Fun with Table Views

Table Views can be a bit overwelming when first using them. There is a lot of inherited methods from UITableViewController, UITableViewDelegate, and UITableViewDataSource. I think the best way to think of table views is the same way as any other custom control. Basically, you are dynamically generating the table, rows, cells and defining a view(s) that go in each cell. So, all the crazy amount of methods made available are there to help with generating those fields which explains why there are so many.

The screenshot shows data that I created by initializing three meal objects using static, hard-coded property values.

 

    //MARK: Private Methods
    private func loadSampleMeals() {
        
        let photo1 = UIImage(named: "meal1")
        let photo2 = UIImage(named: "meal2")
        let photo3 = UIImage(named: "meal3")

        guard let meal1 = Meal(name: "Caprese Salad", photo: photo1, rating: 4) else {
            fatalError("Unable to instantiate meal1")
        }

        guard let meal2 = Meal(name: "Chicken and Potatoes", photo: photo2, rating: 5) else {
            fatalError("Unable to instantiate meal2")
        }

        guard let meal3 = Meal(name: "Pasta with Meatballs", photo: photo3, rating: 3) else {
            fatalError("Unable to instantiate meal2")
        }

        meals += [meal1, meal2, meal3]
    }

Eventually, I will move away from the hard-coded property values and hook into a database initialize my Meal object that way.