UITableView section index spacing on iOS 7

Question

On iOS 6, my UITableView's section index would distribute all of its items evenly across the height of the table view. In iOS 7 all of the items are clumped together in the middle, making the items difficult to tap. Is there any way to space them out?

Answer 1

One of possible solutions here - is to add empty string just after each adding of real title to your section index title array and returning index divided by 2 at your tableView: sectionForSectionIndexTitle: atIndex: method.

This trick slightly increase distance between successive titles, but doesn't completely solve this problem.

Answer 2

Here is a implementation of Anton Malmygin answer, you can add more space by just adding more empty itens on the array:

First, let's create an array with the fake index.

    NSArray *array = self.mydataArray; // here are your true index
    self.sectionsTitle = [NSMutableArray array];
    int n = array.count;

    // In IOS 7 all index of the items are clumped together in the middle,
    // making the items difficult to tap.
    // As workaround we added "fake" sections index
    // reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18923729/uitableview-section-index-spacing-on-ios-7

    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++){
        [self.sectionsTitle  addObject:array[i]];
        [self.sectionsTitle  addObject:@""];
    }

Then, you can implement tableview delegate methods with the following approach:

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // In IOS 7 all index of the items are clumped together in the middle,
    // making the items difficult to tap.
    // As workaround we added "fake" sections index
    // reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18923729/uitableview-section-index-spacing-on-ios-7
    if ([sectionsTitle[section] isEqualToString:@""]){
        return 0;
    }
    return x; // return your desire section height 
}

- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // In IOS 7 all index of the items are clumped together in the middle,
    // making the items difficult to tap.
    // As workaround we added "fake" sections index
    // reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18923729/uitableview-section-index-spacing-on-ios-7
    if ([sectionsTitle[section] isEqualToString:@""]){
        return nil;
    }else{
       // return your desire header view here, 
       // if you are using the default section header view, 
       // you don't need to implement this method
       return // return your custom view
    }
}

- (NSArray *)sectionIndexTitlesForTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
    return self.sectionsTitle;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView sectionForSectionIndexTitle:(NSString *)title atIndex:(NSInteger)index {
    // In IOS 7 all index of the items are clumped together in the middle,
    // making the items difficult to tap.
    // As workaround we added "fake" sections index
    // reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18923729/uitableview-section-index-spacing-on-ios-7
    if ([title isEqualToString:@""]){
         return -1;
    }
    return [sectionsTitle indexOfObject:title];
}


- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // In IOS 7 all index of the items are clumped together in the middle,
    // making the items difficult to tap.
    // As workaround we added "fake" sections index
    // reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18923729/uitableview-section-index-spacing-on-ios-7
    if ([sectionsTitle[section] isEqualToString:@""]){
        return 0;
    }
    return // your logic here;
}

And here is the result: