Select First Row as default in UITableView

I have an application that is viewbased and I am adding a tableview as a subview to the main view. I have taken UITableViewDelegate to respond the table methods. Everything is working fine, but I want to select the first row or UITableView as default selected(Highlighted).

Please help me, with what code I need and where I need to put it.

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];
    NSIndexPath *indexPath=[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0];
    [myTableView selectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES  scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionBottom];
}

The best way to use this in your code, if you want to select any row by default, use in viewDidAppear.

Swit 3.0 updated Solution

let indexPath = IndexPath(row: 0, section: 0)
tblView.selectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true, scrollPosition: .bottom)

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
    {

       [super viewWillAppear:animated];

     // assuming you had the table view wired to IBOutlet myTableView
    
        // and that you wanted to select the first item in the first section
    
        [myTableView selectRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0] animated:NO scrollPosition:0];
    }

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.detailViewController = (DetailViewController *)[[self.splitViewController.viewControllers lastObject] topViewController];

    if([UIDevice currentDevice].userInterfaceIdiom == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad){
        NSIndexPath* indexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0];
        [self.tableView selectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:NO scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop];
        [self tableView:self.tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    }
}

Swift 4 Update:

func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    let indexPath = IndexPath(row: 0, section: 0)
    myTableView.selectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true, scrollPosition: .bottom)
}

Change row and section values if you want to select any other row in a different section.

Here's how to do this in Swift 1.2:

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
    let firstIndexPath = NSIndexPath(forRow: 0, inSection: 0)
    self.tableView.selectRowAtIndexPath(firstIndexPath, animated: true, scrollPosition: .Top)
}

Here is my solution for swift 3.0:

var selectedDefaultIndexPath = false


override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    
    if dataSource.isEmpty == false, selectedDefaultIndexPath == false {
        let indexPath = IndexPath(row: 0, section: 0)
        // if have not this, cell.backgroundView will nil.
        tableView.selectRow(at: indexPath, animated: false, scrollPosition: .none)
        // trigger delegate to do something.
        _ = tableView.delegate?.tableView?(tableView, willSelectRowAt: indexPath)
        selectedDefaultIndexPath = true
    }
}

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> IndexPath? {
    let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath)
    cell?.selectedBackgroundView?.backgroundColor = UIColor(hexString: "#F0F0F0")
    
    return indexPath
}

Swift 5.x Update:

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    let indexPath = IndexPath(row: 0, section: 0)
    tableView.selectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true, scrollPosition: .bottom)
    tableView.delegate?.tableView?(tableView, didSelectRowAt: indexPath)
}

We use custom background images for the cell based on whether or not it is the first cell... a middle cell or the last cell. That way we get a nice rounded corner look to the whole table. When the row is selected, it swaps out a nice 'highlighted' cell to give the user feed back that they have selected a cell.

UIImage *rowBackground;
UIImage *selectionBackground;
NSInteger sectionRows = [tableView numberOfRowsInSection:[indexPath section]];
NSInteger row = [indexPath row];

if (row == 0 && row == sectionRows - 1)
{
	rowBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"topAndBottomRow.png"];
	selectionBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"topAndBottomRowSelected.png"];
}
else if (row == 0)
{
	rowBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"topRow.png"];
	selectionBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"topRowSelected.png"];
}
else if (row == sectionRows - 1)
{
	rowBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"bottomRow.png"];
	selectionBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"bottomRowSelected.png"];
}
else
{
	rowBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"middleRow.png"];
	selectionBackground = [UIImage imageNamed:@"middleRowSelected.png"];
}


((UIImageView *)cell.backgroundView).image = rowBackground;
((UIImageView *)cell.selectedBackgroundView).image = selectionBackground;

If you wish just make the first cell, that which is at indexPath.row == 0, to use a custom background.

This is derived from Matt Gallagher's excellent site

To only select the first cell the first time the table is loaded, one would think that using viewDidLoad is the right place to go, but, at that time of execution, the table hasn't loaded its contents, so it will not work (and probably crash the app since the NSIndexPath will point to a non-existent cell).

A workaround is to use a variable that indicates that the table has loaded before and do the work accordingly.

@implementation MyClass {
    BOOL _tableHasBeenShownAtLeastOnce;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    _tableHasBeenShownAtLeastOnce = NO; // Only on first run
}

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    if ( ! _tableHasBeenShownAtLeastOnce )
    {
        _tableHasBeenShownAtLeastOnce = YES;
        BOOL animationEnabledForInitialFirstRowSelect = YES; // Whether to animate the selection of the first row or not... in viewDidAppear:, it should be YES (to "smooth" it). If you use this same technique in viewWillAppear: then "YES" has no point, since the view hasn't appeared yet.
        NSIndexPath *indexPathForFirstRow = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection: 0];

        [self.tableView selectRowAtIndexPath:indexPathForFirstRow animated:animationEnabledForInitialFirstRowSelect scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop];
    }
}

/* More Objective-C... */

@end