The Core iOS Developer’s Cookbook, Fifth Edition

Data Source Methods

To display a table, even a basic flat one like the one that Recipe 9-1 builds, every table data source must implement three core instance methods. These methods define how the table is structured and provide content for the table:

numberOfSectionsInTableView—Tables can display their data in sections or as a single list. For flat tables, return 1. This indicates that the entire table should be presented as one single list. For sectioned lists, return a value of 2 or higher.

tableView:numberOfRowsInSection:—This method returns ...