Expand/collapse section in UITableView in iOS

I got a nice solution inspired by Apple's Table View Animations and Gestures. I deleted unnecessary parts from Apple's sample and translated it into swift.

I know the answer is quite long, but all the code is necessary. Fortunately, you can just copy and paste most of the code and just need to do a bit modification on step 1 and 3

1.create SectionHeaderView.swift and SectionHeaderView.xib

import UIKit

protocol SectionHeaderViewDelegate {
    func sectionHeaderView(sectionHeaderView: SectionHeaderView, sectionOpened: Int)
    func sectionHeaderView(sectionHeaderView: SectionHeaderView, sectionClosed: Int)
}

class SectionHeaderView: UITableViewHeaderFooterView {
    
    var section: Int?
    @IBOutlet weak var titleLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var disclosureButton: UIButton!
    @IBAction func toggleOpen() {
        self.toggleOpenWithUserAction(true)
    }
    var delegate: SectionHeaderViewDelegate?
    
    func toggleOpenWithUserAction(userAction: Bool) {
        self.disclosureButton.selected = !self.disclosureButton.selected
        
        if userAction {
            if self.disclosureButton.selected {
                self.delegate?.sectionHeaderView(self, sectionClosed: self.section!)
            } else {
                self.delegate?.sectionHeaderView(self, sectionOpened: self.section!)
            }
        }
    }
    
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        var tapGesture: UITapGestureRecognizer = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "toggleOpen")
        self.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
        // change the button image here, you can also set image via IB.
        self.disclosureButton.setImage(UIImage(named: "arrow_up"), forState: UIControlState.Selected)
        self.disclosureButton.setImage(UIImage(named: "arrow_down"), forState: UIControlState.Normal)
    }
    
}

the SectionHeaderView.xib(the view with gray background) should look something like this in a tableview(you can customize it according to your needs, of course):

note:

a) the toggleOpen action should be linked to disclosureButton

b) the disclosureButton and toggleOpen action are not necessary. You can delete these 2 things if you don't need the button.

2.create SectionInfo.swift

import UIKit

class SectionInfo: NSObject {
    var open: Bool = true
    var itemsInSection: NSMutableArray = []
    var sectionTitle: String?
    
    init(itemsInSection: NSMutableArray, sectionTitle: String) {
        self.itemsInSection = itemsInSection
        self.sectionTitle = sectionTitle
    }
}

3.in your tableview

import UIKit

class TableViewController: UITableViewController, SectionHeaderViewDelegate  {
    
    let SectionHeaderViewIdentifier = "SectionHeaderViewIdentifier"
    
    var sectionInfoArray: NSMutableArray = []
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        let sectionHeaderNib: UINib = UINib(nibName: "SectionHeaderView", bundle: nil)
        self.tableView.registerNib(sectionHeaderNib, forHeaderFooterViewReuseIdentifier: SectionHeaderViewIdentifier)
        
        // you can change section height based on your needs
        self.tableView.sectionHeaderHeight = 30
        
        // You should set up your SectionInfo here
        var firstSection: SectionInfo = SectionInfo(itemsInSection: ["1"], sectionTitle: "firstSection")
        var secondSection: SectionInfo = SectionInfo(itemsInSection: ["2"], sectionTitle: "secondSection"))
        sectionInfoArray.addObjectsFromArray([firstSection, secondSection])
    }
    
    // MARK: - Table view data source
    
    override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        return sectionInfoArray.count
    }
    
    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        if self.sectionInfoArray.count > 0 {
            var sectionInfo: SectionInfo = sectionInfoArray[section] as! SectionInfo
            if sectionInfo.open {
                return sectionInfo.open ? sectionInfo.itemsInSection.count : 0
            }
        }
        return 0
    }
    
    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, viewForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> UIView? {
        let sectionHeaderView: SectionHeaderView! = self.tableView.dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier(SectionHeaderViewIdentifier) as! SectionHeaderView
        var sectionInfo: SectionInfo = sectionInfoArray[section] as! SectionInfo
        
        sectionHeaderView.titleLabel.text = sectionInfo.sectionTitle
        sectionHeaderView.section = section
        sectionHeaderView.delegate = self
        let backGroundView = UIView()
        // you can customize the background color of the header here
        backGroundView.backgroundColor = UIColor(red:0.89, green:0.89, blue:0.89, alpha:1)
        sectionHeaderView.backgroundView = backGroundView
        return sectionHeaderView
    }
    
    func sectionHeaderView(sectionHeaderView: SectionHeaderView, sectionOpened: Int) {
        var sectionInfo: SectionInfo = sectionInfoArray[sectionOpened] as! SectionInfo
        var countOfRowsToInsert = sectionInfo.itemsInSection.count
        sectionInfo.open = true
        
        var indexPathToInsert: NSMutableArray = NSMutableArray()
        for i in 0..<countOfRowsToInsert {
            indexPathToInsert.addObject(NSIndexPath(forRow: i, inSection: sectionOpened))
        }
        self.tableView.insertRowsAtIndexPaths(indexPathToInsert as [AnyObject], withRowAnimation: .Top)
    }
    
    func sectionHeaderView(sectionHeaderView: SectionHeaderView, sectionClosed: Int) {
        var sectionInfo: SectionInfo = sectionInfoArray[sectionClosed] as! SectionInfo
        var countOfRowsToDelete = sectionInfo.itemsInSection.count
        sectionInfo.open = false
        if countOfRowsToDelete > 0 {
            var indexPathToDelete: NSMutableArray = NSMutableArray()
            for i in 0..<countOfRowsToDelete {
                indexPathToDelete.addObject(NSIndexPath(forRow: i, inSection: sectionClosed))
            }
            self.tableView.deleteRowsAtIndexPaths(indexPathToDelete as [AnyObject], withRowAnimation: .Top)
        }
    }
}

Some sample code for animating an expand/collapse action using a table view section header is provided by Apple here: Table View Animations and Gestures

The key to this approach is to implement - (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section and return a custom UIView which includes a button (typically the same size as the header view itself). By subclassing UIView and using that for the header view (as this sample does), you can easily store additional data such as the section number.

You have to make your own custom header row and put that as the first row of each section. Subclassing the UITableView or the headers that are already there will be a pain. Based on the way they work now, I am not sure you can easily get actions out of them. You could set up a cell to LOOK like a header, and setup the tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath to manually expand or collapse the section it is in.

I'd store an array of booleans corresponding the the "expended" value of each of your sections. Then you could have the tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath on each of your custom header rows toggle this value and then reload that specific section.

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    if (indexPath.row == 0) {
        ///it's the first row of any section so it would be your custom section header

        ///put in your code to toggle your boolean value here
        mybooleans[indexPath.section] = !mybooleans[indexPath.section];

        ///reload this section
        [self.tableView reloadSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:indexPath.section] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
    }
}

Then set numberOfRowsInSection to check the mybooleans value and return 1 if the section isn't expanded, or 1+ the number of items in the section if it is expanded.

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {

    if (mybooleans[section]) {
        ///we want the number of people plus the header cell
        return [self numberOfPeopleInGroup:section] + 1;
    } else {
        ///we just want the header cell
        return 1;
    }
}

Also, you will need to update cellForRowAtIndexPath to return a custom header cell for the first row in any section.