How to populate UITableView from the bottom upwards?

Question

is it possible to reverse the order of a tableView. I have searched a lot for a solution but all the results have not quite been a solution to what I am trying to achieve. They all suggest scrolling to the last position of a table with scrollToRowAtIndexPath and populating the data in reverse. But this doesn't work if the table content is dynamic and in some instances not all the cells have data. For example in a normal tableView the order is:

---

label 1

label 2

label 3

empty

empty

scroll direction
v
V

---

the desired result would be:
scroll direction
^
^

empty

empty

empty

label 3

label 2

label 1

---

in this example if I used the suggested method of scrollToRowAtIndexPath and use the length of the array of objects, I would only get the third cell from the top. And end up with something like this:

---

unwanted outcome:

label 3

label 2

label 1

empty

empty

scroll direction
v
V

---

any help would be great thank you.

Answer 1

To populate UITableView from the bottom:

- (void)updateTableContentInset {     NSInteger numRows = [self.tableView numberOfRowsInSection:0];     CGFloat contentInsetTop = self.tableView.bounds.size.height;     for (NSInteger i = 0; i < numRows; i++) {         contentInsetTop -= [self tableView:self.tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForItem:i inSection:0]];         if (contentInsetTop <= 0) {             contentInsetTop = 0;             break;         }     }     self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(contentInsetTop, 0, 0, 0); } 

To reverse the order of elements:

dataSourceArray = dataSourceArray.reverseObjectEnumerator.allObjects; 

Swift 4.2/5 version:

func updateTableContentInset() {     let numRows = self.tableView.numberOfRows(inSection: 0)     var contentInsetTop = self.tableView.bounds.size.height     for i in 0..<numRows {         let rowRect = self.tableView.rectForRow(at: IndexPath(item: i, section: 0))         contentInsetTop -= rowRect.size.height         if contentInsetTop <= 0 {             contentInsetTop = 0             break         }     }     self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: contentInsetTop,left: 0,bottom: 0,right: 0) } 

Swift 3/4.0 version:

self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(contentInsetTop, 0, 0, 0) 

Answer 2

first reverse uitableview

    tableView.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale (1,-1); 

then reverse cell in cell create.

- (UITableViewCell*)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath;      ...      cell.contentView.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale (1,-1); 

Answer 3

Swift 4.0 and 4.2 version

First reverse UITableView in viewDidLoad

override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        tableView.transform = CGAffineTransform(scaleX: 1, y: -1)
}

Then reverse the cell in cellForRowAt.

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        guard let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "MyTableViewCell", for: indexPath) as? MyTableViewCell else { fatalError() }

        cell.contentView.transform = CGAffineTransform(scaleX: 1, y: -1)
        return cell
    }