Question

at first,i delete one cell in tableView,then i want to add another new cell in the tableView,but the new cell is not new,it is just the cell which i delete. i know what dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier means.i think when delete one cell,the cache in dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier is also deleted.why not?

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    NSLog(@"table reload");

    PDFModel* tempmodel=[PDFArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    NSString * CellIdentifier=tempmodel.PDFName;
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    NSLog(@"cell %x",cell);
    if (cell == nil)
    {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
       //custom the cell
        cell.text=...   
    }
    return cell;
}   

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView commitEditingStyle:(UITableViewCellEditingStyle)editingStyle forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    if (editingStyle==UITableViewCellEditingStyleDelete) 
    {
         [PDFArray removeObjectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
         NSMutableArray* array=[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
         [array addObject:indexPath];
         [self.tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:array withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationRight];

    }
}

Answer 1

There’s no reason to delete the UITableViewCell since it can be reused. That cell won’t be displayed until it is processed again by cellForRowAtIndexPath, so it won’t show up with the old data. The laid-out cell, though — the view and all of its subviews — can be reused after new data replaces the old data.

Think of it like each cell is a whiteboard (dry erase board) where it’s cut down to a certain size and all of the basic information areas are etched into the surface: a place for some text, another area for a number, a special space for drawing a picture, etc. In tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: when you check whether the cell == nil, you’re trying to find out if there are any already-etched whiteboards available that you can erase and write the new information on with your dry erase marker. If there aren’t then it cuts out and etches a brand new board to write information on, but if there is one that can be erased then it just wipes off the old information with an eraser and writes in the new information. As you can imagine, this saves a lot of time.

When a user is scrolling the table what’s actually happening is that when one cell (whiteboard) scrolls off the top and is no longer visible, the system erases the data and moves it to the bottom of the stack; it will be the next one to scroll into view. As a result the system only has to create as many whiteboards as can be visible at any one time — the ones off-screen don’t actually exist.

When you delete a cell all you’re really doing is telling the table to (a) stop displaying that cell, and (b) setting a flag so the table can use the eraser to wipe off the old data but still reuse the whiteboard.

Creating cells can be very costly in terms of computing power. If a UITableView had to create a new cell every time one came into view while the user was scrolling — in the analogy, if it had to cut out a new whiteboard and etch all of the areas into it every time one came into view — the scrolling would be very jerky and look terrible. By reusing cells, replacing just the changing contents, the table can move smoothly as the user interacts with it.