How do I set the height of tableHeaderView (UITableView) with autolayout?

You need to use the UIView systemLayoutSizeFittingSize: method to obtain the minimum bounding size of your header view.

I provide further discussion on using this API in this Q/A:

How to resize superview to fit all subviews with autolayout?

I've found an elegant way to way to use auto layout to resize table headers, with and without animation.

Simply add this to your View Controller.

func sizeHeaderToFit(tableView: UITableView) {
    if let headerView = tableView.tableHeaderView {
        let height = headerView.systemLayoutSizeFittingSize(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize).height
        var frame = headerView.frame
        frame.size.height = height
        headerView.frame = frame
        tableView.tableHeaderView = headerView
        headerView.setNeedsLayout()
        headerView.layoutIfNeeded()
    }
}

To resize according to a dynamically changing label:

@IBAction func addMoreText(sender: AnyObject) {
    self.label.text = self.label.text! + "\nThis header can dynamically resize according to its contents."
}

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    // viewDidLayoutSubviews is called when labels change.
    super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
    sizeHeaderToFit(tableView)
}

To animate a resize according to a changes in a constraint:

@IBOutlet weak var makeThisTallerHeight: NSLayoutConstraint!

@IBAction func makeThisTaller(sender: AnyObject) {

    UIView.animateWithDuration(0.3) {
        self.tableView.beginUpdates()
        self.makeThisTallerHeight.constant += 20
        self.sizeHeaderToFit(self.tableView)
        self.tableView.endUpdates()
    }
}

See the AutoResizingHeader project to see this in action. https://github.com/p-sun/Swift2-iOS9-UI

https://i.stack.imgur.com/2GjLv.png

I really battled with this one and plonking the setup into viewDidLoad didn't work for me since the frame is not set in viewDidLoad, I also ended up with tons of messy warnings where the encapsulated auto layout height of the header was being reduced to 0. I only noticed the issue on iPad when presenting a tableView in a Form presentation.

What solved the issue for me was setting the tableViewHeader in viewWillLayoutSubviews rather than in viewDidLoad.

func viewWillLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewWillLayoutSubviews()
        if tableView.tableViewHeaderView == nil {
            let header: MyHeaderView = MyHeaderView.createHeaderView()
            header.setNeedsUpdateConstraints()
            header.updateConstraintsIfNeeded()
            header.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, CGRectGetWidth(tableView.bounds), CGFloat.max)
            var newFrame = header.frame
            header.setNeedsLayout()
            header.layoutIfNeeded()
            let newSize = header.systemLayoutSizeFittingSize(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize)
            newFrame.size.height = newSize.height
            header.frame = newFrame
            self.tableView.tableHeaderView = header
        }
    }

This solution resizes the tableHeaderView and avoids infinite loop in the viewDidLayoutSubviews() method I was having with some of the other answers here:

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()

    if let headerView = tableView.tableHeaderView {
        let height = headerView.systemLayoutSizeFitting(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize).height
        var headerFrame = headerView.frame

        // comparison necessary to avoid infinite loop
        if height != headerFrame.size.height {
            headerFrame.size.height = height
            headerView.frame = headerFrame
            tableView.tableHeaderView = headerView
        }
    }
}

See also this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34689293/1245231

Your solution using systemLayoutSizeFittingSize: works if the header view is just updated once on each view appearance. In my case, the header view updated multiple times to reflect status changes. But systemLayoutSizeFittingSize: always reported the same size. That is, the size corresponding to the first update.

To get systemLayoutSizeFittingSize: to return the correct size after each update I had to first remove the table header view before updating it and re-adding it:

self.listTableView.tableHeaderView = nil;
[self.headerView removeFromSuperview];

This worked for me on ios10 and Xcode 8

func layoutTableHeaderView() {

    guard let headerView = tableView.tableHeaderView else { return }
    headerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

    let headerWidth = headerView.bounds.size.width;
    let temporaryWidthConstraints = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("[headerView(width)]", options: NSLayoutFormatOptions(rawValue: UInt(0)), metrics: ["width": headerWidth], views: ["headerView": headerView])

    headerView.addConstraints(temporaryWidthConstraints)

    headerView.setNeedsLayout()
    headerView.layoutIfNeeded()

    let headerSize = headerView.systemLayoutSizeFittingSize(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize)
    let height = headerSize.height
    var frame = headerView.frame

    frame.size.height = height
    headerView.frame = frame

    self.tableView.tableHeaderView = headerView

    headerView.removeConstraints(temporaryWidthConstraints)
    headerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = true

}

It works for both header view and footer just replace the header with footer

func sizeHeaderToFit() {
    if let headerView = tableView.tableHeaderView {

        headerView.setNeedsLayout()
        headerView.layoutIfNeeded()

        let height = headerView.systemLayoutSizeFitting(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize).height
        var frame = headerView.frame
        frame.size.height = height
        headerView.frame = frame

        tableView.tableHeaderView = headerView
    }
}

For iOS 12 and above, the following steps will ensure autolayout works properly in both your table and the header.

