Draw vertical separator on UITableViewCell

Question

I had a plain styled UITableView, and it's cells are a subclass of UITableViewCell.

In the cell subclass I overrode drawRect to put this drawing code in (for a vertical separator):

CGContextRef c = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(c, [[UIColor grayColor] CGColor]);
CGContextBeginPath(c);
CGContextMoveToPoint(c, self.frame.size.height + 0.5f, 0);
CGContextAddLineToPoint(c, self.frame.size.height + 0.5f, self.frame.size.height);
CGContextStrokePath(c);

It worked great. However I have now changed the tableview style to grouped. The line simply isn't drawn. Although settings a breakpoint shows the drawRect method is called.

I would like to avoid subclasses UIView just to draw a small line, especially as I've already subclassed the tableview cell and I just want to draw on the cell. So why does the code suddenly stop working on a grouped tableview?

Answer 1

It is not good idea to override drawRect in UITableViewCell subclasses. If you do not want to set custom cell's backgroundView, then you can just add simple UIView of 1px width.

UIView* vertLineView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(80, 0, 1, 44)];
vertLineView.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
[self.contentView addSubview:vertLineView];