BackgroundView for section in the tableView - swift

Question

I use this function to add background view in my TableView when it's empty.
func emptyTableViewMessage(with message: String) {
let messageLabel: UILabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: todoTableView.bounds.size.width/2, y: todoTableView.bounds.size.height / 2 , width: todoTableView.bounds.size.width, height: todoTableView.bounds.size.height))
messageLabel.text = message
messageLabel.textColor = UIColor.gray
messageLabel.font = UIFont(name: "Open Sans", size: 15)
messageLabel.textAlignment = .center
todoTableView.backgroundView = messageLabel
}
I call it in numberOfRowsInSection
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
if isSearching {
if searchedData?.count == 0 {
emptyTableViewMessage(with: "Not found")
} else {
emptyTableViewMessage.backgroundView = .none
}
return (searchedData?.count)!
}
But if I have few section, For example one of them is empty, how Can I add this kind of backgroundView inside the section (not in the header, because I have different items in the header)
Many thanks

Answer 1

First, you could created an empty cell prototype, this one will be use when there is no data to show. Then let's modify your emptyTableViewMessage method to return a UILabel.
func emptyTableViewMessage(with message: String) -> UIView {
let messageLabel: UILabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: table.bounds.size.width/2, y: table.bounds.size.height / 2 , width: table.bounds.size.width, height: table.bounds.size.height))
messageLabel.text = message
messageLabel.textColor = UIColor.gray
messageLabel.font = UIFont(name: "Open Sans", size: 15)
messageLabel.textAlignment = .center
return messageLabel
}
In numberOfRowsInSection when there is no data to show lets return 1 (to display the Not Found text). If there is data to show let's return how many rows.
guard let dataFound = searchedData?.count else { return 1 }
return dataFound > 0 ? dataFound : 1
Finally in cellForRowAt you dequeue the appropriate prototype cell based on searchData?.count.
let notFound = searchData?.count > 0 ?? false
guard let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: notFound ? "NotFoundCellId" : "CellId") else { return UITableViewCell() }
if notFound {
cell.backgroundView = emptyTableViewMessage(with: "Not Found")
} else {
cell.textLabel?.text = countries[indexPath.row]
}
I quickly created a small project to test this and seems to work fine, you can check it at Github. The project doesn't manage the data how it should be done for a production code, the search bar doesn't displays well on simulator for iPhone X and newer, etc.; it's just a quick sample on how to display the Not Found text in a table view with many sections so you can have an idea how to do it.
Some screenshots:
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Hope this helps you!