2 UITableViews in one UIView

Question

I have a UIView that will need to display two UITableViews, but they are never shown together, by using a SegementedBar you can toggle one or the other.

What would be the best way to handle this? Just create one Table View Controller and change the data source, or create 2 Table View Controllers and just hide one when the other is visible.

The 2 tables will have a completely different layout with different custom cells.

Answer 1

I would keep one datasource & delegate.

This means that all the delegate/datasource methods become more complicated BUT it means that you can retain the one to one relationship between viewController & view.

keep a reference to each of the table views

//vc.h
@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UITableView* firstTableView;
@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UITableView* secondTableView;

In the datasource/ delegate methods you need to account for the fact that the method needs to behave differently depending on which table view is in use. e.g.

//vc.m
-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    ...

    if (tableView == self.firstTableView) {

        ...

    } else { // tableView == self.secondTableView

        ...
    }
}

return cell;

}

Answer 2

-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    ...

    if (tableView.tag == 1) {

        ...

    } else { // tableView == self.secondTableView

        ...
    }
}

tag could be assigned from the .xib. so no need to have UITableVeiw variable in .h file. Two table view in .xib needed

Answer 3

Both approach has some pros and cons, but i will personally prefer approach having two separate controller.

Approach 1 - create one Table View Controller and change the data source

• This approach help in avoiding extra and repeated code.
• With this memory management is good as using one controller only.(Although this is not a big concern till then we won't have a lot of data.)
• Issue with this is having complexity.

Approach 2 - 2 Table View Controller

• With this approach definitely have extra and repeated code.
• But with this is less complexity.