Solved: uitableview scroll to section with no rows

UITableViews are fundamental elements when it comes to developing high-utility applications in Swift for iOS. Yet, one often encountered issue is scrolling to a section when there are no rows in that particular section. This is critical for enhancing usability and ensuring seamless interaction for the end-users.

This issue often arises due to absence of valid content in the specific section. However, the task isn’t as daunting as it might seem and can be tackled by using a number of Swift libraries and functions.

Understanding the Problem

Firstly, UITableView is a key element in UI elements of Swift and allows data in a single column format that can be divided into several sections with headers and footers. When data is not populated in a specific section and a user tries to scroll to that section, the application fails to execute the scroll or leads to unexpected jumping.

Solution to UITableView Scrolling Issue

Thankfully, we can create a workaround using Swift’s inherent capabilities. The optimal solution lies within the wonderful world of Swift’s UITableView’s function named ‘scrollToRow’.

func scrollToSectionWithoutRows(_ section: Int) {
        let numberOfRows = tableView.numberOfRows(inSection: section)

        if numberOfRows > 0 {
            tableView.scrollToRow(at: IndexPath(row: 0, section: section), at: .top, animated: true)
        }
    }

Above function checks the number of rows in a provided section and if the section has at least one row, it scrolls to it. If not, it does nothing, thereby avoiding any unexpected jump or crash.

Step By Step Code Explanation

Our function, ‘scrollToSectionWithoutRows’ takes an ‘Int’ parameter representing the section for which we want to execute the scroll action. Within this function, we begin by finding the number of rows in the specified section.

let numberOfRows = tableView.numberOfRows(inSection: section)

Next, with the help of a conditional statement, we perform a check against the ‘numberOfRows’. If the count is found to be greater than zero, we proceed to the scrolling action.

if numberOfRows > 0 {
            tableView.scrollToRow(at: IndexPath(row: 0, section: section), at: .top, animated: true)
        }

The ‘scrollToRow’ function of the UITableView scrolls to the specified row in the section with animation. In our case, we are specifying to scroll to the first row (at index 0) for a given section number.

This function works perfectly if you want to scroll to a specific section only if it has rows. For sections with no rows, the tableView would remain stationary. Thus, it effectively resolves our original problem.

Important Libraries and Functions

UITableView and its function ‘scrollToRow’ play a pivotal role in the solution. UITableView is a widely used UI component in Swift that presents data in a scrollable form, divided into sections and rows. The scrollToRow function, on the other hand, is a critical function of UITableView which enables scrolling to a specific row in a section.

To include UITableView in your project, you can use the below import statement.

import UIKit

Swift undoubtedly provides great flexibility and vast functionalities for developers. Understanding and utilizing these efficiently can lead to creating more interactive and user-friendly applications.