iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

For the More Curious: Multiple XIB Files

It is possible that you may have a view controller that needs completely different views depending on the type of device that the application is running on. If this is the case, you can create two XIB files – one for each device type.

To get a view controller to load the appropriate XIB file for each device, you simply add a suffix to the filename:

B​N​R​D​e​t​a​i​l​V​i​e​w​C​o​n​t​r​o​l​l​e​r​~​i​p​h​o​n​e​.​x​i​b​
B​N​R​D​e​t​a​i​l​V​i​e​w​C​o​n​t​r​o​l​l​e​r​~​i​p​a​d​.​x​i​b​

By naming XIB files in this way, a view controller will automatically find and load the right file at runtime.

Note that using distinct XIB files is not an alternative to using Auto Layout. You will still ...