Need to change the color of table view selection

Question

I need to change the default blue color selection of table view to some custom color. Is there any way to do that. Help me

I think you would have got better results if you added even more exclamation marks... — Kuba Suder, Oct 30 '09 at 12:38

score 61 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '09 at 09:34

61

The best way to do this is like this:

// Customize the appearance of table view cells.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"myCellId";
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
        UIView *v = [[[UIView alloc] init] autorelease];
        v.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
        cell.selectedBackgroundView = v;
    }
    // Set up the cell...
    cell.textLabel.text = @"foo";
    return cell;
}

The relevant part for you is the cell.selectedBackgroundView = v; instruction. You can substitute the very basic view 'v' here with any view you like.

answered Sep 28 '09 at 09:34

Zoran Simic

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Zoran, I have verified that this approach works for plain table views, however it does not work for my grouped ones. Any workaround? Or can you confirm this? – Massimo Cafaro Sep 28 '09 at 13:07
It's not dependent of the table view type: I have just discovered that it works on some plain tables and does not on other plain tables. All of them use custom table cells. – Massimo Cafaro Sep 28 '09 at 13:22
1

This only works with no fuzz for plain table views. For a grouped table view you will actually need 4 views for different selected backgrounds; topmost, bottommost, between two other cells, and single cell in group. Then comes the pain of updating these you change the number of rows in any segment. Post a feature request on bugreport.apple.com to add a "selectedBackgroundGradient" property for iPhone OS 4.0. – PeyloW Sep 28 '09 at 14:56
Thank you PeyloW for clarifying this. Indeed, I had no success at all with grouped tables, and some successes with plain tables. But I still do not understand why for some of my plain tables this works and, for other, it does not. – Massimo Cafaro Sep 28 '09 at 15:02

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 25 '10 at 10:57

I also came across this problem with trying to create custom selected cell views for the grouped cell. I solved this problem by creating 3 types of images for the cell top, middle and bottom assuming that there will be a middle cell.

NSString *imageFile;

if (row == 0) {
 imageFile = @"highlighted_cell_top.png";
} else if (row == ([registeredDetailsKeys count] - 1)) {
 imageFile = @"highlighted_cell_bottom.png";
} else {
 imageFile = @"highlighted_cell_middle.png";
}

UIImageView *imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:imageFile]];

cell.selectedBackgroundView = imageView;

There is possibly an easier way but I am happy with the result.

As far as I know, that's exactly the way to do it. See this [tutorial](http://cocoawithlove.com/2009/04/easy-custom-uitableview-drawing.html). You've forgotten the "top_bottom" variation (when only a single cell), that's all. — Rich, Feb 01 '12 at 16:58

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 28 '09 at 06:56

3

I do not think you can use a custom color. However, you can use the following property of UITableViewCell

@property(nonatomic) UITableViewCellSelectionStyle selectionStyle

The selection style is a backgroundView constant that determines the color of a cell when it is selected. The default value is UITableViewCellSelectionStyleBlue. Since

typedef enum {
   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone,
   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleBlue,
   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray
} UITableViewCellSelectionStyle;

you can switch from the default blue to gray, or no colored selection at all.

answered Sep 28 '09 at 06:56

Massimo Cafaro

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If you subclass your UITableViewCell, you can highlight in any color. – mahboudz Sep 28 '09 at 07:10
How exactly do you do this for custom UITableViewCells designed with IB or programmatically? I mean, is there any method/property that allows doing this WITHOUT recurring to tricks such as putting another view on top of the cell? – Massimo Cafaro Sep 28 '09 at 07:59
can u please send me the code to subclass the UITableViewCell and highlight it with a custom color. please.. – Sep 28 '09 at 08:42
By convention, you should avoid subclassing UITableViewCell. In any case, the technique to highlight with a custom colour doesn't require subclassing, but although simple enough is not quite as simple as one first thinks. Ufb007 explains it prefectly. – Rich Feb 01 '12 at 16:54

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 10 '11 at 10:52

Make sure that after you declare in the header

@property(nonatomic) UITableViewCellSelectionStyle selectionStyle

Implement

cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray

where UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray can be UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone, UITableViewCellSelectionStyleBlue, UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 28 '09 at 07:14

Another way to do it would be to move in a new view over your cell, with whatever color you'd like and 50% or so opacity. You move this view over to the cell when you get a -setSelected:animated: call. When I say move, you actually could always have a view on top of your cell, but just turn the hidden bit off and on as you need.

Need to change the color of table view selection

5 Answers5