how to populate more tableview sections with one array - iphone

Question

I'm working on a tableview that displays data about a company. I want to divide the data over 3 sections, to make it look more organized.
The data about a company is retreived from a mysql database and I receive it in one array, which looks like this:
{
companyAdress = "the street 9";
companyCity = "city";
companyFacebook = "facebook.com/companyname";
companyName = "name";
companyPhoneNumber = "0123 456 789";
companyTwitter = "www.twitter.com/companyname";
companyWebsite = "www.companyname.com";
companyZip = "0000 AA";
imageNumber = "3067913";
}
I want the companyName and imageNumber in the first section, the companyAdress, companyZip and companyCity in the second, and all the remaining variables in the third section.
I do not know how to properly do this, and I haven't found a useful answer/solution for this on SO or any other website I know.
How to I do this? any help, sample code and/or tutorial would be much appreciated, thank you in advance!

Answer 1

One approach would be to separate the data when you receive it into a two-dimensional array. So the array's first entry would be an array holding companyName and imageNumber, and so on.
With this implementation, numberOfSectionsInTableView would simply return myArray.count and numberOfRowsInSection would return myArray[section].count.
To access the appropriate values from there, you would do something like ((NSMutableArray*)myArray[indexpath.section])[indexpath.row]

Answer 2

You must use a Array of NSDictionary items,
then you get info for sections and tables rows.
adding a key for each record type.
This is a sample project for explain the use of NSArray and NSDictonary, I hope this help you.
You can download the xcode project from here http://www.germinara.it/download/FGTestTableView.zip and this is the result of the sample http://www.germinara.it/download/FGtesttableview.png
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface FGViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDataSource,UITableViewDelegate> {
NSMutableArray* records;
}
#property(nonatomic,strong) IBOutlet UITableView *tblRecordsList;
-(void) buildDataSource; //Build the datasource for the tableview
#end
#import "FGViewController.h"
#interface FGViewController ()
#end
#implementation FGViewController
#synthesize tblRecordsList;
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
records = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
//Load data into array used as datasource
[self buildDataSource];
self.tblRecordsList.dataSource=self;
self.tblRecordsList.delegate=self;
}
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
}
//Load sample data
-(void) buildDataSource{
NSMutableDictionary* dict= nil;
[records removeAllObjects];
//Fill data source with your data
//Data to put on first section
dict=[NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:0];
[dict setObject:#"0" forKey:#"idsection"];
[dict setObject:#"company1" forKey:#"companyName"];
[dict setObject:#"picture1" forKey:#"imageNumber"];
[records addObject:dict]; //Add items to array
//Data to put on second section
dict=[NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:0];
[dict setObject:#"1" forKey:#"idsection"];
[dict setObject:#"address1" forKey:#"companyAdress"];
[dict setObject:#"zip1" forKey:#"companyZip"];
[dict setObject:#"city1" forKey:#"companyCity"];
[records addObject:dict]; //Add items to array
//Data to put on other section
dict=[NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:0];
[dict setObject:#"2" forKey:#"idsection"];
[dict setObject:#"facebook1" forKey:#"companyFacebook"];
[dict setObject:#"phone1" forKey:#"companyPhoneNumber"];
[dict setObject:#"twitter1" forKey:#"companyTwitter"];
[dict setObject:#"website1" forKey:#"companyWebsite"];
[records addObject:dict]; //Add items to array
}
//Get Dictionary using section key (idsection)
-(NSDictionary *) dictionaryForSection:(NSInteger) section{
for (NSDictionary *dict in records){
if(section == [[dict valueForKey:#"idsection"] intValue]){
return dict;
}
}
return nil;
}
//Table View Delegate
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
UITableViewCell *cell =nil;
cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"myCellReuseID"];
NSDictionary * dict = [self dictionaryForSection:indexPath.section]; //Get request dictionary info
//Process data for first section
if(indexPath.section == 0){
if(indexPath.row == 0)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyName"];
if(indexPath.row == 1)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"imageNumber"];
}
//Process data for second section
if(indexPath.section == 1){
if(indexPath.row == 0)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyAdress"];
if(indexPath.row == 1)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyZip"];
if(indexPath.row == 2)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyCity"];
}
//Process data for other section
if(indexPath.section == 2){
if(indexPath.row == 0)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyFacebook"];
if(indexPath.row == 1)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyPhoneNumber"];
if(indexPath.row == 2)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyTwitter"];
if(indexPath.row == 3)
cell.textLabel.text=[dict valueForKey:#"companyWebsite"];
}
return cell;
}
//Number of sections (first,second and other => 3)
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
return 3;
}
- (NSString *)tableView:(UITableView *)theTableView titleForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
NSString * sectionTitle =#"";
switch (section) {
case 0:
sectionTitle = #"title first section";
break;
case 1:
sectionTitle = #"title second section";
break;
case 2:
sectionTitle = #"title other section";
break;
default:
break;
}
return sectionTitle;
}
//Count number of record for sections
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
int nRecords=0;
int idSection =0;
//Count number of items for specified section
for (NSDictionary *dict in records){
idSection = [[dict valueForKey:#"idsection"] intValue];
if(section == idSection){
nRecords = [[dict allKeys] count] -1 ; //All dictionary Keys - 1 (the first key "idsection")
}
}
return nRecords;
}
#end