UITableViewController will not call cellForRowAtIndexPath BUT numberOfSectionsInTableView and numberOfRowsInSection are set properly

Question

Solution:

The solution was to start by properly starting with a UITableView and then adding the UITableView delegates to the UIViewController as outlined in the selected answer.

Preface: I have read nearly every article on the matter and nothing advised has helped.

I'm embedding a UITableViewController's UITableView into a UIViewController.

I understand that nothing will be called unless the view is rendered, so I render it and I can use NSLog to show that it hit those methods.

I tried making a UITableViewController in InterfaceBuilder and setting my subclass as its custom class which worked!! But that's not how I need to go about it. Here's what I've gathered / done:

• I am using InterfaceBuilder to manage the UIViewController but I'm adding the UITableView programmatically
• Both the delegate and dataSource are set properly and self.tableView is not nil
• Despite the valid logging, cellForRowAtIndexPath is never called and the rendered UITableView is blank
• I added the delegates to my controller which did not change anything

I have set the following on the UITableViewController:

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    NSLog(@"%@", self.questions); // This outputs the questions array as not empty and works
    // As you can see I am also returning 1.
    return 1;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    NSLog(@"%d", [self.questions count]); // This outputs 4 as it should
    return [self.questions count];
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    // All we need to focus on is this NSLog which never outputs
    NSLog(@"Was called and array is, %@" self.questions);

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    UITableViewCell *cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    return cell;
}

I've tried setting the view many ways: Adding UITableViewController directly, adding the UITableViewController's UITableView (which seems to be the correct way), but nothing is working.

Perhaps there is a major step I have forgotten when when working with InterfaceBuilder or some random thing I have forgotten. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

** UPDATE ** Here is how I add either the UiTableViewController or the UITavleView

GTTableViewController *tvc = [[GTTableViewController alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewStylePlain];
// Either
[self.view addSubview:tvc.view];
// OR
[self.view addSubview:tvc.tableView];
// Just to make sure everything is still ok.. and I see the 2/3 TV methods fire.
[self.tableView reloadData];

Answer 1

Instead of trying to analyze your code, I will show you a simple example how to programmatically add a table view to a view controller that is not a UITableViewController . Hopefully this will help you getting your problem ironed out by yourself.

In the .h file:

@interface MyViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource>
{
}
@end

In the .m file:

- (void) loadView
{
  CGRect mainViewFrame = CGRectMake(...);
  self.view = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:mainViewFrame] autorelease];

  // You could make this even simpler if you set the table view as
  // your main view
  CGRect tableViewFrame = self.view.bounds;
  UITableView* tableView = [[[UITableView alloc] initWithFrame:tableViewFrame style:UITableViewStylePlain] autorelease];
  [self.view addSubview:tableView];

  tableView.delegate = self;
  tableView.dataSource = self;
}

That's pretty much it. Nothing spectacular, but with this simple setup the UITableViewDataSource data source methods should be happily triggering, including tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: . At least they do here...

I suggest you take this example and make it work in your environment. Then you slowly rework it step-by-step into the design you want. At some point things will stop working, then you will have the source of your problem.

Answer 2

The enclosing UIViewController is the container controller of the UITableViewController. The UIViewController documentation has a section on this:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/uikit/reference/UIViewController_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006926-CH3-SW81

I have a similar case, where adding a call to the method "addChildViewController" fixes the issue:

[self addChildViewController:tvc];

Answer 3

What is the frame for the tableView? You can print it with NSLog(@"%@", NSStringFromCGRect(self.tableView.frame)); . On a hunch, it's 0,0,0,0.

Answer 4

1 - check what numberOfRowsInSection returns. Does it returns value > 0? (sounds stupid I too made such mistakes)

2 - In your IB, check the table view cell type - is it static or dynamic? If static it won't even look at your code.

3 - Are you calling reloaddata at proper place?

4 - In your view controller header file (or wherever it is declared), are you inheriting from delegates UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDataSource?