Question

In a UITableView, I add content to my cells via UILabels.

To define the optimal size (as large as allowed by the cell’s width) I noticed that only tableView.contentSize.width was reliable, because cell.contentView.bounds gives always a portrait width, even in landscape

This works very well in couple with autoresizingMask: when I switch from Portrait to Landscape and again to Portrait.

Problems come when I load my View directly in Landscape. The width of my UILabels is larger than the screen, even if a breakpoint shows me a correct width for tableView.contentSize.width

Switching between landscape and portait changes nothing, the width is still larger than the screen.

If I don’t use autoresizingMask, the width is correct, if I use it, even with a short text it goes out of the screen (but I notice it only thanks to a test background color or with using very large NSString).

In brief:

• portrait > landscape > portrait > landscape… is fine (resize perfectly)
• landscape > portrait > landscape > portrait… bugs (width outrange)

My code simplified:

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

    //[...]
    UIFont *font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:12.0];
    CGRect frame = CGRectMake(cell.contentView.bounds.origin.x + 20,
                                  cell.contentView.bounds.origin.y + 4,
                                  tableView.contentSize.width - 50,
                                  font.lineHeight);

      //at this point a breakpoint shows that frame is whatever I asked (ex: 200 for test)
      //but still the labels is wider than the screen
    UILabel *result = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:frame] autorelease];
    [result setText:@"bouh!"];
    result.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
    result.numberOfLines = 1;
    result.font = font;

      //if I comment this line, the width is always what I want
    result.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;

      //test to see the real size
    result.backgroundColor = [UIColor orangeColor];

    [cell.contentView addSubview:result];
    //[...]
    return cell;
}

I’m asking your help here in order to see if there’s a better way to do what I wanted? if not, what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I could not find a clean easy universal solution (adaptable to every screen).

But here is what I did to make it work:

    //in portrait cell width works fine with autoResize
    //in landscape tableView width works fine with autoResize
CGFloat cellWidth;

if ( [UIDevice currentDevice].orientation != UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft
    && [UIDevice currentDevice].orientation != UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight)
  {
    cellWidth = tableView.contentSize.width;
  }
else
  {
    cellWidth = cell.contentView.bounds.size.width;
  }

And so, later in the code I use it that way:

CGRect frame = CGRectMake(cell.contentView.bounds.origin.x + 20,
                                  cell.contentView.bounds.origin.y + 4,
                                  cellWidth - 50,
                                  font.lineHeight);
UILabel *result = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:frame] autorelease];

But something was weird: I needed to use always tableView.contentSize.width for the frame of my Activity Indicators because cell.contentView.bounds.size.width was only 320 even in Landscape

CGRect activityIndicatorRect =
CGRectMake(
           cell.contentView.bounds.origin.x + tableView.contentSize.width - 60 ,
           cell.contentView.bounds.origin.y + 17,
           30, 30);