viewForHeaderInSection - What to return for no header?

Question

I have a UIViewController with several UITableViews imbedded in it. For some of the tables, I need to show a custom header view with multiple labels. For other tables, I don't want to show a header at all (that is, I want the first cell in myTable2 to be right at the top of the frame for myTable2). Here's roughly what I have:

- (UIView *) tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if (tableView == self.myTable1)
    // Wants Custom Header
    {        
        UIView *view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,tableView.contentSize.width,20);

        // ... Do stuff to customize view ...

        return view;
    }
    elseIf (tableView == self.myTable2)
    // Wants No header
    {
        return nil;
        // also tried
        // return [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,0,0)];
        // but that didn't work either
    }
}

This works great for the custom headers, but for the tables where I don't want any header, it's showing a white box. I figured that return nil; would prevent any header from being shown for that table. Is that assumption correct? Is there something else overwritting that? How can I make it so nothing shows?

Answer 1

Whenever you implement the viewForHeaderInSection method you must also implement the heightForHeaderInSection method. Be sure to return 0 for the height for sections that have no header.

Answer 2

If you use this way you don't need to calculate the height.

tableView.sectionHeaderHeight = UITableView.automaticDimension
tableView.estimatedSectionHeaderHeight = 50

If you have empty sections you can set the height to zero or you don't need this method.

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, heightForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> CGFloat {
        if section == 2 {
            return 0
        }
        return UITableView.automaticDimension
    }