How to customize the background color of a UITableViewCell

Question

I would like to customize the background  and maybe the border too  of all of the UITableViewCells within my UITableView  So far I have not been able to customize this stuff  so I have a bunch of white background cells which is the default   Is there a way to do this with the iPhone SDK

User · Answer

vlado grigorov has some good advice - the best way is to create a backgroundView  and give that a colour  setting everything else to the clearColor   Also  I think that way is the only way to correctly clear the colour  try his sample - but set  clearColor  instead of  yellowColor    which is what I was trying to do

User · Answer

The best approach I ve found so far is to set a background view of the cell and clear background of cell subviews  Of course  this looks nice on tables with indexed style only  no matter with or without accessories     Here is a sample where cell s background is panted yellow     UIView  backgroundView         UIView alloc   initWithFrame CGRectZero   autorelease    backgroundView backgroundColor     UIColor yellowColor    cell backgroundView   backgroundView  for   UIView  view in cell contentView subviews          view backgroundColor     UIColor clearColor

User · Answer

Create a view and set this as background view of the cell  UIView  lab     UIView alloc  initWithFrame cell frame                lab setBackgroundColor  UIColor grayColor                cell backgroundView   lab               lab release

User · Answer

Here is the most efficient way I have come across to solve this problem  use the willDisplayCell delegate method  this takes care of the white color for the text label background as well when using cell textLabel text and or cell detailTextLabel text    -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath           When this delegate method is called the color of the cell is controlled via the cell rather than the table view  as when you use   -  UITableViewCell    tableView   UITableView    tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath   NSIndexPath    indexPath           So within the body of the cell delegate method add the following code to alternate colors of cells or just use the function call to make all the cells of the table the same color   if  indexPath row   2         cell setBackgroundColor  UIColor colorWithRed  8 green  8 blue 1 alpha 1      else  cell setBackgroundColor  UIColor clearColor      This solution worked well in my circumstance

User · Answer

My solution is to add the following code to the cellForRowAtIndexPath event   UIView  solidColor    cell viewWithTag 100   if   solidColor         solidColor     UIView alloc  initWithFrame cell bounds       solidColor tag   100    Big tag to access the view afterwards      cell addSubview solidColor        cell sendSubviewToBack solidColor        solidColor release     solidColor backgroundColor    UIColor colorWithRed 254 0 255 0                                              green 233 0 255 0                                               blue 233 0 255 0                                              alpha 1 0     Works under any circumstances  even with disclosure buttons  and is better for your logic to act on cells color state in cellForRowAtIndexPath than in cellWillShow event I think

User · Answer

Subclass UITableViewCell and add this in the implementation   - void layoutSubviews        super layoutSubviews       self backgroundColor    UIColor blueColor

User · Answer

Create an image to use as background with Photoshop or gimp and name it myimage  Then  add this method to your tableViewController class   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       UIImage  cellImage    UIImage imageNamed   myimage png     myimage is a 20x50 px with  gradient  color created with gimp     UIImageView  cellView     UIImageView alloc  initWithImage cellImage       cellView contentMode   UIContentViewModeScaleToFill      cell backgroundView   cellView        set the background label to clear     cell titleLabel backgroundColor   UIColor clearColor       This will work also if you have set the UITableView to custom in attribute inspector

User · Answer

The best approach I ve found so far is to set a background view of the cell and clear background of cell subviews  Of course  this looks nice on tables with indexed style only  no matter with or without accessories     Here is a sample where cell s background is panted yellow     UIView  backgroundView         UIView alloc   initWithFrame CGRectZero   autorelease    backgroundView backgroundColor     UIColor yellowColor    cell backgroundView   backgroundView  for   UIView  view in cell contentView subviews          view backgroundColor     UIColor clearColor

User · Answer

Here is the most efficient way I have come across to solve this problem  use the willDisplayCell delegate method  this takes care of the white color for the text label background as well when using cell textLabel text and or cell detailTextLabel text    -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath           When this delegate method is called the color of the cell is controlled via the cell rather than the table view  as when you use   -  UITableViewCell    tableView   UITableView    tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath   NSIndexPath    indexPath           So within the body of the cell delegate method add the following code to alternate colors of cells or just use the function call to make all the cells of the table the same color   if  indexPath row   2         cell setBackgroundColor  UIColor colorWithRed  8 green  8 blue 1 alpha 1      else  cell setBackgroundColor  UIColor clearColor      This solution worked well in my circumstance

