Ask a novice question about the method's return type / state

- (NSInteger) tableView: (UITableView *) tableView numberOfRowsInSection: (NSInteger) section {
return [self.dataController countOfList];
}

This method name is numberOfRowsInSection,
Brother expressed method is used to return a string of the front part of marking do not understand what this means
Reply:
The name of the method called tableView: numberOfRowsInSection:
Note that the two colons, which is objective-c syntax
Reply:
The method begins with tableView (table operations agent function) there are many,
Author here is tableView (large classification) under the premise of emphasis on this numberOfRowsInSection (subcategories) function.
Understand the author's meaning like, without deduction of those few words.