Toggling display of image in UITableViewCell

Question

Depending on the result of a condition, I want to display a UIImageView in a table cell. Otherwise display UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark. I'd like to construct the cell in IB. The part I'm not sure of what to do with the UIImageView when I don't want it displayed. If I were constructing it all programmatically, I'd add the UIImageView as needed. But since it will be done in IB, the UIImageView is always there. Should the default be leave the cell alone (image displays), otherwise remove UIImageView and display UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark? If that is done, will I need a tag on UIImageView so it can be accessed and removed?

Answer 1

You can easily control the visibility of any control, including UIImageView. If you'd like to build things in IB then one solution is to add the controls you need, expose them as properties, and then hide the ones you don't want for a given cell.

E.g.

cell.image.hidden = YES;

When hidden they have no draw-overhead, and although your cell may have thousands of rows there will be very few actual cells, so it's a fairly efficient solution. Just remember that cells are reused if you call [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier] (which you should do) so you'll have to explicitly show/hide control whose visibility may have been changed.

An alternative is to have cells with and without images and choose the correct one when adding data to your table. For cells that are similar managing two similar-yet-minorly-different assets would probably be a pain though.