User · Answer

UIView  bg     UIView alloc  initWithFrame cell frame       bg backgroundColor    UIColor colorWithRed 175 0 255 0 green 220 0 255 0 blue 186 0 255 0 alpha 1        cell backgroundView   bg       bg release

User · Answer

You need to set the backgroundColor of the cell s contentView to your color  If you use accessories  such as disclosure arrows  etc   they ll show up as white  so you may need to roll custom versions of those

User · Answer

You need to set the backgroundColor of the cell s contentView to your color  If you use accessories  such as disclosure arrows  etc   they ll show up as white  so you may need to roll custom versions of those

User · Answer

To extend on N Berendt s answer - If you want to set cell color based on some state in the actual cell data object  at the time you are configuring the rest of the information for the table cell  which is typically when you are in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method  you can do this by overriding the willDisplayCell method to set the cell background color from the content view background color - this gets around the issue of the disclosure button backgrounds etc  not being right but still lets you control color in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method where you are doing all of your other cell customisation   So   If you add this method to your table view delegate   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       cell backgroundColor   cell contentView backgroundColor      Then in your cellForRowAtIndexPath method you can do   if  myCellDataObject hasSomeStateThatMeansItShouldShowAsBlue        cell contentView backgroundColor    UIColor blueColor       This saves having to retrieve your data objects again in the willDisplayCell method and also saves having two places where you do tailoring customisation of your table cell - all customisation can go in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method

User · Answer

Customizing the background of a table view cell eventually becomes and  all or nothing  approach  It s very difficult to change the color or image used for the background of a content cell in a way that doesn t look strange   The reason is that the cell actually spans the width of the view  The rounded corners are just part of its drawing style and the content view sits in this area   If you change the color of the content cell you will end up with white bits visible at the corners  If you change the color of the entire cell  you will have a block of color spanning the width of the view   You can definitely customize a cell  but it s not quite as easy as you may think at first

User · Answer

Customizing the background of a table view cell eventually becomes and  all or nothing  approach  It s very difficult to change the color or image used for the background of a content cell in a way that doesn t look strange   The reason is that the cell actually spans the width of the view  The rounded corners are just part of its drawing style and the content view sits in this area   If you change the color of the content cell you will end up with white bits visible at the corners  If you change the color of the entire cell  you will have a block of color spanning the width of the view   You can definitely customize a cell  but it s not quite as easy as you may think at first

User · Answer

Try this   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView1 willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath        cell setBackgroundColor  UIColor clearColor        tableView1 backgroundColor    UIColor colorWithPatternImage   UIImage imageNamed    Cream jpg

User · Answer

To extend on N Berendt s answer - If you want to set cell color based on some state in the actual cell data object  at the time you are configuring the rest of the information for the table cell  which is typically when you are in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method  you can do this by overriding the willDisplayCell method to set the cell background color from the content view background color - this gets around the issue of the disclosure button backgrounds etc  not being right but still lets you control color in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method where you are doing all of your other cell customisation   So   If you add this method to your table view delegate   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       cell backgroundColor   cell contentView backgroundColor      Then in your cellForRowAtIndexPath method you can do   if  myCellDataObject hasSomeStateThatMeansItShouldShowAsBlue        cell contentView backgroundColor    UIColor blueColor       This saves having to retrieve your data objects again in the willDisplayCell method and also saves having two places where you do tailoring customisation of your table cell - all customisation can go in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method

User · Answer

Create a view and set this as background view of the cell  UIView  lab     UIView alloc  initWithFrame cell frame                lab setBackgroundColor  UIColor grayColor                cell backgroundView   lab               lab release

User · Answer

UIView  bg     UIView alloc  initWithFrame cell frame       bg backgroundColor    UIColor colorWithRed 175 0 255 0 green 220 0 255 0 blue 186 0 255 0 alpha 1        cell backgroundView   bg       bg release

