Question

I have this code working, however I don’t quite understand how it is managing to set the data source for the UITableViewController? Would this have to be occurring via Interface Builder settings somehow?

That is if you see the line “tableData = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects: etc”, and the fact that I don’t see where my “tableData” instance variable here is actually assigned to be the data for the UITableView….

@interface RootViewController : UITableViewController <NewItemControllerDelegate> {  

    NSMutableArray *tableData;
}
@end


@implementation RootViewController
- (void)viewDidLoad {
  [super viewDidLoad];
  tableData = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"My Standard View", @"A Different View", nil];   // <== HOW IS THIS MANAGING TO SET THE VIEW WITH THE DATA
}

and for reference

@interface myProjectAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate> {

    UIWindow *window;
    UINavigationController *navigationController;
}
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UINavigationController *navigationController;
@end


@implementation myProjectAppDelegate
@synthesize window;
@synthesize navigationController;

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {    

    // Override point for customization after application launch.

    // Add the navigation controller's view to the window and display.
    [self.window addSubview:navigationController.view];
    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

    return YES;
}

PS (edit) So what I can’t quite understand is the linkage between my “NSMutableArray *tableData” variable I declared in the RootViewController header file, and the actual UITableViewController’s datasource so to speak? Is there a default “tableData” in a UITableViewController perhaps that is what I’m really setting or something, so I’m not really allocating new NSMutableArray to my variable I created but another one? (hope this makes sense)>

Answer 1

By default, UITableViewController sets itself as the delegate and datasource of its table view. Since your class is a subclass of UITableViewController, it does the same. Of course, this assumes that you have implemented all the UITableViewDataSource methods to actually use the tableData array (which you aren’t showing us here).