UITableView not showing class array data

Question

I am trying to create an app that gets the input of the user and fills a class, then afterwards stores that data on an array that I want to retrieve and populate a UITableView.

My issue is that I can't figure it out for the life of me what is wrong exactly, since I learned how to code by myself, and I am sure that it will be something simple, yet, I just can't find out.

I am not getting any errors and searched for days to see if someone else had the same issue using an array of classes but no luck making it work so far.

I have tried to populate the class manually with pre defined strings, but this has not made any difference. I tried to print, and I see that nothing has been printed, hence why nothing is showing up on my UITableView. I have defined data source and delegate with no avail.

Here is my class and array:

class UserTrips {
        init(type: String = "Tourism", roundtrip: String = "True", departure: String = "March 10, 2024", arrival: String = "March 23, 2024", from: String = "YYZ", to: String = "OPO", vehicle: String = "Air") {
        }
    }
    
    let tripVariable = UserTrips()
    var tripsArray: [UserTrips] = [
        .init(type: "Tourism", roundtrip: "True", departure: "March 5, 2024", arrival: "March 10, 2024", from: "YYZ", to: "OPO", vehicle: "Air"),
        .init(type: "Tourism", roundtrip: "False", departure: "March 10, 2024", arrival: "March 23, 2024", from: "Toronto", to: "New York", vehicle: "Land")
        ]

Here is my viewDidLoad:

override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        self.tripsCellView.register(TripsTVC.nib(), forCellReuseIdentifier: TripsTVC.identifier)
        self.tripsCellView.delegate = self
        self.tripsCellView.dataSource = self
}

Here is tableView code:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return tripsArray.count
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = UITableViewCell()
        let data = tripsArray[indexPath.row]
        
        if indexPath.row > 0 {
            let customCell = self.tripsCellView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: TripsTVC.identifier) as! TripsTVC
            customCell.configure(with: "Tourism", roundtrip: "True", departure: "March 10, 2024", arrival: "March 23, 2024", from: "YYZ", to: "OPO", vehicle: "Air")
            return customCell
        }
        
        return cell
    }

Any help would be very appreciated.

EDIT:

Current Code:

import UIKit

class Mainscreen: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
    
    class UserTrips {
        
        init(type: String = "Tourism", roundtrip: String = "True", departure: String = "March 10, 2024", arrival: String = "March 23, 2024", from: String = "YYZ", to: String = "OPO", vehicle: String = "Air") {
        }
        
        var type: String = "Tourism"
        var roundtrip: String = "True"
        var departure: String = "March 10, 2024"
        var arrival: String = "March 23, 2024"
        var from: String = "YYZ"
        var to: String = "OPO"
        var vehicle: String = "Air"
    }
    
    let tripVariable = UserTrips()
    var tripsArray: [UserTrips] = [
        .init(type: "Tourism", roundtrip: "True", departure: "March 5, 2024", arrival: "March 10, 2024", from: "YYZ", to: "OPO", vehicle: "Air"),
        .init(type: "Tourism", roundtrip: "False", departure: "March 10, 2024", arrival: "March 23, 2024", from: "Toronto", to: "New York", vehicle: "Land")
        ]
    
    @IBOutlet weak var tripsCellView: UITableView!
    @IBOutlet weak var menuStack: UIStackView!
    @IBOutlet weak var addTripButton: UIButton!
    @IBOutlet weak var userAccountButton: UIButton!
    @IBOutlet weak var travelHistoryButton: UIButton!
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        self.tripsCellView.register(TripsTVC.nib(), forCellReuseIdentifier: TripsTVC.identifier)
        self.tripsCellView.delegate = self
        self.tripsCellView.dataSource = self

        self.travelHistoryButton.layer.cornerRadius = 20
        self.travelHistoryButton.layer.masksToBounds = true
        self.travelHistoryButton.layer.borderWidth = 5
        self.travelHistoryButton.layer.borderColor = CGColor(red: 255/255, green: 59/255, blue: 48/255, alpha: 1)
        self.menuStack.layer.cornerRadius = 20
        self.menuStack.layer.masksToBounds = true
        
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return tripsArray.count
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = UITableViewCell()
        let data = tripsArray[indexPath.row]
        
        if indexPath.row > 0 {
            let customCell = self.tripsCellView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: TripsTVC.identifier) as! TripsTVC
            customCell.configure(with: data.type, roundtrip: data.roundtrip, departure: data.departure, arrival: data.arrival, from: data.from, to: data.to, vehicle: data.vehicle)
            customCell.dateFrom?.text = data.departure
            customCell.dateTo?.text = data.arrival
            customCell.tripInformation?.text = "\(data.from) to \(data.to) // \(data.to) to \(data.from)"
            return customCell
        }
        
        return cell
    }
    
    @IBAction func addTripButtonPressed(_ sender: UIButton) {
    }
    
    @IBAction func userAccountButtonPressed(_ sender: UIButton) {
    }
    
}

Answer 1

I tried your code in Xcode and this is what is working.

class TripsTVC: UITableViewCell {

   @IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!

   override init(style: UITableViewCell.CellStyle, reuseIdentifier: String?) {
    super.init(style: style, reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
   }

   required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
       super.init(coder: aDecoder)
   }

   func configure(with: String, roundtrip: String, departure: String, arrival: String, from: String, to: String, vehicle: String) {
       label.text = with
   }
}

Make sure your label is connected in interface builder. There is no need to give any cell identifier. This works

self.tripsCellView.register(UINib(nibName: "TripsTVC", bundle: nil), forCellReuseIdentifier: String(describing: TripsTVC.self))

Here is the delegate method implementation

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    let customCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: String(describing: TripsTVC.self), for: indexPath) as! TripsTVC
    customCell.configure(with: "Tourism", roundtrip: "True", departure: "March 10, 2024", arrival: "March 23, 2024", from: "YYZ", to: "OPO", vehicle: "Air")
    return customCell
}

Make sure the connections in interface builder are accurate. The Custom Cell View should have the class TripsTVC and not the File Owner.

Answer 2

I would like to refactor these things:

1. Default parameter value within constructor

class UserTrip { //<- Class/Struct/Enum... name should be capitalized
  let type: String
  let roundtrip: String
  
  init(type: String = "Tourism", roundtrip: String = "True"...) {
    self.type = type
    self.roundtrip = roundtrip: String
    ...
  }
}

let trip = UserTrip()

In Swift, you can provide a default input parameter value like above. So you're able to omit these parameters if you don't really want to any pass value to it.

---

2. It's better if you prepare the data (tripsArray) before cellForRow. Cause this function might be called multiple times, and that will leak of performance with the for loop. So I suggest this mock data:

var tripsArray: [UserTrip] = [
  .init(type: "Tourism", roundtrip: "True"),
  .init(type: "Flight", roundtrip: "false"),
  ...
]

By doing above, each cell will present a single element in tripsArray. Then cellForRow is much more readable:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
  let cell = ...
  let data = tripsArray[indexPath.row]
  cell.configure(...)
  return cell
}