User · Answer

The best approach I ve found so far is to set a background view of the cell and clear background of cell subviews  Of course  this looks nice on tables with indexed style only  no matter with or without accessories     Here is a sample where cell s background is panted yellow     UIView  backgroundView         UIView alloc   initWithFrame CGRectZero   autorelease    backgroundView backgroundColor     UIColor yellowColor    cell backgroundView   backgroundView  for   UIView  view in cell contentView subviews          view backgroundColor     UIColor clearColor

User · Answer

You need to set the backgroundColor of the cell s contentView to your color  If you use accessories  such as disclosure arrows  etc   they ll show up as white  so you may need to roll custom versions of those

User · Answer

After trying out all different solutions  the following method is the most elegant one  Change the color in the following delegate method   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       if                cell backgroundColor    UIColor blueColor         else           cell backgroundColor    UIColor whiteColor

User · Answer

My solution is to add the following code to the cellForRowAtIndexPath event   UIView  solidColor    cell viewWithTag 100   if   solidColor         solidColor     UIView alloc  initWithFrame cell bounds       solidColor tag   100    Big tag to access the view afterwards      cell addSubview solidColor        cell sendSubviewToBack solidColor        solidColor release     solidColor backgroundColor    UIColor colorWithRed 254 0 255 0                                              green 233 0 255 0                                               blue 233 0 255 0                                              alpha 1 0     Works under any circumstances  even with disclosure buttons  and is better for your logic to act on cells color state in cellForRowAtIndexPath than in cellWillShow event I think

User · Answer

This will work in the latest Xcode   - UITableViewCell    tableView   UITableView    tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath   NSIndexPath    indexPath       cell backgroundColor    UIColor grayColor

User · Answer

This will work in the latest Xcode   - UITableViewCell    tableView   UITableView    tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath   NSIndexPath    indexPath       cell backgroundColor    UIColor grayColor

User · Answer

vlado grigorov has some good advice - the best way is to create a backgroundView  and give that a colour  setting everything else to the clearColor   Also  I think that way is the only way to correctly clear the colour  try his sample - but set  clearColor  instead of  yellowColor    which is what I was trying to do

User · Answer

Customizing the background of a table view cell eventually becomes and  all or nothing  approach  It s very difficult to change the color or image used for the background of a content cell in a way that doesn t look strange   The reason is that the cell actually spans the width of the view  The rounded corners are just part of its drawing style and the content view sits in this area   If you change the color of the content cell you will end up with white bits visible at the corners  If you change the color of the entire cell  you will have a block of color spanning the width of the view   You can definitely customize a cell  but it s not quite as easy as you may think at first

User · Answer

After trying out all different solutions  the following method is the most elegant one  Change the color in the following delegate method   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       if                cell backgroundColor    UIColor blueColor         else           cell backgroundColor    UIColor whiteColor

User · Answer

You need to set the backgroundColor of the cell s contentView to your color  If you use accessories  such as disclosure arrows  etc   they ll show up as white  so you may need to roll custom versions of those

User · Answer

Try this   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView1 willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath        cell setBackgroundColor  UIColor clearColor        tableView1 backgroundColor    UIColor colorWithPatternImage   UIImage imageNamed    Cream jpg

User · Answer

I concur with Seba     I tried to set my alternating row color in the rowForIndexPath delegate method but was getting inconsistent results between 3 2 and 4 2  The following worked great for me   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath        if   indexPath row   2     1            cell backgroundColor   UIColorFromRGB 0xEDEDED           cell textLabel backgroundColor   UIColorFromRGB 0xEDEDED           cell selectionStyle   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray            else               cell backgroundColor    UIColor whiteColor           cell selectionStyle   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray

