?

I mean, what should I do in cellForRowAt? I am a bit confused between all these indexed sections.

Answer 1

One approach would be to insert some sort of "ad" object at desired locations within your data model.

Then update cellForRowAt to look at the object in the data model for the given index path. If it's an "ad" object, create and setup an "ad" cell. Otherwise create and setup an appropriate data cell as you do now.

Answer 2

Firstly you need to generate a random number between 0 and your tableView Datasource array size

let lower : UInt32 = 0
let upper : UInt32 = array.count
let randomIndex = arc4random_uniform(upper - lower) + lower

then you need to add the Ad object in the array at the randomIndex

array.insert(AdObject, atIndex:randomIndex)

then just reload your tableView and handle the different types in cellForRow function