Question

I know that table sources need a data source to hold the data that the tableview will display.
Lets’ say that I’m going to make my AppController be the data source of my tableview and that I make the connection in interface builder. My question is since my actual data is going to be stored in an array,let’s call it myArray, when I set the data source in code should I do this

 [tableView setDataSource:myArray]; or this [tableView setDataSource:self];

I’m confused about this. setting the data source with the keyword “self” would set it to the AppController if I’m not mistaken.

Answer 1

A table view data source must conform to the NSTableViewDataSource protocol (called NSTableDataSource prior to 10.6).

NSArray does not conform to this protocol, so you can’t use it as a data source.

You need to implement the required protocol methods in your AppController object and assign your AppController object as the table’s data source.

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification*)notification
{
    [tableView setDataSource:self];
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView
{
    return [myArray count];
}

- (id)tableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView objectValueForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)aTableColumn row:(NSInteger)rowIndex
{
    return [myArray objectAtIndex:rowIndex];   
}