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iOS Apprentice

1 min

Before You Begin

Section 0: 3 chapters
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Getting Started with UIKit

Section 1: 8 chapters
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Checklists

Section 2: 12 chapters
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My Locations

Section 3: 11 chapters
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Store Search

Section 4: 12 chapters
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Getting Started with SwiftUI

Section 5: 3 chapters
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Checklists

Section 6: 8 chapters
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9. Table Views
Written by Eli Ganim

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Ready to get started on your next app? Let’s go!

To-do list apps are one of the most popular types of app on the App Store — iOS even has a built-in Reminders app. Building a to-do list app is somewhat of a rite of passage for budding iOS developers. So, it makes sense that you create one as well.

Your own to-do list app, Checklists, will look like this when you’re finished:

The finished Checklists app
The finished Checklists app

The app lets you organize to-do items into lists and then check off these items once you’ve completed them. You can also set a reminder on a to-do item that will make the iPhone pop up an alert on the due date, even when the app isn’t running.

As far as to-do list apps go, Checklists is very basic, but don’t let that fool you. Even a simple app such as this already has five different screens and a lot of complexity behind the scenes.

This chapter covers the following:

  • Table views and navigation controllers: A basic introduction to navigation controllers and table views.
  • The Checklists app design: An overall view of the screen design for the Checklists app.
  • Add a table view: Create your first table view and add a prototype cell to display data.
  • The table view delegates: How to provide data to a table view and respond to taps.

Table views and navigation controllers

Checklists will introduce you to two of the most commonly used UI elements in iOS apps: the table view and the navigation controller.

A table view shows a list of things. The three screens above all use a table view. In fact, all of this app’s screens use table views. This component is extremely versatile and the most important one to master in iOS development.

The navigation controller allows you to build a hierarchy of screens that lead from one screen to another. It adds a navigation bar at the top with a title and a back button.

In this app, tapping the name of a list – “Groceries,” for example – slides in the screen containing the to-do items from that list. The button in the upper-left corner takes you back to the previous screen with a smooth animation. Moving between those screens is the job of the navigation controller.

Navigation controllers and table views are often used together.

The grey bar at the top is the navigation bar. The list of items is the table view.
The grey bar at the top is the navigation bar. The list of items is the table view.

Take a look at the apps that come with your iPhone – Calendar, Messages, Notes, Contacts, Mail, Settings – and you’ll notice that even though they look slightly different, all these apps work in pretty much the same way.

That’s because they all use table views and navigation controllers:

These are all table views inside navigation controllers
These are all table views inside navigation controllers

(The Music app also has a tab bar at the bottom, something you’ll learn about later on.)

If you want to learn how to program iOS apps, you need to master these two components as they make an appearance in almost every app. That’s exactly what you’ll focus on in this section of the book. You’ll also learn how to pass data from one screen to another, a very important topic that often puzzles beginners.

When you’re done with this app, the concepts view controller, table view, and delegate will be so familiar to you that you can program them in your sleep.

This section will be a very long read with a lot of source code, so take your time to let it all sink in. You’re encouraged to experiment with the code that you’ll be writing. Change stuff and see what it does, even if it breaks the app.

Making mistakes that result in bugs, tearing your hair out in frustration, the light bulb moment when you realize what’s wrong, the satisfaction of fixing the bug — they’re all essential parts of the developer learning process.

There’s no doubt: playing with code is the quickest way to learn!

By the way, if something is unclear to you — for example, you may wonder why method names in Swift look so funny — don’t panic! Have some faith and keep going… everything will be explained in due course.

The Checklists app design

Just so you know what you’re in for, here is an overview of how the Checklists app will work:

All the screens of the Checklists app
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Adding a table view

Seeing as table views are so important, you will start out by examining how they work. Making lists has never been this much fun!

Creating the project

➤ Launch Xcode and start a new project. Choose the Single View Application template.

Choosing the Xcode template
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Choosing the template options
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Setting the app orientation

Checklists will run in portrait orientation only. However, the default project that Xcode just generated also includes landscape support.

The Device Orientation setting
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Editing the storyboard

Xcode created a basic app that consists of a single view controller. Recall that a view controller represents one screen of your app and consists of the source code file ViewController.swift and a user interface design in Main.storyboard.

The storyboard editor with the app’s only scene
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This button shows and hides the Document Outline
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The view controller code

But remember, the scene on the storyboard is just half the equation — there’s also the Swift code file. And the view type specified in code has to match the scene’s type. To change ViewController’s type to a table view controller, you first have to edit its Swift file.

class ViewController: UIViewController {

class ChecklistViewController: UITableViewController {
Renaming the Swift file
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Setting the view controller class in the storyboard

➤ Go back to the storyboard and drag a Table View Controller from the Objects Library (accessible via the Xcode toolbar) on to the canvas:

Dragging a Table View Controller into the storyboard
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Changing the Custom Class of the Table View Controller
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Setting the initial view controller

If there is no big arrow pointing towards your new table view controller, then go to the Attributes inspector and check Is Initial View Controller.

The arrow points at the initial view controller
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The app now uses a table view controller
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The anatomy of a table view

First, let’s talk a bit more about table views. A UITableView object displays a list of items.

A plain-style table (left) and a grouped table (right)
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Cells display the contents of rows
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Adding a prototype cell

In the past, you had to put in quite a bit of effort to create cells for your tables. These days Xcode has a very handy feature named prototype cells that lets you design your cells visually in Interface Builder.

