Why can't I display data from Firebase Realtime Database into a UITableView?

Question

I am trying to retrieve my data from the Firebase Realtime Database, however, the data is not appearing in my UITableView. I am retrieving the data and trying to append it to an array that is of type of a data model I have created called Party. I am not sure how to setup up my code so I can successfully get the data from Firebase to my UITableView and I am also not sure where the problem lies.

I have tried reording my code and using different methods to retrieve data from Firebase but nothing worked. I created an array called parties which store information of type Party.

The following is my code for the override function of the UITableViewController. This is where most of the code for my Firebase Database rests. This is a table view with custom cells.

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        // Set the Firebase reference.
        ref = Database.database().reference()

        // Retrieve the parties and listen for changes.
        ref?.child("parties").observeSingleEvent(of: .value, with: { (snapshot) in
            // Take the value from the snapshot and add it to the parties array.
            let value = snapshot.value as? NSDictionary
            let titleText = value?["titleText"] as? String ?? "Title"
            let dateText = value?["dateText"] as? String ?? "Date"
            let timeText = value?["timeText"] as? String ?? "Time"

            self.parties.append(Party(title: titleText, date: dateText, time: timeText))
        })

        tableView.reloadData()

        guard let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "YourPartiesTableViewCell", for: indexPath) as? YourPartiesTableViewCell else {
            fatalError("The dequeued cell is not an instance of YourPartiesTableViewController")
        }

        let party = parties[indexPath.row]

        // Configure the cell
        cell.titleLabel.text = party.titleText
        cell.dateAndTimeLabel.text = "\(party.dateText) at \(party.timeText)"
        cell.inviationsLabel.text = "0 people"
        cell.view.layer.cornerRadius = 15

        return cell
    }

I expected it to append the data from Firebase to the parties array. Then, I wanted that data to show on the table view. Why is that not happening? Where am I wrong in my code?

Answer 1

You shouldn't load any data inside cellForRowAt as it's called for every instance inside the dataSource array and remove reloadData also as not cause recursive calls

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    return parties.count
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {  
        guard let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "YourPartiesTableViewCell", for: indexPath) as? YourPartiesTableViewCell else {
            fatalError("The dequeued cell is not an instance of YourPartiesTableViewController")
        }

        let party = parties[indexPath.row]

        // Configure the cell
        cell.titleLabel.text = party.titleText
        cell.dateAndTimeLabel.text = "\(party.dateText) at \(party.timeText)"
        cell.inviationsLabel.text = "0 people"
        cell.view.layer.cornerRadius = 15

        return cell
    }
func loadData() {

    // Set the Firebase reference.
    ref = Database.database().reference() 
    // Retrieve the parties and listen for changes.
    ref?.child("parties").observeSingleEvent(of: .value, with: { (snapshot) in
        // Take the value from the snapshot and add it to the parties array.
        let value = snapshot.value as? NSDictionary
        let titleText = value?["titleText"] as? String ?? "Title"
        let dateText = value?["dateText"] as? String ?? "Date"
        let timeText = value?["timeText"] as? String ?? "Time" 
        self.parties.append(Party(title: titleText, date: dateText, time: timeText)) 
        self.tableView.reloadData()
    }) 

 }

Call loadData from viewDidLoad