empty UICollectionView

Question

I have an UICollectionView that shows stores in a particular city. A particular city might not have any stores at all, so in that case I should update the UICollectionView to be empty. When I make nil the data parameter, the app crashes saying the data parameter cannot be nil.

How can I empty the UICollectionView? In that case, besides showing no cells at all, I'd like to show a background-image informing the user that there are no stores, or removing the collectionView all together.

any ideas?

Answer 1

I think you have an array with data to create yours cells.

You can add a label above your collection view and hide this label if there is cell or display this label if there is no cell.

So, when you calculate your array, add a test :

self.myLabel.hidden = (_data.count > 0);

And you have this method to return the number of cells (_data.count = 0 if there is no data)

- (NSInteger)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView numberOfItemsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    return _data.count;
}