Question

theTestController = [[[CustomCell alloc]initWithNibName:@"CustomCell" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]]autorelease];

My guess is that it will load CustomCell and set theTestController as the owner. If so:

1. Why in most sample code for cellForRowAtIndexPath I see [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"CustomCell" owner: theTestController options:nil]; instead?

2. What is the difference between [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"CustomCell" owner: theTestController options:nil]; and theTestController = [[[CustomCell alloc]initWithNibName:@"CustomCell" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]]autorelease];

3. I tried replacing [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"CustomCell" owner: theTestController options:nil]; with theTestController = [[[CustomCell alloc]initWithNibName:@"CustomCell" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]]autorelease]; and I got errors. Looks like the outlets remain nil if I use the latter.

Answer 1

initWithNibName:bundle: is convenience method declared in UIViewController and is available to its subclasses. This will initialize the view controller by loading the nib, probably by using loadNibName:owner:options: method internally.

initWithNibName:bundle: is unavailable to UIView and its subclasses. So we have to make use of loadNibName:owner:options: to load views.

1. Custom cells are UIView subclasses and hence make use of loadNibName:owner:options:.
2. Not much difference. initWithNibName:bundle: is a convenience method for UIViewController initialization.
3. You are getting errors because of the reasons mentioned above.