Question

I would like to be conform with pattern MVC and i ask me, where the “cellForRowAtIndexPath” method must to go :/
Because, at the moment, this method is in the Controller File.

Answer 1

You’re asking whether it should be in the Model (M) or Controller (C), I assume. And it’s an interesting question, because UITableView has two protocols:

UITableViewDelegate
UITableViewDataSource

Well, the UITableViewDelegate protocol is for the ‘owner’ of the view, which would be generally the Controller – I haven’t seen any code that assumes otherwise.

So then where should the UITableViewDataSource sit? This is the protocol that defines

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

Now, if the Apple developers assumed it would go in the Controller, why not just incorporate it into the UITableViewDelegate protocol? The documentation says this (with my bold):

The UITableViewDataSource protocol is adopted by an object that
mediates the application’s data model for a UITableView object. The
data source provides the table-view object with the information it
needs to construct and modify a table view.

As a representative of the data model, the data source supplies
minimal information about the table view’s appearance. The table-view
object’s delegate—an object adopting the UITableViewDelegate
protocol—provides that information.

So that seems to suggest it should sit in the model – but really by saying “mediates the application’s data model” it means it should sit in a Controller – but perhaps not the same controller that actually manages the UITableView (via the UITableViewDelegate protocol). It seems to me you have the flexibility to look at laying this out in a couple of different ways – however the general conclusion is that in 99% of the code I’ve seen it sits in the Controller which also is also the UITableViewDelegate delegate.

Here’s some Apple documentation on MVC: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/General/Conceptual/CocoaEncyclopedia/Model-View-Controller/Model-View-Controller.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010810-CH14-SW9