UITableView cellForRowAtIndexPath called more than once for each row

Question

If I have a UITableView that has 4 rows in it then shouldn't the cellForRowAtIndexPath method be called 4 times when I navigate to that view? I am finding that it is being called multiple times e.g. if there are 4 rows it is called 8 times when I drill down into the UITable view and then 12 times when I navigate back up to the same UITableView.

Am I just misunderstanding how this method works? I thought it should be called once for each row that is displayed (there is no scrolling involved as the contents of the table view easily fits on my iPad screen).

I should probably note that the UITableView is contained in the MasterViewController of a UISplitViewController on an iPad.

EDIT: The real problem I am getting is inconsistency in the way that the following code is being applied:

if (selectedNavItem.folder.isAssignedToUser != [NSNumber numberWithInt:1]) 
        {
            NSLog(@"%@", cell.textLabel.text);
            cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;
            cell.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
            cell.textLabel.enabled = NO;
            cell.detailTextLabel.text = @"Access not granted";
            cell.detailTextLabel.enabled = NO;
        }

When I first "drill down" to a particular level of my navigation stack things work as they should. But later if I navigate back up or down then I find that various rows get treated incorrectly i.e. they end up disabled when they should be enabled. That led me to put a break point in and some logging code to try to find out what was going on. I found that the code above was being called more times than there was rows - and the cell.textLabel.text value that I was logging did not make sense - a value for the same row was being logged multiple times - and other rows were not being logged at all.

EDIT: Providing some code as requested:

    - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"FolderCell";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    [self configureCell:cell atIndexPath:indexPath];
    return cell;
}


- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController
{
    if (__fetchedResultsController != nil) {
        return __fetchedResultsController;
    }

    // Set up the fetched results controller.
    // Create the fetch request for the entity.
    NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
    // Edit the entity name as appropriate.
    NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"NavItem" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
    [fetchRequest setEntity:entity];

    // Set the batch size to a suitable number.
    [fetchRequest setFetchBatchSize:20];

    // Edit the sort keys as appropriate.
    NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor1 = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"sortOrder" ascending:YES];
    NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor2 = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"name" ascending:YES selector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];
    NSArray *sortDescriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:sortDescriptor1, sortDescriptor2, nil];

    [fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];

    // Edit the section name key path and cache name if appropriate.
    // nil for section name key path means "no sections".
    NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.
        managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:@"Master"];
    aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
    self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController;

    NSError *error = nil;
    if (![self.fetchedResultsController performFetch:&error]) {
        /*
         Replace this implementation with code to handle the error appropriately.

         abort() causes the application to generate a crash log and terminate. You should not use this function in a shipping application, although it may be useful during development. 
         */
        NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]);
        abort();
    }

    return __fetchedResultsController;
}   

- (void)configureCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSManagedObject *managedObject = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    NavItem *selectedNavItem = (NavItem *)managedObject;
    cell.textLabel.text = [[managedObject valueForKey:@"name"] description];
    cell.detailTextLabel.text = @"";

    if (selectedNavItem.folder != nil) {
        cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Folder.png"];


        //NSLog(@"%@", selectedNavItem.folder.isAssignedToUser);

        if (selectedNavItem.folder.isAssignedToUser != [NSNumber numberWithInt:1]) 
        {
            NSLog(@"%@", cell.textLabel.text);
            cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;
            cell.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
            cell.textLabel.enabled = NO;
            cell.detailTextLabel.text = @"Access not granted";
            cell.detailTextLabel.enabled = NO;
        }
    }
    else if (selectedNavItem.document != nil) {
        cell.detailTextLabel.text  = [[selectedNavItem.document valueForKey:@"itemDescription"] description];

        if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"pdf"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"pdf.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"doc"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"docx"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Word-32x32.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"xls"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"xlsx"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Excel-32x32.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"ppt"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"pps"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Powerpoint-32x32.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"mp3"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"wav"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"65-note.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"mp4"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"mov"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"46-movie-2.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"ibooks"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"ibooks-icon.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"png"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"bmp"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"jpg"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"jpeg"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"tif"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"tiff"] || [[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"gif"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"41-picture-frame.png"];
        }
        else 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"179-notepad.png"];
        }


    }
    else if (selectedNavItem.attachment != nil) {
        cell.detailTextLabel.text  = [[selectedNavItem.attachment valueForKey:@"itemDescription"] description];

        if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"pdf"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"pdf.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"doc"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"docx"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Word-32x32.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"xls"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"xlsx"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Excel-32x32.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"ppt"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"pps"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Powerpoint-32x32.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"mp3"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"65-note.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"mp4"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"46-movie-2.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.document.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"ibooks"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"ibooks-icon.png"];
        }
        else if ([[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"png"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"bmp"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"jpg"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"jpeg"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"tif"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"tiff"] || [[selectedNavItem.attachment.fileName pathExtension] isEqualToString:@"gif"]) 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"41-picture-frame.png"];
        }
        else 
        {
            cell.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"179-notepad.png"];
        }
    }

}

Answer 1

The method is called when the cell appears, so whenever a cell appears, the method is called. Also, the cells are reused. So even if the method for a particular cell is called once, it maybe called for another time when this cell disappears and then appears again.

Answer 2

Highly probable that you are calling from other methods :

UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];

self.tableView from outside of - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath will call cellForRowAtIndexPath twice.