Understanding Table Views

At its simplest, a table view is a list of items that can (often) be scrolled vertically. Because this is a common interface design pattern, UIKit provides a powerful suite of classes and protocols to make the creation and management of table views as simple and as effective as possible.

Table views can range from a very plain list created by using one of the standard styles provided by the SDK, to something so customized that it’s barely recognizable as a table at all. Figure 2–1 shows some examples of table views.

Figure 2–1. Examples of table views—the built-in Contacts app, the UK Train Times app, and the Path app

The Contacts app is an example of an indexed table with section headings. The UK Train Times app uses grouped static rows, again with section headers. And the Path app takes the table view customization to extremes. This table view has two sections, together with a clock view that moves vertically as the table scrolls up and down. Despite the differences in visual appearance, all three of these apps are based around UITableViews and have identical interaction patterns.