EXC_BAD_ACCESS in heightForRowAtIndexPath iOS

I have tried to reproduce the problem. It turns out that calling cellForRowAtIndexPath: inside heightForRowAtIndexPath causes heightForRowAtIndexPath to be called recursively. Here is an extract of the stack backtrace after the 3 recursion steps:

frame #0: 0x000042d0 DocInteraction`-[DITableViewController tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath:] + 48 at DITableViewController.m:262frame #1: 0x0054f688 UIKit`-[UISectionRowData refreshWithSection:tableView:tableViewRowData:] + 3437frame #2: 0x0055040f UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData(UITableViewRowDataPrivate) _ensureSectionOffsetIsValidForSection:] + 144frame #3: 0x00551889 UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData numberOfRows] + 137frame #4: 0x00553dac UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData globalRowsInRect:] + 42frame #5: 0x003f82eb UIKit`-[UITableView(_UITableViewPrivate) _visibleGlobalRowsInRect:] + 177frame #6: 0x004001e6 UIKit`-[UITableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:] + 113frame #7: 0x000042f2 DocInteraction`-[DITableViewController tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath:] + 82 at DITableViewController.m:262frame #8: 0x0054f688 UIKit`-[UISectionRowData refreshWithSection:tableView:tableViewRowData:] + 3437frame #9: 0x0055040f UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData(UITableViewRowDataPrivate) _ensureSectionOffsetIsValidForSection:] + 144frame #10: 0x00551889 UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData numberOfRows] + 137frame #11: 0x00553dac UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData globalRowsInRect:] + 42frame #12: 0x003f82eb UIKit`-[UITableView(_UITableViewPrivate) _visibleGlobalRowsInRect:] + 177frame #13: 0x004001e6 UIKit`-[UITableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:] + 113frame #14: 0x000042f2 DocInteraction`-[DITableViewController tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath:] + 82 at DITableViewController.m:262frame #15: 0x0054f688 UIKit`-[UISectionRowData refreshWithSection:tableView:tableViewRowData:] + 3437frame #16: 0x0055040f UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData(UITableViewRowDataPrivate) _ensureSectionOffsetIsValidForSection:] + 144frame #17: 0x00551889 UIKit`-[UITableViewRowData numberOfRows] + 137frame #18: 0x003ff66d UIKit`-[UITableView noteNumberOfRowsChanged] + 119frame #19: 0x003ff167 UIKit`-[UITableView reloadData] + 764

Finally the program crashes. On my Simulator this happens when the back trace is about 57000 levels deep.

Old answer (not wrong, but does not explain theEXC_BAD_ACCESS):

The problem is that

[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]

returns nil for rows that are currently not visible. A table view allocates only so many cells that are required to display the currently visible rows. The cells are reused when you scroll the table view.

But heightForRowAtIndexPath is called for all cells of the table view before any row is displayed.

As a consequence, you should not get the text from the table view cells to compute the height in heightForRowAtIndexPath. You should get the text from your data source instead.

tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath is called before cellForRowAtIndexPath, before a cell is displayed, the height needs to be calculated first.

you should get text from your data source, not from cell

I had a similar problem and came across, just to share what I do now which works well for me

CGFloat mycell_height;- (void)viewDidLoad{    [super viewDidLoad];    UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"MyCell"];    mycell_height = cell.frame.size.height;}- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{  return mycell_height; //assuming all cells are the same}

Hope this helps anyone looking for this and new to iOS programming like me :-)