Question

I want to center the header on the tableview, however I have 2 problems. First I don’t have the correct height and second the UILabel doesn’t look like the default header – font/font size/color etc… Is there a better way to center it, and/or is there a way to make it look like the default header.

- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger) section
{
    //section text as a label
    UILabel *lbl = [[UILabel alloc] init];
    lbl.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;  

    lbl.text = @"Header";
    [lbl setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];  

    return lbl;
}

Answer 1

You must also implement tableView:heightForHeaderInSection to adjust your header height :

In the UITableViewDelegate Protocol Reference doc you find :

tableView:viewForHeaderInSection:

Discussion

The returned object, for example, can
be a UILabel or UIImageView object.
The table view automatically adjusts
the height of the section header to
accommodate the returned view object.
This method only works correctly when
tableView:heightForHeaderInSection: is
also implemented.

For centering the Header label you must specify the label frame before setting its aligment to center.
For getting the standart font, use SystemFontOfSize:

Also beware you are creating a memory leak you are supposed to return an autoreleased view

Try something like this :

UILabel *lbl = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width, 30)] autorelease];
lbl.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
lbl.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12];

Hope this helps,
Vincent