How to resize UITableViewCell to fit its content?

Question

I have a UITableview with multiple reusable TableViewCells. In one cell I have a UITextView, that resizes itself to fit its content. Now I "just" have to resize the contentView of the TableViewCell, so I can read the while text. I already tried:

cell2.contentView.bounds.size.height = cell2.discriptionTextView.bounds.size.height; 

Or:

cell2.contentView.frame = CGRectMake(0, cell2.discriptionTextView.bounds.origin.y,     
cell2.discriptionTextView.bounds.size.width,     
cell2.discriptionTextView.bounds.size.height); 

In the method:

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

But it won't work.

Does anyone know how to do this?

New code:

    @implementation AppDetail

    CGFloat height;
    …

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

    cell2.TextView.text = self.text;
            [cell2.TextView sizeToFit];
            height = CGRectGetHeight(cell2.TextView.bounds);
     …
    }

    - (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

        if (indexPath.row == 0) {
            return 143;
        }
        if (indexPath.row == 1) {
            return height;
        }

        return 0;
    }

Answer 1

You can only resize a UITableViewCell in tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath: delegate method.

You have to estimate what the size of the text will be when that method is called for every row when the tableView is loaded.

This is what I did to solve the problem.

-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
 {
     NSString * yourText = self.myArrayWithTextInIt[indexPath.row]; // or however you are getting the text
     return additionalSpaceNeeded + [self heightForText:yourText];
 }

 -(CGFloat)heightForText:(NSString *)text
 {
   NSInteger MAX_HEIGHT = 2000;
   UITextView * textView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame: CGRectMake(0, 0, WIDTH_OF_TEXTVIEW, MAX_HEIGHT)];
   textView.text = text;
   textView.font = // your font
   [textView sizeToFit];
   return textView.frame.size.height;
  }

EDIT

While I used this solution for a while, I found a more optimal one that I would recommend using as it doesn't require allocating an entire textView in order to work, and can handle text greater than 2000.

-(CGFloat)heightForTextViewRectWithWidth:(CGFloat)width andText:(NSString *)text
{
    UIFont * font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12.0f];

    // this returns us the size of the text for a rect but assumes 0, 0 origin
    CGSize size = [text sizeWithAttributes:@{NSFontAttributeName: font}];

    // so we calculate the area
    CGFloat area = size.height * size.width;

    CGFloat buffer = whateverExtraBufferYouNeed.0f;

    // and then return the new height which is the area divided by the width
    // Basically area = h * w
    // area / width = h
    // for w we use the width of the actual text view
    return floor(area/width) + buffer;
}

Answer 2

As @Rob Norback said, There is something called UITableViewAutomaticDimension.

For Swift, The easiest way to resize content from UITableViewCell on the fly is to just add this.

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
    return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
     return UITableViewAutomaticDimension
}

Answer 3

Here's an updated version for iOS 7+ that is cleaner (no extra method)

-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
    {
        UIFont * font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:15.0f];
        NSString *text = [getYourTextArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
        CGFloat height = [text boundingRectWithSize:CGSizeMake(self.tableView.frame.size.width, maxHeight) options:(NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin|NSStringDrawingUsesFontLeading) attributes:@{NSFontAttributeName: font} context:nil].size.height;

        return height + additionalHeightBuffer;
    }