UITableView Section Header issue - iphone

Question

All,
I have a grouped UITableView with a possible total of 3 sections. There could be 1, 2 or 3.
My issue is that for each section I use a different header & footer view. I am choosing which header/footer to show by checking the section #.
This obviously does not work, as section 0 does not always represent what 'header' 0 shows.
Example:
Header #0 = "Game in progress". But no games in progress are returned from the database. Only 'Games Ended" exist. Therefore section 0 would be all 'games ended'. I don't want 'Games Ended' to use the 'Games in Progress' header.
I can't find a way to check the section value, and not the number.
To put it simply, I would like to be able to show section header #3 for section name #3, even if section name #3 is section #0.
I know this seems trivial, and is probably simple... but I am stuck. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
----- CODE -----
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
return [[fetchedResultsController_ sections] count];
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
id <NSFetchedResultsSectionInfo> sectionInfo = [[fetchedResultsController_ sections] objectAtIndex:section];
return [sectionInfo numberOfObjects];
}
- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
if(section == 0)
{
return 50.0f;
}
else if (section == 1)
return 50.0f;
else
return 50.0f;
}
- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForFooterInSection:(NSInteger)section {
if(section == 0 )
{
return 50.0f;
}
else if (section == 1)
return 5.0f;
else
return 80.0f;
}
- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
if(section == 0)
{
return headerView1;
}
else if (section == 1)
return headerView2;
else
return headerView3;
}
- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForFooterInSection:(NSInteger)section {
if(section == 0)
{
return footerView1;
}
else if (section == 1)
return footerView2;
else
return footerView3;
}

Answer 1

Obviously, deciding which header / footer to show by checking the section # is wrong (this is bad MVC). For a solution to your problem, it would be better to see some actual code, although I think I can suggest something in general:
The sections that you show are taken out of some data source - an array, a dictionary or some other collection (this is the same collection you use to determine, for example, the return value for the numberOfSectionsInTableView: delegate method. If you haven't done so already, you should incorporate these data instances into some object that contains the data itself (this is the data that you normally need for displaying the cell/header/footer elements along with the actual data values) - In this object, add an additional "HeaderType" enumerated value, so that each object "knows" how it is supposed to be displayed. This way your MVC is perfect: You have your data stored in a collection of custom objects, your controller knows how to display the data by it's type and of course your view shows the data properly based on the controller's instructions.
Here is an example of an enumeration that could help:
typedef enum {
kHeaderTypeGameProgress,
kHeaderTypeGameStats,
kHeaderTypeGameDate
} HeaderType;
In your "viewForHeader" or "viewForFooter" methods, just add a switch type to check the data's HeaderType and create a view accordingly. Hope I helped, good luck!

Answer 2

It seems that in your cellForRowAtIndexPath, you must already have some logic that decides what group to show data from, maybe something like:
NSArray *group;
int section = indexPath.section;
if (![gamesInProgress count]) section++;
switch (section) {
case 0:
group = gamesInProgress;
break;
case 1:
group = finishedGames;
break;
// etc.
}
In your viewForHeaderInSection, write similar code that sets a NSString instead of NSArray.