Register nib for multiple UITableViewCells in a same .Xib file

Question

I have created a .xib file which has more than 2 tableview cells. I used the following code in the viewDidLoad() method for registering nib to reuse cells.

UINib *nib = [UINib nibWithNibName:@"CartTableViewCells" bundle:nil];
[self.tableView registerNib:nib forCellReuseIdentifier:@"Cell0"];
[self.tableView registerNib:nib forCellReuseIdentifier:@"Cell1"];
[self.tableView registerNib:nib forCellReuseIdentifier:@"Cell2"];

And In - [UITableView CellForRowAtIndexPath] method, I used the following code.

cell0 = (CartTableViewCells *)[self.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell0"];
if (cell0==nil)
{
    cell0 = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"CartTableViewCells" owner:self options:nil] objectAtIndex:0];
}

But My app crashed with the following error:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'invalid nib registered for identifier (Cell0) - nib must contain exactly one top level object which must be a UITableViewCell instance'

if you are using the same nib for all your rows, just register once. are you using the cell tableview template to create your nib? I think that the structure of the cell is wrong. — Lucho
a couple of links with similar problems stackoverflow.com/questions/18639099/… — Lucho
I am using same nib but the nib file has 3 tableviewcells with 3 different reuse identifier and using the 3 cells for different rows. — Micheal Vijayaraj
You have a nib with 3 cells inside? I usually have 1 nib with one cell. Maybe using [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed: owner: options:] this returns an array, i don't know if you would have each cell on diff position of the array. Something like this : NSArray *nibs = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"mynib" owner:self options:nil]; UINib *nib = [nibs objectAtIndex:0] [self.tableView registerNib:nib forCellReuseIdentifier:@"Cell0"]; You have to do the same for the rest of the nibs on the array — Lucho

deltacrux deltacrux · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-18T19:23:41

You can do this, provided you have some way of distinguishing the views in your XIB (tags, custom classes, etc). You don't even need to register the nib – all you have to do is this:

- (UITableViewCell*)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSInteger cellIndex = 12345;
    NSString *cellIdentifier = @"MyAwesomeCell";

    // dequeue cell or, if it doesn't exist yet, create a new one from the nib
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
    if (!cell)
    {
        NSArray *topLevelObjects = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"MyNibWithLotsOfCustomCells" owner:self options:nil];
        NSUInteger index = [topLevelObjects indexOfObjectPassingTest:^BOOL(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
            // if you distinguish the views by class
            return [obj isMemberOfClass:NSClassFromString(cellIdentifier)];
            // if you distinguish the views by tag
            return [(UIView*)obj tag] == cellIndex;
        }];
        cell = topLevelObjects[index];
    }

    // etc.
}

It's important to use dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier: and not dequeueReusableVellWithIdentifier:forIndexPath: (the difference is explained in this thread).

Register nib for multiple UITableViewCells in a same .Xib file

1 Answers