Table View Cell not loading - swift

Question

I'm trying to populate custom UITableViewCell inside UITableView but it's not loading the data in the cell. I have created an array of Recipes and populate the array with data from API call. after debugging the code, it seems that the array count is 0 hence not loading the data in the cell although I'm calling getRecipes() method to populate the array.. any idea on what's causing this or how to fix it??
Below is my code:
class MainPageViewController: UIViewController
{
//declare variables
#IBOutlet weak var recipeTableView: UITableView!
var recipes: [Recipe] = []
override func viewDidLoad()
{
recipeTableView.delegate = self
recipeTableView.dataSource = self
self.recipeTableView.reloadData()
recipes = self.getRecipes()
print("array: \(recipes.count)")
super.viewDidLoad()
}
}
//ui table view functions
extension MainPageViewController: UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate
{
//set the number of items in the table view to the array of objects
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int
{
print("array count: \(recipes.count)")
return recipes.count
}
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
recipeTableView.reloadData()
super.viewDidAppear(animated)
}
//fetch the data in the array and set it in the table view cells
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
{
print("code here")
let recipe = self.recipes[indexPath.row]
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "RecipeCell")
as! UIRecipeCell
print("code here")
cell.setRecipe(recipe: recipe)
return cell;
}
func getRecipes() -> [Recipe]
{
var recipesTemp: [Recipe] = []
// Hit Spoonacular endpoint using Moya as the middleman
let provider = MoyaProvider<SpoonacularAPI>()
provider.request(.getRecipes(limitLicense: true, number: 10, tags: "vegetarian, dessert"))
{
switch $0
{
case .success(let response):
do {
// Only allow successful HTTP codes
_ = try response.filterSuccessfulStatusCodes()
// Parse data as JSON
let json = try JSON(data: response.data)
print("json log: \(json)")
// Parse each recipe's JSON
recipesTemp = json["recipes"].arrayValue.map({ Recipe(json: $0) })
print("array count: \(recipesTemp.count)")
print("array : \(recipesTemp)")
}
catch {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
case .failure(let error):
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
self.recipeTableView.reloadData()
}
return recipesTemp
recipeTableView.reloadData()
}
}

Answer 1

Your API to get the recipes works asynchronously.
You cannot return anything from a method which contains an asynchronous task.
In viewDidLoad call only the method.
In getRecipes remove the return value, it's pointless.
In the asynchronous closure assign the result to the data source array and reload the table view.
And you might reload the table view on the main thread.
Alternatively use a completion handler.
override func viewDidLoad()
{
recipeTableView.delegate = self
recipeTableView.dataSource = self
getRecipes()
}
func getRecipes()
{
// Hit Spoonacular endpoint using Moya as the middleman
let provider = MoyaProvider<SpoonacularAPI>()
provider.request(.getRecipes(limitLicense: true, number: 10, tags: "vegetarian, dessert"))
{
switch $0
{
case .success(let response):
do {
// Only allow successful HTTP codes
_ = try response.filterSuccessfulStatusCodes()
// Parse data as JSON
let json = try JSON(data: response.data)
print("json log: \(json)")
// Parse each recipe's JSON
self.recipes = json["recipes"].arrayValue.map({ Recipe(json: $0) })
print("array count: \(recipesTemp.count)")
print("array : \(recipesTemp)")
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.recipeTableView.reloadData()
}
}
catch {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
case .failure(let error):
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
}
}
And be aware you can not do something with recipes at the end of viewDidLoad.

Answer 2

the issue here is that your request function return a result before the actual request hit the response
You should modify the logic with a completion handler instead
func getRecipes(complition: #escaping ((_ response: [Recipe]) -> ())) {
// Your request logic
// onSuccess return the array like this
// complition(resultArray)
}