User · Answer

This is really simple  since OS 3 0 just set the background color of the cell in the willDisplayCell method  You must not set the color in the cellForRowAtIndexPath   This works for both the plain and grouped style    Code   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       cell backgroundColor    UIColor redColor       P S  Here the documentation extract for willDisplayCell        A table view sends this message to   its delegate just before it uses cell   to draw a row  thereby permitting the   delegate to customize the cell object   before it is displayed  This method   gives the delegate a chance to   override state-based properties set   earlier by the table view  such as   selection and background color  After   the delegate returns  the table view   sets only the alpha and frame   properties  and then only when   animating rows as they slide in or   out     I ve found this information in this post from colionel  Thank him

User · Answer

Simply put this in you UITableView delegate class file   m    -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell  forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath        UIColor  color     indexPath row   2     0     UIColor colorWithRed 255 0 255 green 255 0 255 blue 145 0 255 alpha 1     UIColor clearColor       cell backgroundColor   color

User · Answer

Subclass UITableViewCell and add this in the implementation   - void layoutSubviews        super layoutSubviews       self backgroundColor    UIColor blueColor

User · Answer

The best approach I ve found so far is to set a background view of the cell and clear background of cell subviews  Of course  this looks nice on tables with indexed style only  no matter with or without accessories     Here is a sample where cell s background is panted yellow     UIView  backgroundView         UIView alloc   initWithFrame CGRectZero   autorelease    backgroundView backgroundColor     UIColor yellowColor    cell backgroundView   backgroundView  for   UIView  view in cell contentView subviews          view backgroundColor     UIColor clearColor

User · Answer

Customizing the background of a table view cell eventually becomes and  all or nothing  approach  It s very difficult to change the color or image used for the background of a content cell in a way that doesn t look strange   The reason is that the cell actually spans the width of the view  The rounded corners are just part of its drawing style and the content view sits in this area   If you change the color of the content cell you will end up with white bits visible at the corners  If you change the color of the entire cell  you will have a block of color spanning the width of the view   You can definitely customize a cell  but it s not quite as easy as you may think at first

User · Answer

Simply put this in you UITableView delegate class file   m    -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell  forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath        UIColor  color     indexPath row   2     0     UIColor colorWithRed 255 0 255 green 255 0 255 blue 145 0 255 alpha 1     UIColor clearColor       cell backgroundColor   color

User · Answer

This is really simple  since OS 3 0 just set the background color of the cell in the willDisplayCell method  You must not set the color in the cellForRowAtIndexPath   This works for both the plain and grouped style    Code   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       cell backgroundColor    UIColor redColor       P S  Here the documentation extract for willDisplayCell        A table view sends this message to   its delegate just before it uses cell   to draw a row  thereby permitting the   delegate to customize the cell object   before it is displayed  This method   gives the delegate a chance to   override state-based properties set   earlier by the table view  such as   selection and background color  After   the delegate returns  the table view   sets only the alpha and frame   properties  and then only when   animating rows as they slide in or   out     I ve found this information in this post from colionel  Thank him

User · Answer

I concur with Seba     I tried to set my alternating row color in the rowForIndexPath delegate method but was getting inconsistent results between 3 2 and 4 2  The following worked great for me   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath        if   indexPath row   2     1            cell backgroundColor   UIColorFromRGB 0xEDEDED           cell textLabel backgroundColor   UIColorFromRGB 0xEDEDED           cell selectionStyle   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray            else               cell backgroundColor    UIColor whiteColor           cell selectionStyle   UITableViewCellSelectionStyleGray

User · Answer

Create an image to use as background with Photoshop or gimp and name it myimage  Then  add this method to your tableViewController class   -  void tableView  UITableView   tableView willDisplayCell  UITableViewCell   cell forRowAtIndexPath  NSIndexPath   indexPath       UIImage  cellImage    UIImage imageNamed   myimage png     myimage is a 20x50 px with  gradient  color created with gimp     UIImageView  cellView     UIImageView alloc  initWithImage cellImage       cellView contentMode   UIContentViewModeScaleToFill      cell backgroundView   cellView        set the background label to clear     cell titleLabel backgroundColor   UIColor clearColor       This will work also if you have set the UITableView to custom in attribute inspector

[ios] How to customize the background color of a UITableViewCell?

Examples related to ios

Examples related to iphone

Examples related to uitableview

Examples related to cocoa-touch

Examples related to background-color