How can I hide section headers in iOS 11?

Question

In iOS 11, my section headers always appear, regardless of whether the items are 0 or more.

On iOS 10 devices, my code works and sections disappear when item count is 0. But on iOS 11, the same code has no affect.

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
    if sections[section].items.count > 0{
        return sections[section].title
    }else{
        return nil
    }
}

Are you possibly implementing heightForHeaderInSection or viewForHeaderInSection? That could make your sections appear or not. Also apple docs say about titleForHeaderInSection "Return Value: A string to use as the title of the section header. If you return nil , the section will have no title." Doesn't say there will be no section, only no title. — Au Ris, Oct 05 '17 at 21:10

Au Ris · Answer 1 · 2017-10-08T18:43:20.537

In iOS 11 if you implement only titleForHeaderInSection and return nil, you will not see a header view. But if you also implement viewForHeaderInSection, regardless of what you return, there will be a section.

This alone will not show a section header:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
    return nil
}

This will show a section header with no title:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
    return nil
}

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
    return nil
}

So both methods may return nil and the header will be visible. If only titleForHeaderInSection is implemented, no header shows up. That does seem to be a case only in iOS 11. Not sure if it's a bug or a way to force developers chose one method of the two. But the docs confirm this behaviour about titleForHeaderInSection:

"Return Value: A string to use as the title of the section header. If you return nil , the section will have no title."

So nothing about showing or not showing, this method only returns the string for the title. Which makes sense. But what does look like a bug is that returning nil in viewForHeaderInSection will show the section header.

Wow. This seems to be a major bug. – TIMEX Oct 06 '17 at 05:09 — TIMEX, Oct 06 '17 at 05:09
It does look more like a bug than a feature :) – Au Ris Oct 06 '17 at 12:42 — Au Ris, Oct 06 '17 at 12:42

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 15 '18 at 15:21

5

To hide a section header for, say, section 0, implement the following method like so:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
    if (section == 0) {
        return CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude //Now section 0's header is hidden regardless of the new behaviour in iOS11.
    }

    return tableView.sectionHeaderHeight
}

This solution also works for grouped UITableViews, as discussed below.

Update: If you execute reloadSections(..), this solution causes an

NSException of type 'CALayerInvalidGeometry'

If you return 0 in the if statement however, this crash doesn't occur! :)

Therefore, I would say the best solution I have found (atleast for plain UITableViews) is:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
    if (section == 0) {
        return 0
    }

    return tableView.sectionHeaderHeight
}

edited Oct 15 '18 at 15:21

shim

9,289
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answered Oct 08 '17 at 18:25

AppreciateIt

696
2
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23

Returning 0 causes UITableView to use a default value. This is undocumented behavior. If you return a very small number, you effectively get a zero-height header. – AppreciateIt Oct 08 '17 at 18:48
1

That's not my experience. My experience is that returning 0 suppresses the header. – matt Oct 08 '17 at 18:49
It may have changed in a recent version of iOS, but this was definitely an issue in the past. It may also depend on whether you use a grouped UITableView or not. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17699831/how-to-change-height-of-grouped-uitableview-header – AppreciateIt Oct 08 '17 at 18:53
Okay, I definitely am not talking about a grouped table view. – matt Oct 08 '17 at 18:58
Well, that is a common type so it may be relevant to others. – AppreciateIt Oct 08 '17 at 19:03
`CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude` was needed (and still is, I believe) for grouped tables. It is problematic with plain tables though. It's magic out there. – Sulthan Oct 13 '17 at 19:39

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 08 '17 at 18:51

Implement tableView(_:heightForHeaderInSection:) to return UITableViewAutomaticDimension.

This will suppress the section header in exactly the case where titleForHeaderInSection returns nil (and otherwise it will use the default header height from the table).

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 13 '17 at 19:36

If you explicitly tell iOS 11 to use a height of 0 in heightForHeaderInSection it will hide the section header. You can still use automatic header sizing by returning UITableViewAutomaticDimension for non-zero height headers. Here's an example of a solution to workaround the iOS 11 bug:

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
  guard shouldShowSectionHeader(section: section) else { return 0 }
  return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}

You'll need to implement shouldShowSectionHeader to determine whether or not to show the section header.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 12 '18 at 10:57

iOS 11.3, works in production

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {

    return sections[section].headerViewModel?.makeView(bindImmediately: true)
}

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {

    return sections[section].headerViewModel == nil ? 0 : UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 12 '18 at 12:40

0

return empty view from viewForHeaderInSection

answered Sep 12 '18 at 12:40

Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky

354
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19

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered May 29 '19 at 11:42

0

swift 3, 4 and 4.2

To hide your tableView header

tableView.tableHeaderView?.frame = CGRect.zero

and to show it back

tableView.tableHeaderView?.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: tableView.frame.width, height: 66)

answered May 29 '19 at 11:42

Akbar Khan

2,215
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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 05 '19 at 03:14

0

What worked for me:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
    return 0.01
}

answered Nov 05 '19 at 03:14

Kaye

153
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How can I hide section headers in iOS 11?

8 Answers8