iOS: What is the default background color of UITableViewCell

Question

I want to set background color for labels inside tableViewCell to opaque but I need default background color of uiTableViewCell that Apple provides.

So how can I get this background or what color is it?

Regards

Laevorotatory

What color do they have when you do not change the background color? This should be the default. – Awed

How about using those labels's superView property and fetching the backgroundColor from that point? – Chacon

This also does not work. I get black background. This is probably cos cell's backgroundColor is null... – Laevorotatory

Answer 1

I have found a solution: Different cell bg color depending on iOS version (4.0 to 5.0)

To sum up I just implement method

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

Thanks!

Laevorotatory

Answer 2

To reset the color of a recycled (dequeued) UITableViewCell, this has worked for me in iOS 5, 6, and 7:

cell.backgroundColor = nil;

As others suggested here, I logged the value of that property for a newly created cell. I saw null. That gave me the idea to nil out the property. Seems to be working in all 3 iOS versions.

As I vaguely recall, iOS has changed drastically the way defaults are set for colors in UITableView and UITableViewCell. In some versions parent containers colors were picked up. In some versions, that default color was greyish white, but changed over time. In iOS 7 White is applied regardless of parents. Note: Don't quote me on this paragraph; look it up if you care. The point is that answers telling you to set a specific color are giving you bad advice.

Acetylide

Answer 3

You can log the background color of the cell

NSLog(@"cell background color is %@", cell.backgroundColor);

or the cell's contentView

NSLog(@"cell contentView's background color is %@", cell.contentView.backgroundColor);

You could also just set your label's color directly:

label.backgroundColor = cell.contentView.backgroundColor;

Posit

Neither is working!? I get this: "cell background color is (null)" and "cell contentView's background color is (null)". I logged this in cellForRowAtIndexPath method on device and simulator. This is strange. Why is that? – Laevorotatory

U, did I mention that I have custom cells "cell = [[TableViewCellController alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];". Is this a problem ? – Laevorotatory

TableViewCellController? Is a subclass of what? – Posit

It's a subclass of UITableViewCell like it should be... I get null for backgroundColor in both uiTableView class and its uiTableViewCell sublcass. It's really strange. Do you know why this happens? – Laevorotatory

Answer 4

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    UIColor *color = [cell backgroundColor];
    NSLog(@"%@",color);

Result is

2011-11-08 17:09:20.101 test1[5439:207] UIDeviceRGBColorSpace 1 1 1 1

It indicates that default color is Red=1, Green=1, Blue=1, alpha=1. It's a white color.

Note, that UITableViewCell also has contentView property, which contains real visible color.

Reflexive