best way to make multiline UITableViewCell?

[chuck]

I've been looking all over various forums and in my iPhone dev books, but I can't seem to find a good solution for this. I'd like to run the following code

cell.text = @"First line\nSecond line";

but this just puts everything on the same line. Is there a simple way to display text this multiline or will I have to do something like subclassing the UITableViewCell or putting a UILabel inside this cell with a frame? Each of my table views cells will have exactly five lines. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

[PhoneyDeveloper]

The TableViewSuite example code shows several ways to implement multiline cells. Adding a label would seem to be the simplest.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by PhoneyDeveloper

The TableViewSuite example code shows several ways to implement multiline cells. Adding a label would seem to be the simplest.

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out!

[CanadaDev]

Do you have the Beginning iPhone Development book? Page 200 has a good tutorial for adding more lines to a row through subviews.

[skyephone]

Originally Posted by CanadaDev

Do you have the Beginning iPhone Development book? Page 200 has a good tutorial for adding more lines to a row through subviews.

Here is some of the code

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView 
		 cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath 
{
	
	static NSString *CustomCellIdentifier = @"CustomCellIdentifier ";
	
	CustomCell *cell = (CustomCell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier: CustomCellIdentifier];
	if (cell == nil)  
	{
		NSArray *nib = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"CustomCellView" 
					owner:self options:nil];

#ifdef __IPHONE_2_1
		cell = (CustomCell *)[nib objectAtIndex:0];
#else
		cell = (CustomCell *)[nib objectAtIndex:1];
#endif
		
	}
	NSUInteger row = [indexPath row];
	NSDictionary *rowData = [self.computers objectAtIndex:row];
	cell.colorLabel.text = [rowData objectForKey:@"Color"];
	cell.nameLabel.text = [rowData objectForKey:@"Name"];
	return cell;
}

They created a CustomCell class that is a subclass of UITableViewCell which has 4 UILabels(2 on each line). Then it's just a matter of creating a CustomCell in cellForRowAtIndexPath and populating it with the data you want.

Hope this helps.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by CanadaDev

Do you have the Beginning iPhone Development book? Page 200 has a good tutorial for adding more lines to a row through subviews.

Yes, I do have it and I thought I had seen an example of that in one of my iPhone books before! That's exactly what I need, thank you so much!

[PhoneyDeveloper]

Yowza, throw that code away.

Use the code from this thread to load a cell from a nib

http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/ip...-cell-nib.html

[sahildesai]

Originally Posted by chuck

Yes, I do have it and I thought I had seen an example of that in one of my iPhone books before! That's exactly what I need, thank you so much!

Don't load from a nib, it just seems slow and blah! Just don't do it. Do it this way instead:

marc hoffman - Displaying Variably-Sized Text Cells in a UITableView

Also take a look at Loren Brichter's method for fastscrolling, bcos it doesn't make sense to not have fast scrolling:

Fast Scrolling in Tweetie with UITableView


I had a mix of the two and added a bunch of customizations and gradient etc.

Enjoy.

[chuck]

Just wanted you all to know I got this working by using the following code:

#define ROW_HEIGHT 110

// Customize the appearance of table view cells.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
	NSLog( @"Setting table text." );
	
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Transaction";
    
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
		[cell addSubview:[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(40.0, 0.0, 280.0, ROW_HEIGHT - 1)]];
    }
	
    NSUInteger row = [indexPath row];
	
	NSLog( @"Table cell text: %@", [[transactionHistory objectAtIndex:row] description] );

	UILabel *labelText = [[cell subviews] lastObject];
	labelText.text = [[transactionHistory objectAtIndex:row] description];
	labelText.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14];
	labelText.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
	labelText.numberOfLines = 5;	
	
    return cell;
}


- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
	return ROW_HEIGHT;
}

Now my only problem is that the cells will highlight when touched, but I can't find a way to disable that. Also, I can't seem to figure out how to refresh the table contents, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

[jeffbonta]

Unfortunately, the above code has a problem. It seems to work until the first cell is reused. Its kind of odd. Prior to cells being reused, the line:
UILabel *labelText = [[cell subviews] lastObject];

creates a UILabel pointer in labelText. When the first reuse occurs, the execution of that line does not create a UILabel pointer. Rather, labelText is a UIImageView pointer. Any thoughts?

[architectpianist]

cell.textLabel.numberOfLines = 0;

[rellinb]

Were you ever able to get this working? I'm seeing a crash when I scroll like you mentioned. I tried the line below, but still no luck.

Originally Posted by architectpianist

cell.textLabel.numberOfLines = 0;