Q:

Can a property of a UITableView be the UITableView Delegate and DataSource

I have a custom view that's a bit of a hack. Basically it's a UIView with tableView as it's property, with additional views in the tableView that need their own delegates. I need a viewController for the UITableView and can't make the UIView it's delegate according to this SO link Custom UIView as UITableView delegate and datasource?. 
Can I make the UITableView have a property of UIViewController and set that UIViewController as the tableView's delegate? 
In this case according to OOP, the UITableView has a UIViewController so technically, I could expect this to work. But, I am wondering if down the line somewhere this could create problems since the UITableView and UIViewController are coupled in this way. 

A:

You don't need a UIViewController for the UITableView - you just need an object or objects that implement the  data source and a delegate protocols.  As per the accepted answer on the question you linked to you can use a separate controller class to provide this.
The right answer depends a little on how the table is used with your UIView subclass.  
If the table will always have the same content (Say a list of months) and there is no value in exposing or abstracting the properties then you can code the delegate and dataSource inside your UIView subclass or in an assistant class. 
If the table content will vary depending on how the UIView is used (say a list of people where you don't know what the list is - friends, relatives, employees...) then it would make sense to simply expose the tableview's datasource (and delegate if necessary) properties via your UIView subclass

