Multiple UICollectionView Data Sources in One UIViewController - swift

Question

I have a question about the implementation.
My users will be able to select from a dropdown what they want to see in the collection view. Depending on the choice, the dataset and potentially section/cell types will change.
Should I have one UICollectionView with all of the cells registered and based on the users choice modify my cellForItemAt?
Or should I have a UICollectionView per choice and then swap them depending on the choice?
What is the best and more professional implementation?

Answer 1

If the cells being displayed are similar in nature (they have the same structure of data aka picture, text, description, name, etc) then you should use one re-useable cell.
Having one cell makes your code much cleaner. You can also then set an observable property inside your cell that you set with the data. Pass the data to cell and then inside the cell class, it will be responsible for laying out the code.
let cell = someDequeuedCell
cell.data = somedata
return cell
Then inside the cell class,
var data: SomeData? {
didSet {
//Determine data and layout cell
if data == 'apple' {
//Layout apple cell
} else if data == 'orange' {
//Layout orange cell
} else {
//Layout other cell
}
}
}
This approach is very commonly used, however if each cell varies more than just data being changed. You should register multiple different cells for each datatype.
Inside the collectionView
if dataType == "apple" {
let cell = appleCell
cell.data = someData
return cell
} else if dataType == "orange" {
let cell = orangeCell
cell.data = someData
return cell
} else {
let cell = otherCell
cell.data = someData
return cell
}