Default text in a Section if numberOfRowsInSection returns count 0

Question

I have two sections in a TableView, having their respective sectionHeaders. numberOfRowsInSection is counted dynamically & it might also come out to be 0. So i want to display a default text somewhere in the section in case of 0 rows. How do i do this ? (Working on iOS 6, XCode-4.2)

Answer 1

Why don't you display the default text in a cell in the "empty section"? Instead of returning 0 rows return 1 and place the default text in there. It can be something like this:

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // Verify is the section should be empty or not
    if(emptySection == NO) {
        return numberOfRowsInSection;
    }
    else {
        return 1;
    }
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *cellIdentifier = @"Cell Identifier";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];

    if(!cell)
    {
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
    }

    if(emptySection && indexPath.row == 0) {
        cell.textLabel.text = @"This is the default text";
    }
    else {
        // Display the normal data
    }    

    return cell;
}

Update

The following code will avoid any actions when tapping an a cell that contains the default text.

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didDeselectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    if(emptySection) {
        return;
    }

    // Perform desired action here
}

Another solution is to completely prevent the cell from being selected:

- (NSIndexPath *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)path
{
    if(emptySection) {
        retur nil;
    }

    return path;
}