Question

I need to draw an image in a table cell. So far I have not been able to get a proper reference to the UIImageView after I create the view and assign it to the cell. The same procedure does work for a UILabel, for example.

I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.

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

    UIImageView *imageView;
    UILabel *title;
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault 
                                       reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];

        // Setup title
        title = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 100, 30)] autorelease];
        title.tag = 1;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:title];

        // Setup image
        UIImageView* imageView = [[[ UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame: 
                                   CGRectMake(50, 0, 50, 50)] autorelease];
        imageView.tag = 2;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:imageView];

    } else {
        // Get references to cell views
        title = (UILabel *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:1];
        imageView = (UIImageView *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:2];
    }

    NSLog(@"%@", [title class]);     // UILabel
    NSLog(@"%@", [imageView class]); // CRASH! EXC_BAD_ACCESS

    return cell;
}

Answer 1

The problem is the scope of the imageView variables. In the case that the cell doesn’t exist yet, you create a new UIImageView that only exists in the if-block. It hides the variable that you declared earlier and disappears after the if-block ends.
Instead of

UIImageView *imageView = ...

you should simply write

imageView = ...

Otherwise you’re creating a new object that has nothing to do with the object you declared at the top of the method and the original imageView is still undefined.