Question

I’m a little confused with something. I’m trying to create a custom cell and I want to use the interface builder way.

The normal way I create a table is to have the table as:

.h

@interface AssessList : UIViewController {

    IBOutlet UITableView *tblAssessList;
}

@property(nonatomic, retain) UITableView *tblAssessList;

@end

.m

- (NSInteger)
numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
    return groupArray.count;
}


- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
     return totalArray.count;
}


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

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
    }



    cell.textLabel.text = @"I am the text....";

        return cell;
}

Now i’ve created a new class for the cell and I think I understand how to put that in. But can I leave the .h as

@interface AssessList : UIViewController

or does the class/nib with the full table on it have to be a UITableViewController?

Tom

Answer 1

does the class/nib with the full table on it have to be a
UITableViewController?

No. A UITableViewController is just a convenience UIViewController subclass which has a UITableView and is already setup as its delegate/datasource (it is declared as conforming to the UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDatasource protocols), it also has pre-filled method implementations for these protocols in the template implementation file which Xcode generates for you. You can just as well do all of this yourself, I often do.

You should however make an IBOutlet for your UITableViewCell so that you can load it from the nib file (see the Loading Custom Table-View Cells From Nib Files in the Table View Programming Guide).