If no Table View results, display "No Results" on screen

Question

You can easily achieve that by using backgroundView property of UITableView.

Objective C:

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    NSInteger numOfSections = 0;
    if (youHaveData)
    {
        yourTableView.separatorStyle = UITableViewCellSeparatorStyleSingleLine;
        numOfSections                = 1;
        yourTableView.backgroundView = nil;
    }
    else
    {   
        UILabel *noDataLabel         = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, yourTableView.bounds.size.width, yourTableView.bounds.size.height)];
        noDataLabel.text             = @"No data available";
        noDataLabel.textColor        = [UIColor blackColor];
        noDataLabel.textAlignment    = NSTextAlignmentCenter;
        yourTableView.backgroundView = noDataLabel;
        yourTableView.separatorStyle = UITableViewCellSeparatorStyleNone;
    }

    return numOfSections;
}

Swift:

func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int
{
    var numOfSections: Int = 0
    if youHaveData
    {
        tableView.separatorStyle = .singleLine
        numOfSections            = 1
        tableView.backgroundView = nil
    }
    else
    {
        let noDataLabel: UILabel  = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: tableView.bounds.size.width, height: tableView.bounds.size.height))
        noDataLabel.text          = "No data available"
        noDataLabel.textColor     = UIColor.black
        noDataLabel.textAlignment = .center
        tableView.backgroundView  = noDataLabel
        tableView.separatorStyle  = .none
    }
    return numOfSections
}

---

Reference UITableView Class Reference

backgroundView Property

The background view of the table view.

Declaration

Swift

var backgroundView: UIView?

Objective-C

@property(nonatomic, readwrite, retain) UIView *backgroundView

Discussion

A table view’s background view is automatically resized to match the size of the table view. This view is placed as a subview of the table view behind all cells, header views, and footer views.

You must set this property to nil to set the background color of the table view.

For Xcode 8.3.2 - Swift 3.1

Here is a not-so-well-known but incredibly easy way to achieve adding a "No Items" view to an empty table view that goes back to Xcode 7. I'll leave it to you control that logic that adds/removes the view to the table's background view, but here is the flow for and Xcode (8.3.2) storyboard:

1. Select the scene in the Storyboard that has your table view.
2. Drag an empty UIView to the "Scene Dock" of that scene

3. Add a UILabel and any constraints to the new view and then create an IBOutlet for that view

4. Assign that view to the tableView.backgroundView

5. Behold the magic!

Ultimately this works anytime you want to add a simple view to your view controller that you don't necessarily want to be displayed immediately, but that you also don't want to hand code.

Swift Version of above code :-

func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {

    var numOfSection: NSInteger = 0

    if CCompanyLogoImage.count > 0 {

        self.tableView.backgroundView = nil
        numOfSection = 1


    } else {

        var noDataLabel: UILabel = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, self.tableView.bounds.size.width, self.tableView.bounds.size.height))
        noDataLabel.text = "No Data Available"
        noDataLabel.textColor = UIColor(red: 22.0/255.0, green: 106.0/255.0, blue: 176.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0)
        noDataLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center
        self.tableView.backgroundView = noDataLabel

    }
    return numOfSection
}

But If you are loading Information From a JSON , you need to check whether the JSON is empty or not , therefor if you put code like this it initially shows "No data" Message then disappear. Because after the table reload data the message hide. So You can put this code where load JSON data to an array. SO :-

func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {

    return 1
}

func extract_json(data:NSData) {


    var error: NSError?

    let jsonData: AnyObject? = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options:NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers , error: &error)
    if (error == nil) {
        if let jobs_list = jsonData as? NSArray
        {
            if jobs_list.count == 0 {

                var noDataLabel: UILabel = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, self.tableView.bounds.size.width, self.tableView.bounds.size.height))
                noDataLabel.text = "No Jobs Available"
                noDataLabel.textColor = UIColor(red: 22.0/255.0, green: 106.0/255.0, blue: 176.0/255.0, alpha: 1.0)
                noDataLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center
                self.tableView.backgroundView = noDataLabel

            }

            for (var i = 0; i < jobs_list.count ; i++ )
            {
                if let jobs_obj = jobs_list[i] as? NSDictionary
                {
                    if let vacancy_title = jobs_obj["VacancyTitle"] as? String
                    {
                        CJobTitle.append(vacancy_title)

                        if let vacancy_job_type = jobs_obj["VacancyJobType"] as? String
                        {
                            CJobType.append(vacancy_job_type)

                            if let company_name = jobs_obj["EmployerCompanyName"] as? String
                            {
                                CCompany.append(company_name)

                                    if let company_logo_url = jobs_obj["EmployerCompanyLogo"] as? String
                                    {
                                        //CCompanyLogo.append("http://google.com" + company_logo_url)

                                        let url = NSURL(string: "http://google.com" + company_logo_url )
                                        let data = NSData(contentsOfURL:url!)
                                        if data != nil {
                                            CCompanyLogoImage.append(UIImage(data: data!)!)
                                        }

                                        if let vacancy_id = jobs_obj["VacancyID"] as? String
                                        {
                                            CVacancyId.append(vacancy_id)

                                        }

                                    }

                            }

                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    do_table_refresh();


}

func do_table_refresh() {

    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {
        self.tableView.reloadData()
        return
    })
}

You can try this control. Its is pretty neat. DZNEmptyDataSet

Or if I were you all I would do is

• Check to see if your data array is empty
• If it is empty then add one object called @"No Data" to it
• Display that string in cell.textLabel.text

Easy peasy

Swift 3 (updated):

override func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
    if myArray.count > 0 {
        self.tableView.backgroundView = nil
        self.tableView.separatorStyle = .singleLine
        return 1
    }

    let rect = CGRect(x: 0,
                      y: 0,
                      width: self.tableView.bounds.size.width,
                      height: self.tableView.bounds.size.height)
    let noDataLabel: UILabel = UILabel(frame: rect)

    noDataLabel.text = "Custom message."
    noDataLabel.textColor = UIColor.white
    noDataLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.center
    self.tableView.backgroundView = noDataLabel
    self.tableView.separatorStyle = .none

    return 0
}