UITableView - change section header color

Question

How can I change color of a section header in UITableView?

EDIT: The answer provided by DJ-S should be considered for iOS 6 and above. The accepted

Answer 1

I think this code is not so bad.

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
    let headerView = tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier(MyHeaderView.reuseIdentifier) as MyHeaderView
    let backgroundView = UIView()
    backgroundView.backgroundColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
    headerView.backgroundView = backgroundView
    headerView.textLabel.text = "hello"
    return headerView
}

Answer 2

Setting the background color on UITableViewHeaderFooterView has been deprecated. Please use contentView.backgroundColor instead.

Answer 3

In my case, It worked like this:

let headerIdentifier = "HeaderIdentifier"
let header = self.tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterView(withIdentifier: headerIdentifier)
header.contentView.backgroundColor = UIColor.white

Answer 4

For swift 5 +

In willDisplayHeaderView Method

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {

     //For Header Background Color
     view.tintColor = .black

    // For Header Text Color
    let header = view as! UITableViewHeaderFooterView
    header.textLabel?.textColor = .white
}

I hope this helps you :]

Answer 5

In iOS 7.0.4 I created a custom header with it's own XIB. Nothing mentioned here before worked. It had to be the subclass of the UITableViewHeaderFooterView to work with the dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier: and it seems that class is very stubborn regarding the background color. So finally I added an UIView (you could do it either with code or IB) with name customBackgroudView, and then set it's backgroundColor property. In layoutSubviews: I set that view's frame to bounds. It work with iOS 7 and gives no glitches.

// in MyTableHeaderView.xib drop an UIView at top of the first child of the owner
// first child becomes contentView

// in MyTableHeaderView.h
@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UIView * customBackgroundView;

// in MyTableHeaderView.m
-(void)layoutSubviews;
{
    [super layoutSubviews];

    self.customBackgroundView.frame = self.bounds;
}
// if you don't have XIB / use IB, put in the initializer:
-(id)initWithReuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
    ...
    UIView * customBackgroundView = [[UIView alloc] init];
    [self.contentView addSubview:customBackgroundView];
    _customBackgroundView = customBackgroundView;
    ...
}


// in MyTableViewController.m
-(UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    MyTableHeaderView * header = [self.tableView
                                          dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier:@"MyTableHeaderView"];
    header.customBackgroundView.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
    return header;
}

Answer 6

Based on @Dj S answer, using Swift 3. This works great on iOS 10.

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
    // Background color
    view.tintColor = UIColor.black

    // Text Color
    let headerView = view as! UITableViewHeaderFooterView
    headerView.textLabel?.textColor = UIColor.white
}