UITableView row animation duration and completion callback

Shortening Brent's fine answer, for at least iOS 7 you can wrap this all tersely in a [UIView animateWithDuration:delay:options:animations:completion:] call:

[UIView animateWithDuration:10 delay:0 options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseInOut animations:^{
  [self.tableView beginUpdates];
  [self.tableView endUpdates];
} completion:^(BOOL finished) {
  // completion code
}];

though, I can't seem to override the default animation curve from anything other than EaseInOut.

That's one hell of a useful trick! I wrote a UITableView extension to avoid writing CATransaction stuff all the time.

import UIKit

extension UITableView {

    /// Perform a series of method calls that insert, delete, or select rows and sections of the table view.
    /// This is equivalent to a beginUpdates() / endUpdates() sequence, 
    /// with a completion closure when the animation is finished.
    /// Parameter update: the update operation to perform on the tableView.
    /// Parameter completion: the completion closure to be executed when the animation is completed.
   
    func performUpdate(_ update: ()->Void, completion: (()->Void)?) {
    
        CATransaction.begin()
        CATransaction.setCompletionBlock(completion)

        // Table View update on row / section
        beginUpdates()
        update()
        endUpdates()
    
        CATransaction.commit()
    }

}

This is used like so:

// Insert in the tableView the section we just added in sections
self.tableView.performUpdate({
    self.tableView.insertSections([newSectionIndex], with: UITableViewRowAnimation.top)

}, completion: {
    // Scroll to next section
    let nextSectionIndexPath = IndexPath(row: 0, section: newSectionIndex)
    self.tableView.scrollToRow(at: nextSectionIndexPath, at: .top, animated: true)
})

Just came across this. Here's how to do it:

Objective-C

[CATransaction begin];
[tableView beginUpdates];
[CATransaction setCompletionBlock: ^{
    // Code to be executed upon completion
}];
[tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths: indexPaths
                 withRowAnimation: UITableViewRowAnimationAutomatic];
[tableView endUpdates];
[CATransaction commit];

Swift

CATransaction.begin()
tableView.beginUpdates()
CATransaction.setCompletionBlock {
    // Code to be executed upon completion
}
tableView.insertRowsAtIndexPaths(indexArray, withRowAnimation: .Top)
tableView.endUpdates()
CATransaction.commit()

Expanding on karwag's fine answer, note that on iOS 7, surrounding the CATransaction with a UIView Animation offers control of the table animation duration.

[UIView beginAnimations:@"myAnimationId" context:nil];

[UIView setAnimationDuration:10.0]; // Set duration here

[CATransaction begin];
[CATransaction setCompletionBlock:^{
    NSLog(@"Complete!");
}];

[myTable beginUpdates];
// my table changes
[myTable endUpdates];

[CATransaction commit];
[UIView commitAnimations];

The UIView animation's duration has no effect on iOS 6. Perhaps iOS 7 table animations are implemented differently, at the UIView level.