iOS Beginner Question About Pointers

[Trickerie]

Ok, so, I'm just beginning my study into iPhone programming, and had a pretty basic question.

Heres a section of code using table views I just can't get my head around:

UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];

NSString *name = [[contacts objectAtIndex: indexPath.row] valueForKey: @"Name"];
	
UILabel *label = [cell textLabel];
	
label.text = name;

My question may be pretty basic, but why exactly does that change cell's text?

Any help would be great! Thank you!

 

[Alkiera]

Ok, so, I'm just beginning my study into iPhone programming, and had a pretty basic question.

Heres a section of code using table views I just can't get my head around:

UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];

NSString *name = [[contacts objectAtIndex: indexPath.row] valueForKey: @"Name"];
	
UILabel *label = [cell textLabel];
	
label.text = name;

My question may be pretty basic, but why exactly does that change cell's text?

Any help would be great! Thank you!

Well, it gets a reference to the cell, and then the cell's label, and the label.text = name is the same as [label setValue:name forKey"text"]... which is why the cell changes. Seems like a lot of effort to update a cell value, but I'm pretty new to Cocoa myself.

 

[Trickerie]

That was what I was thinking myself, but I just wanted to be sure.

The long-way-around way of changing a cell is probably done because the sample code is from a book I'm reading. Its actually a really good book, though, for beginners!

Its called:

iPhone for Programmers: An App Driven Approach, from the Deitel Developer Series.

 

[dejo]

It could just as easily be written:

UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];

NSString *name = [[contacts objectAtIndex: indexPath.row] valueForKey: @"Name"];
	
cell.textLabel.text = name;

The reason for keeping the cell reference in a variable is that it is commonly needed for other things within the method, like instantiating a cell if one wasn't able to be dequeued. As for name, having a reference to it allows you to check, via debugging, if it was set properly before using it in the cell.

 

[Trickerie]

Ah! Thanks dejo, that helps a lot.