my tableview isn't being called wont crash at breakpoint - objective-c

Question

Okay so i have been fiddling with some iOS development, I am fairly new to this. Usually more of a PHP and JavaScript guy. But here is my issue... in my app I am creating that pulls a friendslist from a local xml file (it will be pointing to a php page on a server that generates a users friendslist but for simplicity sake of debugging and development I am using local.)
I have a View Controller (storybaord) that is loaded when I click "friends", as of now, the view loads but with no data, in the debugger I can see that its pulling the data from the XML, so I thought, okay maybe the TableView is never being called, so i put a breakpoint on the
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
But the app still continued to load the page,
So to recap I have a View Controller, with a search bar, toolbar and a table view, the table view has a placeholder cell given the identifier Cell, heres the coding the for friendsListTableViewController.h
//
// friendsListTableViewController.h
// #ME
//
// Created by Aaron Russell on 1/22/13.
// Copyright (c) 2013 Aaron Russell. All rights reserved.
//
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "TBXML.h"
#interface friendsListTableViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate, NSObject>{
NSMutableArray *friendList;
TBXML * tbxml;
IBOutlet UIImage *imageFile;
}
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSMutableArray *_friends;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *lname;
#end
and here is the friendsListTableViewController.m file
//
// friendsListTableViewController.m
// #ME
//
// Created by Aaron Russell on 1/22/13.
// Copyright (c) 2013 Aaron Russell. All rights reserved.
//
#import "friendsListTableViewController.h"
#interface friendsListTableViewController ()
#end
#implementation friendsListTableViewController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
if (self) {
// Custom initialization
}
return self;
}
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
// Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
//USED TO CONNECT TO SERVERS XML
// NSData *xmlData = [[NSData alloc]initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"www.soontobesite.com"]];
//tbxml = [[TBXML alloc]initWithXMLData:xmlData];
NSString *xmlData = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"friendlist" ofType:#"xml"];
NSData *data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:xmlData];
tbxml = [[TBXML alloc]initWithXMLData:data];
//strings
// Obtain root element
TBXMLElement * root = tbxml.rootXMLElement;
if (root)
{
TBXMLElement * elem_PLANT = [TBXML childElementNamed:#"friend" parentElement:root];
while (elem_PLANT !=nil)
{
TBXMLElement * elem_BOTANICAL = [TBXML childElementNamed:#"fname" parentElement:elem_PLANT];
NSString *botanicalName = [TBXML textForElement:elem_BOTANICAL];
[friendList addObject:botanicalName];
elem_PLANT = [TBXML nextSiblingNamed:#"friend" searchFromElement:elem_PLANT]; //IF I CALL BREAKPOINT ON THIS LINE THE SIMULATOR BREAKS
}
//TBXMLElement *fname = [TBXML childElementNamed:#"fname" parentElement:elem_PLANT];
}
}
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
return 1;
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
return [friendList count];
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
// Configure the cell...
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
cell.textLabel.text = [friendList objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
return cell;
}
/*
// Override to support conditional editing of the table view.
- (BOOL)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView canEditRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
// Return NO if you do not want the specified item to be editable.
return YES;
}
*/
/*
// Override to support editing the table view.
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView commitEditingStyle:(UITableViewCellEditingStyle)editingStyle forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
if (editingStyle == UITableViewCellEditingStyleDelete) {
// Delete the row from the data source
[tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:#[indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
}
else if (editingStyle == UITableViewCellEditingStyleInsert) {
// Create a new instance of the appropriate class, insert it into the array, and add a new row to the table view
}
}
*/
/*
// Override to support rearranging the table view.
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView moveRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)fromIndexPath toIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)toIndexPath
{
}
*/
/*
// Override to support conditional rearranging of the table view.
- (BOOL)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView canMoveRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
// Return NO if you do not want the item to be re-orderable.
return YES;
}
*/
#pragma mark - Table view delegate
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
// Navigation logic may go here. Create and push another view controller.
/*
<#DetailViewController#> *detailViewController = [[<#DetailViewController#> alloc] initWithNibName:#"<#Nib name#>" bundle:nil];
// ...
// Pass the selected object to the new view controller.
[self.navigationController pushViewController:detailViewController animated:YES];
*/
}
#end
//EDIT//
I got a little further, thanks to some advice listed in the comments below before it wouldnt break at numberOfSectionsInTableView or numberOfRowsInSection but now it will break when i put a break on the numberOfSectionsInTableView or numberOfRowsInSection but still not the cellForRowAtIndexPath

Answer 1

You forgot to allocate the friendList instance variable. At the beginning of viewDidLoad (or even better in the initializer) do the following:
friendList = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithCapacity:0];
If friendList is not initialized it has a nil value. Sending a message to nil in Objective-C does not crash the application, it just does not do anything. Also see this SO question.
In your code, invoking [friendList addObject:botanicalName] simply does nothing. Later on, when you invoke [friendList count] in numberOfRowsInSection, you will return 0 (zero) to the table view. Since the table view thinks that there are no rows it will never call cellForRowAtIndexPath.