How do you have an Activity Indicator show up before your table view loads?

You first need an outlet of the activity indicator connected in your code. Suppose the outlet of the activity indicator is called "activityInidicator" And the table view is called "tableView"

override func viewDidLoad() {
         super.viewDidLoad
         self.activityIndicator.hidden = false
         self.tableView.hidden = true
         self.activityIndicator.startAnimating();
}

At the place you want to show the table, add the following code

self.activityIndicator.hidden = true
self.tableView.hidden = false
self.activityIndicator.stopAnimating
self.tableView.reloadData();

Try dragging the Activity Indicator View onto the "View." On your Storyboard, there (should be) a View object with your Table View as a child. Drag the Activity Indicator in and make sure it's also a child of the main View.

If you place the Activity indicator as a child of the Table View, if you were to hide the table view, the Activity Indicator would hide along with it.

You can also save a line of code to hide and show the indicator by setting "Hides when stopped" in Interface Builder.

Ah- so you're trying to add it into a ViewController that is a TableViewController -

OK- well, adding anything that is related to a UIView should not be added to the table view directly, but should be placed in a header or footer. read up on viewForHeaderInSection, viewForFooterInSection, etc.

Or I find the most flexible thing to do is NOT start off with a UITableViewController, but a basic UIViewController. Then modify the class file and add the TableView stuff:

class MyViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate { 
... code
}

Add a TableView into that ViewController's View- along with whatever else you want to add in.

You could even add the Activity Indicator programmatically- something like:

let myIndicator:UIActivityIndicatorView = UIActivityIndicatorView (activityIndicatorStyle: UIActivityIndicatorViewStyle.Gray)
myIndicator.center = self.view.center
self.view.addSubview(myIndicator)
myIndicator.bringSubviewToFront(self.view)
myIndicator.startAnimating()

Sorry if this is rambling- or confusing- hopefully it helps.