Adding/Deleting Rows Dynamically (UITableView)

To answer Mr. Ramanan R Rengaraj's question "How to add an add and delete button in nav bar to insert / delete rows dynamically."

Prerequisite:
1. UITableView (http://iosmadesimple.blogspot.com/2012/10/adding-uitableview-tutorial.html)
2. UINavigationController (http://iosmadesimple.blogspot.com/2012/08/navigation-based-project-doing-it.html)

This tutorial will be based mainly from the UITableView tutorial, I'm only going to tweak it a little so we can add and delete rows dynamically.

Let's start!

1. Create a new Xcode Project, and choose a Single View Application template. After creating a Single View Application Project, you will see that there is an AppDelegate and a ViewController class. We will not be using the ViewController class, you may choose to delete it from your project.

2. Create a New File, Objective-C class, subclass of UITableViewController. In my case, I named it MyTableViewController.

3. Click MyTableViewController.xib file, select the tableview.  Choose the "Grouped" Style under Table View. 
//You may choose to change the View size from Retina 4 Full Screen to Retina 3.5 Full Screen under Simulated Metrics.

Grouped Style Table View allows us to see the adding and deleting of rows dynamically.

4. Select the AppDelegate.h file, import MyTableViewController class. Add a MyTableViewController property and a UINavigationController property. Synthesize these properties in your AppDelegate.m file.

@property (strong, nonatomic) MyTableViewController *viewController;

@property (strong, nonatomic) UINavigationController *navController;

5. Go to AppDelegate.m file, under ApplicationDidFinishLaunchingWithOptions method, create and initialize your viewController property. Next, create and initialize your navController such that your navController's rootViewController is your viewController variable. Set window's rootViewController with your navController.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

    self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];

    // Override point for customization after application launch.

    

    self.viewController = [[MyTableViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"MyTableViewController" bundle:nil];

    self.navController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:self. viewController];

    self.window.rootViewController = self.navController;

    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

    return YES;

}

6. Go to MyTableViewController.m file. Create an array variable (NSMutableArray) for the list of items we want to show in our tableView. I also have an int variable which will be useful for this tutorial.

NSMutableArray *items;

int num;

7. Under viewDidLoad of MyTableViewController, we will set the title and the items in our array, set the num of our int variable and create the two navigation buttons for add and delete.

 // Set Title

self.title = @"Items";

// Set initial values in our array

items = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"Item No. 1", @"Item No. 2", @"Item No. 3", @"Item No. 4", @"Item No. 5", @"Item No. 6", nil];

// Set int variable, since our last item number is six, we will also set this int variable to six.

num = 6;

// create the two navigation buttons

    UIBarButtonItem *addButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]

                                   initWithTitle:@"Add"

                                   style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered

                                   target: self

                                   action:@selector(addItemToArray)];

    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = addButton;

    

    UIBarButtonItem *delButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]

                                  initWithTitle:@"Del"

                                  style: UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered

                                  target: self

                                  action:@selector(delItemToArray)];

    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = delButton;

8. Implement the addItemToArray and delItemToArray methods in our MyTableViewController class.

//Add Item To Array

- (void)addItemToArray {

    num++;

    [items addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Item No. %d", num];

    [self.tableView reloadData];

}

//Delete Item To Array

- (void)delItemToArray {

    num--;

    [items removeLastObject];

    [self.tableView reloadData];

}

9. Lastly, let's update the codes in our TableView Data Source methods. 

//The codes in our Data Source methods are just the same with the codes on our previous UITableView tutorial.

#pragma mark - Table view data source

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {

    // Return the number of sections.

    return 1;

}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section{

    // Return the number of rows in the section.

    // Usually the number of items in your array (the one that holds your list)

    return [items count];

}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{

    //Where we configure the cell in each row

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

    UITableViewCell *cell;

    

    cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

    if (cell == nil) {

        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

    }

    // Configure the cell... setting the text of our cell's label

    cell.textLabel.text = [items objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];

    return cell;

}

10. Done! Hit Run!

//At first run, we'll see the initial values in our array.

//Hit Add button.

//Hit Delete Button.

Download Project Code