UILabel in Cell not showing up until selected

[starwarsdevwookie59]

I have an RSS reader that I'm putting both the summary and title in a cell. I set up the cells just like apple taught me...

#define MAINLABEL_TAG 1
#define SECONDLABEL_TAG 2

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
	static NSString *MyIdentifier = @"MyIdentifier";
	int storyIndex = [indexPath indexAtPosition: [indexPath length] - 1];
	UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];
	UILabel *mainLabel, *secondLabel;

	
	if (cell == nil) {
		cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
		cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray;
		
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:MyIdentifier] autorelease];
		
        mainLabel = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 320.0, 25.0)] autorelease];
        mainLabel.tag = MAINLABEL_TAG;
        mainLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12.0];
        mainLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
        mainLabel.textColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
        mainLabel.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleLeftMargin | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:mainLabel];
		
        secondLabel = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 20.0, 320.0, 25.0)] autorelease];
        secondLabel.tag = SECONDLABEL_TAG;
        secondLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12.0];
        secondLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
        secondLabel.textColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
        secondLabel.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleLeftMargin | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:secondLabel];
		
    } else {
        mainLabel = (UILabel *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:MAINLABEL_TAG];
        secondLabel = (UILabel *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:SECONDLABEL_TAG];
    }

    mainLabel.text = [[stories objectAtIndex: storyIndex]objectForKey:@"title"];
    secondLabel.text = [[stories objectAtIndex: storyIndex]objectForKey:@"summary"];
	
	return cell;
}

but when the cell loads, the text in the mainLabel doesn't appear until I select it. any ideas? Thanks in advance...

[chrysb]

Sometimes one elements draws on top of another. Make sure the things you are drawing inside of the row do not have a height greater than the row itself.

Also, make sure you're not drawing the second label on top of it.

Good debugging tactic is to strip away everything but the main label, and get that to show up first, then add the other layers back in.

Hope this helps.

[starwarsdevwookie59]

Thanks, it did help.

New problem though... I decided to put a UItextview in the cell instead of a UIlabel because it wouldn't hold the string. the code crashes it every time.

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
	static NSString *MyIdentifier = @"MyIdentifier";
	int storyIndex = [indexPath indexAtPosition: [indexPath length] - 1];
	UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];
	UILabel *mainLabel;
	UITextView *secondLabel;

	
	if (cell == nil) {
		
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:MyIdentifier] autorelease];
		cell.contentView.autoresizesSubviews = YES;
		cell.contentView.clipsToBounds = YES;
		
        mainLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(5.0, 5.0, 310.0, 50.0)];
		[mainLabel autorelease];
        mainLabel.tag = MAINLABEL_TAG;
        mainLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:16.0];
        mainLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
        mainLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
		mainLabel.numberOfLines = 2;
        [cell.contentView addSubview:mainLabel];
		 
		
        secondLabel = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(5.0, 5.0, 310.0, 50.0)];
		[secondLabel autorelease];
        secondLabel.tag = SECONDLABEL_TAG;
		secondLabel.editable = NO;
		secondLabel.scrollEnabled = NO;
		secondLabel.backgroundColor =[UIColor clearColor];
        secondLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12.0];
        secondLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
        secondLabel.textColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
        [cell.contentView addSubview:secondLabel];
		 
		
    } else {
       mainLabel = (UILabel *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:MAINLABEL_TAG];
       secondLabel = (UITextView *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:SECONDLABEL_TAG];
    }
	cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator;
	cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray;
	
	mainLabel.text = [[stories objectAtIndex: storyIndex]objectForKey:@"title"];
    secondLabel.text = [[stories objectAtIndex: storyIndex]objectForKey:@"summary"];
	
	return cell;
}

any help is much appreciated.

[chrysb]

I'm not sure why it's crashing -- if you want a UILabel to span multiple lines properly, take a look at this:

RaddOnline: iPhone SDK: Resizing a UITableViewCell to Hold Variable Amounts of Text, Part 2 of 2

Worked great for me!