iOS 5 Programming Cookbook

3.9. Constructing Headers and Footers in Table Views

Problem

You want to create a header and/or a footer for a table view.

Solution

Create a view (could be a label, image view, etc., anything that directly or indirectly subclasses UIView, and assign that view to the header and/or the footer of a section of a table view. You can also allocate specific number of points in height for a header or a footer, as we will soon see.

Discussion

A table view can have multiple headers and footers. Each section in a table view can have its own header and footer so if you have three sections in a table view, you can have a maximum of three headers and maximum of three footers. You are not obliged to provide headers and footers for any of these sections. It is up to you to tell the table view whether you want a header and/or a footer for a section and you pass these views to the table view through its delegate, should you wish to provide header(s)/footer(s) for section(s) of your table view. Headers and footers in a table view become a part of the table view, meaning that when the table view’s contents scroll, so do the header(s) and footer(s) inside that table view. Let’s have a look at a sample header and footer in a table view (Figure 3-7).

Figure 3-7. A footer for the top section and the Shortcuts header for the last section of a table view

As you can see, the top section (with items such as “Check ...