126
votes

I want to set the height of the first header in my UITableView. For the other headers I want them to remain the default height. What value/constant can I put in place of "someDefaultHeight" in the code below?

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if (section == 0)
        return kFirstHeaderHeight;

    return someDefaultHeight;
}

Thanks

8
why dont you try different values till you getone that you are happy with?Daniel
@Daniel - if Apple ever decides to change the default row height value then I need to ensure that my app does not hard code this value (to some arbitrary amount). It's best to pull this information out of a constant if it is declared somewhere.rein

8 Answers

205
votes

In IOS 5.0 onwards you can return UITableViewAutomaticDimension in most of the delegate methods. Its at the bottom of the documentation page

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if(section == CUSTOM_SECTION)
    {
        return CUSTOM_VALUE;
    }
    return UITableViewAutomaticDimension;
}
50
votes

From checking the defaults in my app it looks like for a grouped table the default is a height of 22 and for a non-grouped table the default is a height of 10.

If you check the value of the property sectionHeaderHeight on your tableview that should tell you.

25
votes

Actually do the trick :)

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if(section == 0)
        return kFirstSectionHeaderHeight;
    return [self sectionHeaderHeight];
}
7
votes

For the sake of completeness: in iOS7+ the height for grouped style section headers is 55.5 for the first and 38 for following headers. (measured with DCIntrospect)

5
votes

For swift 4.2 you should return UITableView.automaticDimension

2
votes

I'm not sure what the correct answer is here, but neither 10 or 22 appears to be the correct height for a grouped table view in iOS 5. I'm using 44, based on this question, and it at least appears to roughly the correct height.

2
votes

To get the default height, just let super handle it:

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if (section == 0)
        return kFirstHeaderHeight;

    return [super tableView:tableView heightForHeaderInSection:section];
}
-1
votes

This should do the trick

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    if(indexPath.section == CUSTOM_SECTION)
    {
        return CUSTOM_VALUE;
    }
    return [tableView rowHeight];
}