Question

I’m have a weird issue here. I have a UITableView using custom UITableViewCells. Everything is working as expected except this on particular issue.

Here’s the scenario:

I need to remove the “$” symbol in a UITextField right before editing begins. This is done via the textFieldShouldBeginEditing: method.

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
    LifeEarningsLineItemTableViewCell *cell = (LifeEarningsLineItemTableViewCell *)[self tableViewCellContainingObject:textField inTableView:self.lifeEarningsTableView];
    if (textField == cell.itemAmount) {
        /*Remove currency symbol for editing.*/
        NSString *currencySymbol = [self.currencyFormatter currencySymbol];
        NSMutableString *mutableText = [NSMutableString stringWithString:textField.text];
        [mutableText replaceOccurrencesOfString:currencySymbol withString:@"" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch range:NSMakeRange(0, [mutableText length])];
        textField.text = mutableText;
    }

    return YES;
}  

Here’s the problem:

• Between different rows, moving from textField1 to textField2 (in a different row), the “$” is removed, this is GOOD.
• Within the same row, moving from textField1 to textField2, the “$” is not removed, this is BAD.

Why is the “$” not being removed within the same row, but does in different rows?

Here’s is a visual representation of the issue:

[EDIT…ADDITION]
I get these logs with these flows:

SHOULD BEGIN…..Row:0, Tag:0
SHOULD BEGIN…..Row:0, Tag:1
DID END…..Row:0, Tag:0
DID END…..Row:0, Tag:1

SHOULD BEGIN…..Row:0, Tag:0
SHOULD BEGIN…..Row:1, Tag:1
DID END…..Row:0, Tag:0
DID END…..Row:1, Tag:1

Also, here is the tableViewCellContainingObject:inTableView:tableView method:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableViewCellContainingObject:(UIView *)view inTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
    CGPoint objectRectInTableViewCoordinates = [tableView convertPoint:view.bounds.origin fromView:view];
    NSIndexPath *cellIndexPath = [tableView indexPathForRowAtPoint:objectRectInTableViewCoordinates];
    return [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:cellIndexPath];
}

And the textFieldDidEndEditing method:

- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
    LifeEarningsLineItemTableViewCell *cell = (LifeEarningsLineItemTableViewCell *)[self tableViewCellContainingObject:textField inTableView:self.lifeEarningsTableView];
    LifeEarningsLineItem *lifeEarningsLineItem = [self.lifeEarningsFetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:[self.lifeEarningsTableView indexPathForCell:cell]];

    if (textField == cell.itemAmount) {
        NSNumber *absInteger = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:abs([textField.text integerValue])];
        textField.text = [self.currencyFormatter stringFromNumber:absInteger];
        lifeEarningsLineItem.amount = absInteger;
        [self sumAmountsAndDisplay];
    } else if (textField == cell.itemName) {
        lifeEarningsLineItem.name = textField.text;
    }
}

Answer 1

I think your solution (decoupling the FRC during editing) may be a little drastic and could have unforeseen effects. Here are a couple of alternative suggestions. I am assuming the problem is caused by the table reloading the row you are editing once you have finished editing the first field in the cell.

• Don’t store the currency symbol in your model, add it to the displayed text in cellForRowAtIndexPath, if the text field is not editing. When your textfield begins editing, set its text to the value directly from the model. You don’t have to do anything in end editing since the reload will add the currency symbol back on for you.
• If you dont want to change the model, you can do something similar anyway – in cellForRowAtIndexPath remove the currency symbol if the cell is editing.
• Store the index path of the currently editing row and conditionally ignore changes to this row in the FRC delegate method.