Selecting the prototype cell
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Adding the label to the prototype cell
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Adding the label to the prototype cell
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Changing the accessory to get a checkmark
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The design of the prototype cell: a label and a checkmark
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Giving the table view cell a reuse identifier
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Compiler warnings

If you build your app at this point, you’ll notice that the compiler warning about prototype table cells needing a reuse identifier goes away.

The table view delegates

➤ Switch to ChecklistViewController.swift and add the following methods just before the closing bracket at the bottom of the file:

// MARK:- Table View Data Source
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
      numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
  return 1
}

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, 
             cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> 
             UITableViewCell {
  let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(
                        withIdentifier: "ChecklistItem", 
                                   for: indexPath)
  return cell
}

Protocols

The above two methods are part of UITableView’s data source protocol.

The dating ritual of a data source and a table view
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The table now has one row
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Method signatures

In the above text, you might have noticed some special notation for the method names, like tableView(_:numberOfRowsInSection:) or tableView(_:cellForRowAt:). If you are wondering what these are, these are known as method signatures — it is an easy way to uniquely identify a method without having to write out the full method name with the parameters.

The Jump Bar shows the method signatures
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Special comments

You might have noticed the following line in the code you just added:

// MARK:- Table View Data Source

Testing the table view data source

Exercise: Modify the app so that it shows five rows.

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
      numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
  return 5
}
The table now has five identical rows
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Putting row data into the cells

Currently, the rows (or rather the cells) all contain the placeholder text “Label.” Let’s add some unique text for each row.

Set the label’s tag to 1000
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override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, 
             cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) 
             -> UITableViewCell {
  let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(
                        withIdentifier: "ChecklistItem", 
                                   for: indexPath)
                        
  // Add the following code
  let label = cell.viewWithTag(1000) as! UILabel

  if indexPath.row == 0 {
    label.text = "Walk the dog"
  } else if indexPath.row == 1 {
    label.text = "Brush my teeth"
  } else if indexPath.row == 2 {
    label.text = "Learn iOS development"
  } else if indexPath.row == 3 {
    label.text = "Soccer practice"
  } else if indexPath.row == 4 {
    label.text = "Eat ice cream"
  }
  // End of new code block
  
  return cell
}

  let label = cell.viewWithTag(1000) as! UILabel

  if indexPath.row == 0 {
    label.text = "Walk the dog"
  } else if indexPath.row == 1 {
    label.text = "Brush my teeth"
  } else if indexPath.row == 2 {
    label.text = "Learn iOS development"
  } else if indexPath.row == 3 {
    label.text = "Soccer practice"
  } else if indexPath.row == 4 {
    label.text = "Eat ice cream"
  }
The rows in the table now have their own text
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  if indexPath.row % 5 == 0 {
    label.text = "Walk the dog"
  } else if indexPath.row % 5 == 1 {
    label.text = "Brush my teeth"
  } else if indexPath.row % 5 == 2 {
    label.text = "Learn iOS development"
  } else if indexPath.row % 5 == 3 {
    label.text = "Soccer practice"
  } else if indexPath.row % 5 == 4 {
    label.text = "Eat ice cream"
  }

First row:     0 % 5 = 0
Second row:    1 % 5 = 1
Third row:     2 % 5 = 2
Fourth row:    3 % 5 = 3
Fifth row:     4 % 5 = 4

Sixth row:     5 % 5 = 0  (same as first row)  *** The sequence 
Seventh row:   6 % 5 = 1  (same as second row)     repeats here
Eighth row:    7 % 5 = 2  (same as third row)
Ninth row:     8 % 5 = 3  (same as fourth row)
Tenth row:     9 % 5 = 4  (same as fifth row)

Eleventh row: 10 % 5 = 0  (same as first row)  *** The sequence 
Twelfth row:  11 % 5 = 1  (same as second row)     repeats again
and so on...
The table now has 100 rows
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Strange crashes?

A common question on the iOS Apprentice forums is, “I’m just following along with the book and suddenly my app crashes… What went wrong?”

The blue arrow sets a breakpoint
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A deactivated breakpoint
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Tapping on the rows

When you tap on a row , the cell color changes to indicate it is selected. The cell remains selected till you tap another row. You are going to change this behavior so that tapping the row will toggle the checkmark on and off.

A tapped row stays gray
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The table’s data source and delegate are hooked up to the view controller
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// MARK:- Table View Delegate
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
           didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
  tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true)
}

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView,
                        didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
  if let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath) {
    if cell.accessoryType == .none {
      cell.accessoryType = .checkmark
    } else {
      cell.accessoryType = .none
    }
  }
    
  tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true)
}
You can now tap on a row to toggle the checkmark
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Methods with multiple parameters

Most of the methods you used in the Bull’s Eye app took only one parameter or did not have any parameters at all, but these new table view data source and delegate methods take two:

override func tableView(
           _ tableView: UITableView,             // parameter 1
           numberOfRowsInSection section: Int)   // parameter 2
           -> Int {                              // return value
  . . .
}
override func tableView(
          _ tableView: UITableView,              // parameter 1
          cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath)     // parameter 2
          -> UITableViewCell {                   // return value
  . . .
}
override func tableView(
       _ tableView: UITableView,                 // parameter 1
       didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {    // parameter 2
  . . .
}

Int numberOfRowsInSection(UITableView tableView, Int section) {
  . . .
}

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, 
      numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
  . . .
}

    _ tableView: UITableView

    numberOfRowsInSection section: Int

    tableView(_:numberOfRowsInSection:)
    tableView(_:cellForRowAt:)
    tableView(_:didSelectRowAt:)
8. The Final App
10. The Data Model
Have a technical question? Want to report a bug? You can ask questions and report bugs to the book authors in our official book forum here.
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