Empty navigation bar appearing in subview

Question

I am trying display a UITableView within a larger UIView in an iPad app, mainly because the data is pretty sparse and I'd like to have the table be a smaller area over a background image, rather than taking up the whole screen. The parent UIViewController is correctly set as the table data source and delegate, and the table looks/functions like it should. The whole view is embedded in a navigation controller; the overall UIView shows a navigation bar, as it should, that I can configure normally.

The problem is the UITableView subview also shows blank space at the top for a navigation bar--empty space above the first cell--and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. I know the space is related to the navigation controller, because when I delete the embed link in the storyboard, the space goes away. The table view doesn't present a UINavigationBar property or any other navigation-related properties that I can try to nullify.

I would post a screen shot but I don't have the rep yet.

Can anyone explain where the space is coming from and how to nix it?

Answer 1

I suspect the answer is related to the Top Layout Guide for the view, but I can't diagnose the specific problem.

Here's a workaround from the storyboard: Insert a UIView in the scene, then drag the UITableView into it as a subview. Check the box for the new UIView's "Clip Subviews" in the attribute window, and then use it as a mask, basically, to cover the undesired top margin of the table view. It works and doesn't require any coding, but there has to be a better way.