Disable tableview cell highlighted color in edit mode?

Question

How can i remove the table view cell highlighted color in edit mode. I am using the table view property “allowsMultipleSelection” in edit mode. By default the cell is highlighted in a light blue color. Although we can change the highlighted color i have not seen any option to remove that highlighted color property. I want my table view cell checkbox selection only and not highlighted mode.

"cell.SelectedBackgroundView" allows to change the cell's background color when its selected, but i want to have only checkbox selection and no color for the cell in selected state.

Attached image of the screen. In my case the cell has a background image so on selection also I want the cell background to be same and only the checkbox selected.

Answer 1

UITableViewCell have selectionStyle property to highlight the cell on selection. These style highlight the cell with colour like:

Blue, Gray, Default(Light Gray), None

Upon selection of .none style, it will only prevent from highlighting the cell. It will not block the selection. You can see that by applying breakpoint in didSelectRowAt indexPath: function:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    print("UITableView Selected")
}

Answer 2

In your cell class override this methods:

override func setHighlighted(_ highlighted: Bool, animated: Bool) {}

override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
    super.setSelected(selected, animated: false)
    let viewForHighlight = UIView()
    self.selectedBackgroundView = viewForHighlight
    if self.isEditing {
        viewForHighlight.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
    } else {
        viewForHighlight.backgroundColor = UIColor.gray
    }
}

Answer 3

In iOS 14 and above, you can now simply do this in your UITableViewCell subclass:

override init(style: UITableViewCell.CellStyle, reuseIdentifier: String?) {
    super.init(style: style, reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
    
    // Prevent cell highlighting while preserving selectability and separator views
    var backgroundConfig = UIBackgroundConfiguration.listPlainCell()
    backgroundConfig.backgroundColor = .clear
    backgroundConfiguration = backgroundConfig
}

For a solution that also works on iOS 13 and below, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/64582629/171933

Answer 4

I would check out this delegate method: tableView(_:shouldHighlightRowAt:) You can check to see if you're editing and suppress highlighting altogether by returning false in the desired states.

Answer 5

If you are trying to completely remove the selection then you can use the below code

For Swift 3 cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyle.none

For Swift 4 cell.selectionStyle = .none

Answer 6

Yet another option is to use (in Objective-C, you can do something similar in Swift, of course):

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
}

Based on your model or data or whatever, in this method you can check or uncheck the box in each cell, as well as turn off the highlight.

From the docs:

A table view sends this message to its delegate just before it uses cell to draw a row, thereby permitting the delegate to customize the cell object before it is displayed. This method gives the delegate a chance to override state-based properties set earlier by the table view, such as selection and background color. After the delegate returns, the table view sets only the alpha and frame properties, and then only when animating rows as they slide in or out.

Answer 7

Try this way, I've just checked it, it works as you need:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, shouldHighlightRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> Bool {
        let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath)
        let selectedColor: UIColor
        let selectedView = UIView(frame: CGRect.zero)
        if tableView.isEditing == true {

            selectedColor = .clear
        } else {
            selectedColor = .lightGray
        }
        selectedView.backgroundColor = selectedColor
        cell?.multipleSelectionBackgroundView = selectedView
        return true
    }