UITableView row animation duration and completion callback

Question

Is there a way to either specify the duration for UITableView row animations, or to get a callback when the animation completes?

What I would like to do is flash the scroll indicators after the animation completes. Doing the flash before then doesn't do anything. So far the workaround I have is to delay half a second (that seems to be the default animation duration), i.e.:

[self.tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:newRows
                      withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
[self.tableView performSelector:@selector(flashScrollIndicators)
                     withObject:nil
                     afterDelay:0.5];

Solution 1

Nowadays if you want to do this there is new function starting from iOS 11:

- (void)performBatchUpdates:(void (^)(void))updates 
                 completion:(void (^)(BOOL finished))completion;

In updates closures you place the same code as in beginUpdates()/endUpdates section. And the completion is executed after all animations.

Solution 2

Just came across this. Here's how to do it:

Objective-C

[CATransaction begin];
[tableView beginUpdates];
[CATransaction setCompletionBlock: ^{
    // Code to be executed upon completion
}];
[tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths: indexPaths
                 withRowAnimation: UITableViewRowAnimationAutomatic];
[tableView endUpdates];
[CATransaction commit];

Swift

CATransaction.begin()
tableView.beginUpdates()
CATransaction.setCompletionBlock {
    // Code to be executed upon completion
}
tableView.insertRowsAtIndexPaths(indexArray, withRowAnimation: .Top)
tableView.endUpdates()
CATransaction.commit()

Solution 3

Expanding on karwag's fine answer, note that on iOS 7, surrounding the CATransaction with a UIView Animation offers control of the table animation duration.

[UIView beginAnimations:@"myAnimationId" context:nil];

[UIView setAnimationDuration:10.0]; // Set duration here

[CATransaction begin];
[CATransaction setCompletionBlock:^{
    NSLog(@"Complete!");
}];

[myTable beginUpdates];
// my table changes
[myTable endUpdates];

[CATransaction commit];
[UIView commitAnimations];

The UIView animation's duration has no effect on iOS 6. Perhaps iOS 7 table animations are implemented differently, at the UIView level.

Solution 4

That's one hell of a useful trick! I wrote a UITableView extension to avoid writing CATransaction stuff all the time.

import UIKit

extension UITableView {

    /// Perform a series of method calls that insert, delete, or select rows and sections of the table view.
    /// This is equivalent to a beginUpdates() / endUpdates() sequence, 
    /// with a completion closure when the animation is finished.
    /// Parameter update: the update operation to perform on the tableView.
    /// Parameter completion: the completion closure to be executed when the animation is completed.
   
    func performUpdate(_ update: ()->Void, completion: (()->Void)?) {
    
        CATransaction.begin()
        CATransaction.setCompletionBlock(completion)

        // Table View update on row / section
        beginUpdates()
        update()
        endUpdates()
    
        CATransaction.commit()
    }

}

This is used like so:

// Insert in the tableView the section we just added in sections
self.tableView.performUpdate({
    self.tableView.insertSections([newSectionIndex], with: UITableViewRowAnimation.top)

}, completion: {
    // Scroll to next section
    let nextSectionIndexPath = IndexPath(row: 0, section: newSectionIndex)
    self.tableView.scrollToRow(at: nextSectionIndexPath, at: .top, animated: true)
})

Solution 5

Shortening Brent's fine answer, for at least iOS 7 you can wrap this all tersely in a [UIView animateWithDuration:delay:options:animations:completion:] call:

[UIView animateWithDuration:10 delay:0 options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseInOut animations:^{
  [self.tableView beginUpdates];
  [self.tableView endUpdates];
} completion:^(BOOL finished) {
  // completion code
}];

though, I can't seem to override the default animation curve from anything other than EaseInOut.

View more solutions

Comments

[Kalle]

I haven't tried myself, but maybe this could do it, with some index path handling: - (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didEndDisplayingCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath

[JLundell]

I have tried this (just now) and it seems to work just fine. Bonus: this implies that you could also use CATransaction to set the animation duration and timing function. Nice!

[JLundell]

See karwag's answer above. You need to solve the problem of what counts as "afterwards".

[JLundell]

On further experimentation, the behavior of this mechanism in this context seems erratic at best. Note also that the documentation says that it applies only to animations added after the call.

[karwag]

Yes, you're right about that. Setting the completion block before the call to insertRowsAtIndexPaths is how it should be done (also added a CATransaction begin/commit to make sure). This is exactly how I've implemented it in my apps and it works flawlessly. Nice if you want to chain an animation off the insert/delete animation.

[jimt]

FWIW, this does not work for me. The callback gets hit long, long after the actual animation is complete. (iOS 6)

[karwag]

Again, works flawlessly here. iOS6 and all. This is a proper SDK-supported mechanism for overriding properties in default animations. Perhaps you have additional, longer-running animations inside your CATransaction? They get nested, you know.

[Aron]

Works great for me in iOS6. Thanks for that!

[Tom Redman]

setAnimationDuration doesn't seem to affect the insert/delete duration. iOS 6

[Gabriel]

This is awesome; works great for me under both iOS 5.1 and 6.x. Was looking for a good way to trigger an action once a table view animation had completed and this fit the bill perfectly!

[Jeff Grimes]

any suggestions for how to change the duration though? CATransaction setAnimationDuration: doesn't seem to make a difference.

[slamor]

Works fine for me too in iOS 5.1.1, 6.1, 7.0; But, if you need to get a new tableView.contentSize after animation (as it was in my case), you must use [self performSelectorOnMainThread:withObject:waitUntilDone:]; in setCompletionBlock in order to call your delegate in next runloop. if you call your delegate directly, without performSelectorOnMainThread, you get old value for tableView.contentSize.

[trickster77777]

today you - my personal Super Hero!

[Danny]

When doing a row insert this way, or @Brent's way, although the duration is respected, the UITableViewRowAnimation does not seem to be respected and always appears to animate top down, even when I specify, for example UITableViewRowAnimationLeft. Testing on iOS 8.4 - anybody have a solution?

[Marius Kažemėkaitis]

Thanks, nice answer! Solves lots of issues.

[mbo42]

Works great for iOS 9

[primulaveris]

Beautiful! Here's a swift version in my answer below.

[Prajeet Shrestha]

This seems to work without [tableView beginUpdates] and [tableView endUpdate] method call as well .

[Dustin]

The animation duration appears to be ignored.

[Nicholas Smith]

Perfect solution, would recommend to mods that this should be the accepted answer.

[hetelek]

Be careful to not set the completion block after performing your animations. If you set the completion block after, it will be executed immediately.

[Gianni Carlo]

Awesome answer! this is one of the reasons I love Swift

[tryKuldeepTanwar]

can we use this method for reload row at index path?

[Jonny]

Not having used it myself yet, but in iOS 11 a new function performBatchUpdates should be preferred over beginUpdates: developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uitableview/…

[CyberMew]

@GianniCarlo you can do this in ObjC as well

[Gianni Carlo]

@CyberMew yes, but creating a Category has always been such a pain, specially due to the long names of the extra files

[kemdo]

it's only available in ios 11, how to use it in ios 10?

[Frederic Adda]

@kemdo Why do you say it's only available in iOS 11? Everything here is iOS 2+ except setCompletionBlock which is iOS 4+

[kemdo]

I enter wrong performBatchUpdate sorry. Your solution is work as expect. THanks you

[Daniel Dickison]

This is great. I hadn't noticed this addition.

[malhal]

beginUpdates doesn't need to be after begin