Pro iOS Table Views for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

Chapter 6

Indexing, Grouping, and Sorting

Although UITableView is efficient at managing large quantities of data, the user interface is constrained by the physical size of the device. By the time a table displays more than 10 or 12 rows, its labels and controls have become too small to easily work with.

If a table contains a lot of data, the user might also have to perform a lot of scrolling, which doesn't make for a good user experience. Fortunately, some UITableView facilities are available to improve the organization of the data presented by the table view.

Using Indexed Tables

An indexed table is fundamentally the same as a plain-style table, but with an index running down the right hand edge, as you saw in Chapter 2. Typically, this index ...