Create your tableView first, then the header. At the end of your header creation code, call:

[headerV setNeedsLayout]; [headerV layoutIfNeeded];

Upon orientation change, mark the header for layout again and reload the table, this needs to happen slightly after the orientation change is reported:

dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, 0.1 *NSEC_PER_SEC), dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ [tableV.tableHeaderView setNeedsLayout]; [tableV.tableHeaderView layoutIfNeeded]; [tableV reloadData];});

In my case viewDidLayoutSubviews worked better. viewWillLayoutSubviews causes white lines of a tableView to appear. Also I added checking if my headerView object already exists.

- (void)viewDidLayoutSubviews
{
    [super viewDidLayoutSubviews];

    if ( ! self.userHeaderView ) {
        // Setup HeaderView
        self.userHeaderView = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"SSUserHeaderView" owner:self options:nil] objectAtIndex:0];
        [self.userHeaderView setNeedsLayout];
        [self.userHeaderView layoutIfNeeded];
        CGFloat height = [self.userHeaderView systemLayoutSizeFittingSize:UILayoutFittingCompressedSize].height;
        CGRect headerFrame = self.userHeaderView.frame;
        headerFrame.size.height = height;
        self.userHeaderView.frame = headerFrame;
        self.tableView.tableHeaderView = self.userHeaderView;

        // Update HeaderView with data
        [self.userHeaderView updateWithProfileData];
    }
}

It is quite possible to use generic AutoLayout-based UIView with any AL inner subview structure as a tableHeaderView.

The only thing one needs is to set a simple tableFooterView before!

Let self.headerView is some constraint-based UIView.

- (void)viewDidLoad {

    ........................

    self.tableView.tableFooterView = [UIView new];

    [self.headerView layoutIfNeeded]; // to set initial size

    self.tableView.tableHeaderView = self.headerView;

    [self.tableView.leadingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.headerView.leadingAnchor].active = YES;
    [self.tableView.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.headerView.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
    [self.tableView.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.headerView.topAnchor].active = YES;

    // and the key constraint
    [self.tableFooterView.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.headerView.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
}

If self.headerView changes height under UI rotation one have to implement

- (void)viewWillTransitionToSize:(CGSize)size withTransitionCoordinator:(id<UIViewControllerTransitionCoordinator>)coordinator {
    [super viewWillTransitionToSize:size withTransitionCoordinator:coordinator];

    [coordinator animateAlongsideTransition: ^(id<UIViewControllerTransitionCoordinatorContext> context) {
        // needed to resize header height
        self.tableView.tableHeaderView = self.headerView;
    } completion: NULL];
}

One can use ObjC category for this purpose

@interface UITableView (AMHeaderView)
- (void)am_insertHeaderView:(UIView *)headerView;
@end

@implementation UITableView (AMHeaderView)

- (void)am_insertHeaderView:(UIView *)headerView {

    NSAssert(self.tableFooterView, @"Need to define tableFooterView first!");

    [headerView layoutIfNeeded];

    self.tableHeaderView = headerView;

    [self.leadingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:headerView.leadingAnchor].active = YES;
    [self.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:headerView.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
    [self.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:headerView.topAnchor].active = YES;

    [self.tableFooterView.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:headerView.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
}
@end

And also Swift extension

extension UITableView {

    func am_insertHeaderView2(_ headerView: UIView) {

        assert(tableFooterView != nil, "Need to define tableFooterView first!")

        headerView.layoutIfNeeded()

        tableHeaderView = headerView

        leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: headerView.leadingAnchor).isActive = true
        trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: headerView.trailingAnchor).isActive = true
        topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: headerView.topAnchor).isActive = true

        tableFooterView?.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: headerView.trailingAnchor).isActive = true
    }
}

This solution works perfectly for me:

https://spin.atomicobject.com/2017/08/11/swift-extending-uitableviewcontroller/

It extends the UITableViewController. But if you are just using a UITableView, it will still work, just extend the UITableView instead of the UITableViewController. Call the methods sizeHeaderToFit() or sizeFooterToFit() whenever there is an event that changes the tableViewHeader height.

Copied from this post

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
    super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
    
    if let headerView = tableView.tableHeaderView {

        let height = headerView.systemLayoutSizeFitting(UIView.layoutFittingCompressedSize).height
        var headerFrame = headerView.frame
        
        //Comparison necessary to avoid infinite loop
        if height != headerFrame.size.height {
            headerFrame.size.height = height
            headerView.frame = headerFrame
            tableView.tableHeaderView = headerView
        }
    }
}