UITableView does not automatically deselect the selected row when the table re-appears

Question

Normally a selected row in a UITableView gets deselected with an animation when the user pops back from the detail view.

However, in my case where I have a UITableView embedded in a UIViewController I have to do it manually in viewWillAppear like so:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    // For some reason the tableview does not do it automatically
    [self.tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:self.tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow 
                                  animated:YES];  
}

Why is this and how to fix it?

Solution 1

When your main ViewController is from type UITableViewController, it has a property clearsSelectionOnViewWillAppear, which is per default YES - so it will clear the selection automatically.

This property is not available for an UITableView, i guess it's because it has no ViewWillAppear method either.

A UIViewController doesn't need this property because it has no UITableView originally.

conclusion: you'll have to implement it by yourself when you do not use a UITableViewController.

Solution 2

Do the deselection in didSelectRowAtIndexPath instead of viewWillAppear:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
                  didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
     //show the second view..
     [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES]; 
 }

Solution 3

In swift, you can add the following lines in your viewWillAppear

if let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow() {
    tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath, animated: true)
}

In swift 2, it's without parantheses:

if let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow {
    tableView.deselectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath, animated: true)
}

In Swift 4 (and 3?) the function name was cleaned up:

if let indexPath = tableView.indexPathForSelectedRow {
    tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true)
}

Solution 4

I dont think deselecting the selected row is automatic... I normally do it before pushing to the next view

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView 
        didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{

    [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];
    // to do other things
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:yourNextViewController animated:YES];
}

Solution 5

Nothing is wrong--deselecting the highlighted row is always "manual". If you look at Apple's sample code, you will see the same thing.

View more solutions

Comments

[Besi]

Yes it is automatic if the table is inside a UITableViewController See Rene's answer...

[Besi]

Have a look at Rene's answer.

[Mason]

The reason UITableView does not have a viewWillAppear method is because that is the controller's, rather than the view's responsibility. Since UITableView is a UIView subclass, it does not deal with this mechanism.

[Rudolf Real]

[myTableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:[myTableView indexPathForSelectedRow] animated:YES];

[Chris Conover]

Note that as of Xcode 6.3 / iOS 8.3, the IB / storyboard based setting appears to be broken as the setting on the backing TableViewController is always set to true / never false, despite deselecting in the XIB / Storyboard.

[Hampden123]

I like this solution the best because one doesn't need to store the selected indexPath. Thanks!!

[mskw]

This is not good as when user comes back it doesn't know where they are coming from. It should anime the deselection when popping back to show user previous location.

[billy]

This is the only way to have the table view row's highlight fade away when the user goes back via sliding from the left edge of the screen

[GeneCode]

This is clever. Have a +1.

[Takagi]

This is a terrible solution. When returning from yourNextViewController to the tableviewcontroller then there is no visual indication of what row was selected. It's better to do deselect in viewWillAppear.

[meaning-matters]

To follow iOS standard behaviour animated must be true.