reloadData() of UITableView with Dynamic cell heights causes jumpy scrolling

I feel like this might be a common issue and was wondering if there was any common solution to it.

Basically, my UITableView has dynamic cell heights for every cell. If I am not at the top of the UITableView and I tableView.reloadData(), scrolling up becomes jumpy.

I believe this is due to the fact that because I reloaded data, as I'm scrolling up, the UITableView is recalculating the height for each cell coming into visibility. How do I mitigate that, or how do I only reloadData from a certain IndexPath to the end of the UITableView?

Further, when I do manage to scroll all the way to the top, I can scroll back down and then up, no problem with no jumping. This is most likely because the UITableViewCell heights were already calculated.

To prevent jumping you should save heights of cells when they loads and give exact value in tableView:estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath:

Swift:

var cellHeights = [IndexPath: CGFloat]()

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplay cell: UITableViewCell, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    cellHeights[indexPath] = cell.frame.size.height
}

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, estimatedHeightForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> CGFloat {
    return cellHeights[indexPath] ?? UITableView.automaticDimension
}

Objective C:

// declare cellHeightsDictionary
NSMutableDictionary *cellHeightsDictionary = @{}.mutableCopy;

// declare table dynamic row height and create correct constraints in cells
tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension;

// save height
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    [cellHeightsDictionary setObject:@(cell.frame.size.height) forKey:indexPath];
}

// give exact height value
- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    NSNumber *height = [cellHeightsDictionary objectForKey:indexPath];
    if (height) return height.doubleValue;
    return UITableViewAutomaticDimension;
}

Swift 3 version of accepted answer.

var cellHeights: [IndexPath : CGFloat] = [:]


func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplay cell: UITableViewCell, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    cellHeights[indexPath] = cell.frame.size.height
}

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, estimatedHeightForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> CGFloat {
    return cellHeights[indexPath] ?? 70.0 
}

The jump is because of a bad estimated height. The more the estimatedRowHeight differs from the actual height the more the table may jump when it is reloaded especially the further down it has been scrolled. This is because the table's estimated size radically differs from its actual size, forcing the table to adjust its content size and offset. So the estimated height shouldn't be a random value but close to what you think the height is going to be. I have also experienced when i set UITableViewAutomaticDimension if your cells are same type then

func viewDidLoad() {
     super.viewDidLoad()
     tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 100//close to your cell height
}

if you have variety of cells in different sections then I think the better place is

func tableView(tableView: UITableView, estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
     //return different sizes for different cells if you need to
     return 100
}