Question

I am trying to resize the height of my row in UITableView based on the text length. I have the following code:

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSString *cellText =[[topics objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] name];
    UIFont *cellFont = [UIFont fontWithName:@"ArialMT" size:17.0];
    CGSize constraintSize = CGSizeMake(280.0f, MAXFLOAT);
    CGSize labelSize = [cellText sizeWithFont:cellFont constrainedToSize:constraintSize lineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeWordWrap];

    return labelSize.height + 20;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
        cell.textLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
        cell.textLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
        cell.textLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"ArialMT" size:17.0];
    }
}

However, it messes up with the UIImageView and the UIDetailText, image shown below:

How do I fix this?

I’ve tried:

[cell.imageView setContentMode:UIViewContentModeScaleToFill];
    [cell.imageView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 16,16)];
    [cell.imageView setBounds:CGRectMake(0, 0, 16,16)];
    [cell.imageView setAutoresizingMask:UIViewAutoresizingNone];
    [cell.imageView setAutoresizesSubviews:NO];

and none seems to work

Answer 1

Instead of subclassing as suggested by others, you could also add your own subviews to the cell’s content view.

From Customizing Cells:

If you want the cell to have different
content components and to have these
laid out in different locations, or if
you want different behavioral
characteristics for the cell, you have
two alternatives. You can add subviews
to the contentView property of the
cell object or you can create a custom
subclass of UITableViewCell.

• You should add subviews to a cell’s content view when your content layout can be specified entirely with the appropriate autoresizing settings and when you don’t need to modify the default behavior of the cell.
• You should create a custom subclass when your content requires custom layout code or when you need to change the default behavior of the cell, such as in response to editing mode.

See this example:

#define CUSTOM_IMAGE_TAG 99
#define MAIN_LABEL 98

// Customize the appearance of table view cells.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    UIImageView *customImageView = nil;
    UILabel *mainLabel = nil;
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
        customImageView = [[[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 40.0f, 40.0f)] autorelease];
        customImageView.tag = CUSTOM_IMAGE_TAG;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:customImageView];

        mainLabel = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(60.0f, 10.0f, 100.0f, 21.0f)] autorelease];
        mainLabel.tag = MAIN_LABEL;
        mainLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:mainLabel];
    } else {
        customImageView = (UIImageView *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:CUSTOM_IMAGE_TAG];
        mainLabel = (UILabel *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:MAIN_LABEL];
    }

    // Configure the cell.
    CGRect frame = mainLabel.frame;
    frame.size.height = ... // dynamic height
    mainLabel.frame = frame;

    return cell;
}

Obviously, you still need to implement tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath:.