If you want to permanently delete the tableview cell, just call deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:@[indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationNone] with the an indexPath corresponding to your row. You will also need to decrement the number of rows returned by numberOfRowsInSection:.
However, I was looking for a way to temporarily "delete" unwanted static tableview cells from a static tableview, because I wanted a particular row to be there sometimes, and other times not. I also wanted to be able to update this on demand from outside of the tableview controller.
My case is fairly simple, since it is the first row that was being either shown or hidden. You can generalize to suit your own needs. My tableview controller is my data source delegate.
First, I created a public method in the tableview controller to update the state variables and trigger the redisplay:
- (void)updateSettingsDisplay:(BOOL)hideSetting
{
if (hideSetting == self.hideSetting) {
return; // no need to do anything because it didn't change
}
self.hideSetting = hideSetting;
self.numRows = (hideSetting)? kNumRowsWithSetting : kNumRowsWithoutSetting;
// redisplay only if we're visible
if (!self.viewJustLoaded && (self.navController.visibleViewController == self)) {
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
self.viewJustLoaded = NO;
}
The tableview controller's viewDidLoad looks like:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// check whether or not to display out-of-coverage tableview cell
self.hideSetting = YES; // initial value; could just as easily be NO
self.viewJustLoaded = YES;
[self updateSettingsDisplay];
}
The tableview's data-source delegate:
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
// Return the number of rows in the section.
return self.numRows;
}
and finally
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
// set row to the index of the stored tableView cell that corresponds to the
// cell you want (its location in the static tableview from your storyboard)
NSInteger row = indexPath.row;
if (self.hideSetting) {
// skip drawing setting's tableviewcell (since the setting we're hiding is
// first, we can just increment the row to get the one we want)
++row;
assert(row < kTotalRows); // bounds checking just to convince yourself (remove after testing)
}
// get a new index path since the row field is read-only
NSIndexPath *newIndexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:row inSection:indexPath.section];
// grab the cell from super that corresponds to the cell you want
UITableViewCell *cell = [super tableView:tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:newIndexPath]; // static table
return cell;
}
The trick is that the static cells are always available in [super tableView:tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:newIndexPath] - so use that for permanent storage of your static tableview cells. Then adjust the number of rows as needed, and map the rows correctly (ie, get the row of the stored cell that corresponds to the cell you want displayed) in your tableview delegate's cellForRowAtIndexPath:.
The updateSettingsDisplay method can be called on your tableview controller by any class that retains it. If the tableview controller is not visible when it is called, it will just update the state and wait until next time it becomes visible to change the display.
