iOS 6 Programming Cookbook

4.13. Utilizing the UITableViewController for Easy Creation of Table Views

Problem

You want to be able to create table views quickly.

Solution

Use the UITableViewController view controller, which by default comes with a table view controller.

Discussion

The iOS SDK contains a really handy class called UITableViewController that comes predefined with a table view instance inside it. In order to take advantage of this class, all you have to really do is create a new class that subclasses the aforementioned class. Here, I will walk you through the steps necessary to create a new Xcode project that utilizes the table view controller:

1. In Xcode, from the menu bar, choose File → New → Project...

2. On the lefthand side of the screen, make sure the iOS category is selected. Then choose the Application subcategory. On the righthand side, choose the Empty Application template and then press the Next button, as shown in Figure 4-20.

Figure 4-20. Creating a new empty application that will later contain our table view controller

1. In the next screen, simply choose a name for your project and make sure that you are using Automatic Reference Counting. Also make sure everything except for the Organization Name and the Company Identifier in your dialog is the same as the one that I am demonstrating to you in Figure 4-21. Once you are done, press the Next button.

Figure 4-21. Configuring our new empty application ...