iPhone, hook for edit/done button click in table view

Question

In my table view controller there is

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = self.editButtonItem;

which produces a regular edit/done button at

Answer 1

For those who don't want to override UITableView (e.g. if you're using UITableViewController), here's a simple and clean solution that I use. It basically involves creating your own edit button item and using the tableView's editing flag to track edit vs done. For icing on the cake, it shows a "+" button (instead of "Edit") when the table is empty for adding new items.

- (void) updateEditButtonVisibility
{
    // tableItems represents the data structure that s
    if ([tableItems count] > 0)
    {
        UIBarButtonSystemItem editButtonType = self.tableView.editing ? UIBarButtonSystemItemDone : UIBarButtonSystemItemEdit;
        UIBarButtonItem *editButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:editButtonType
                                                                                        target:self
                                                                                        action:@selector(editButtonTouched)];

        self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = editButtonItem;
        [editButtonItem release];
    }
    else
    {
        UIBarButtonItem *addButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd
                                                                                       target:self
                                                                                       action:@selector(addButtonTouched)];
        self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = addButtonItem;
        [addButtonItem release];
    }
}

- (void) editButtonTouched
{
    // edit/done button has been touched

    [self.tableView setEditing:!self.tableView.editing animated:YES];
    [self updateEditButtonVisibility];
}

- (void) addButtonTouched
{
    // logic to allow user to add new items goes here
}

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    [self updateEditButtonVisibility];
}