UITableViewCell, UITextView with dynamic height

Question

I need to make a UITableViewCell that holds alot of text. I know I can add a UITextView to my cell, but each entry will not have the same amount of text.

I know I can control the height of the UITableViewCell with: -(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath, but thats not really what I am looking for.

Scenario 1:

 ---------------
| First Cell    |
 ---------------
 ---------------
| Second Cell   |
| with some     |
| text.         |
 ---------------
 ---------------
| Third Cell    |
 ---------------

Scenario 2:

 ---------------
| First Cell    |
 ---------------
 ---------------
| Second Cell   |
| with some     |
| more text and |
| an unknown    |
| cell height.  | 
 ---------------
 ---------------
| Third Cell    |
 ---------------

Answer 1

Use UILabel for your cell text. You can then use sizeWithFont:constrainedToSize: to calculate the height of that UILabel within each cell. For example:

#define PADDING 10.0f

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)t heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    NSString *text = [self.items objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    CGSize textSize = [text sizeWithFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:14.0f] constrainedToSize:CGSizeMake(self.tableView.frame.size.width - PADDING * 3, 1000.0f)];

    return textSize.height + PADDING * 3;
}

Answer 2

The solution is quite simple and should work since iOS 7. Make sure that the Scrolling Enabled option is turned off for the UITextView inside the UITableViewCell in the StoryBoard.

Then in your UITableViewController's viewDidLoad() set the tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension and tableView.estimatedRowHeight > 0 such as:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
    tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 44.0
}

That's it. UITableViewCell's height will be automatically adjusted based on the inner UITextView's height.

Answer 3

It's rather complicated stuff, as it involves things like the contentInset of he text view you will have to take into account when calculating the texts size. I've written up my learnings and solution for calculating the UITableViewCell height based on an inner UITextView on my blog. The post contains the code that works for universal apps, both table view styles and autorotation.