How to prevent TableViewCell from duplicating during recycle? - iphone

Question

So my situation is pretty unique. I have a to-do list app with a bunch of tasks. Each task has a UITableViewCell. After each table view cell is tapped, it creates a view controller with the task at that row's index path's property. These view controllers are all stored in a NSDictionary. This is the code representation of what I just said:
-(void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
DetailViewController *detailVC;
if (![self.detailViewsDictionary.allKeys containsObject:indexPath]){
detailVC = [[DetailViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"DetailViewController" bundle:nil];
[self.detailViewsDictionary setObject:detailVC forKey:indexPath];
detailVC.context = self.managedObjectContext;
}else{
detailVC = self.detailViewsDictionary[indexPath];
}
Tasks *task = [[self fetchedResultsController] objectAtIndexPath:indexPath];
detailVC.testTask = task;
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:detailVC animated:YES];
NSLog(#"%#", self.detailViewsDictionary);
}
So this method of creating unique view controllers and storing them with a certain key almost always works. The problem arises when I delete or move the view controllers:
I was under the impression that a cell's index path gets recycled as you scroll down (dequeue). Doesn't that mean marking each cell with a number identifier would result in multiple cells for the same identifier?
Also, if you stored each view controller with a indexPath key, how do you make sure the key isn't set to two view controllers..? For example. Let's say you have 4 cells, which means 4 view controllers. You delete cell 3. Cell 4 moves down to cell 3s spot. You create a new cell which goes to spot 4. Now you have two controllers with the same indexPath key! How do you avoid this?? It's screwing up my app right now because tasks that have already been moved are loading their properties in the wrong view controller/cell!
I was suggested this to solve the problem before: "You maintain an NSMutableArray that "shadows" the contents of the table." However, I don't understand what this means/how to implement it.

Answer 1

You can use a technique we used to use on old databases. You store an NSInteger as a class var, and use that to assign a unique id to each of the cells as you create them. As you create each cell, you increment the unique id. Like this:
in your interface:
#property (nonatomic, assign) NSUInteger nextUniqueId;
then in - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
cell.tag = self.nextUniqueId++;
and then track those tags in your viewControllers. Just give them an assignable property, or customize the init to include the id.

Answer 2

Better to set the tag value for each row in cell for row at index path method.Store that tag value globally,and use that tag in did select row method.