NSTableView ViewBased never calling the needed delegate

Question

I have a NSTableView where I wish to display a list of info. Currently the viewForTableColumn method delegate never runs, but numberOfRowsInTableView does.

I have the NSTableViewDelegate and NSTableViewDataSource set in the ViewController head. And I set the tableview delegate and datasource to self. Does somebody know why it wouldn't run? I've added a screenshot and code below.

ViewController.h

@interface ViewController : NSViewController <NSTableViewDelegate, NSTableViewDataSource>

@property (strong) IBOutlet NSTableView *tableView;
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSMutableArray<App *> *installedApps;

@end

ViewController.m

 - (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    _installedApps = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

    _tableView.dataSource = self;
    _tableView.delegate = self;

    // Other stuff that populates the array
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)tableView {
    return _installedApps.count;
}

-(NSView *)tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView viewForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(NSInteger)row {
    NSTableCellView *result = [tableView makeViewWithIdentifier:@"appCell" owner:self];
    result.textField.stringValue = @"Hello world";

    return result;
}

The view is in a container view, I have the 'appCell' identifier set to the Table Cell View.

Screenshot of my storyboard

BTW: You should use accessors. Use self.installedApps instead of _installedApps because the later might produce problems with KVO and subclassing. — clemens
Do you call [self.tableView reloadData] when fill your array? — Kevinosaurio

clemens clemens · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-09T15:19:55

The array _installedApps is empty and numberOfRowsInTableView: returns 0. Thus, tableView:viewForTableColumn: is not called because there is no row to show. No rows also means no columns.

You should also ensure that you have configured your table view as view based in attributed inspector of the table view.

NSTableView ViewBased never calling the needed delegate

3 Answers