Select tableview row programmatically

From reference documentation:

Calling this method does not cause the delegate to receive a tableView:willSelectRowAtIndexPath: or tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath: message, nor does it send UITableViewSelectionDidChangeNotification notifications to observers.

What I would do is:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    [self doSomethingWithRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
}

And then, from where you wanted to call selectRowAtIndexPath, you instead call doSomethingWithRowAtIndexPath. On top of that, you can additionally also call selectRowAtIndexPath if you want the UI feedback to happen.

UITableView's selectRowAtIndexPath:animated:scrollPosition: should do the trick.

Just pass UITableViewScrollPositionNone for scrollPosition and the user won't see any movement.

You should also be able to manually run the action:

[theTableView.delegate tableView:theTableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]

after you selectRowAtIndexPath:animated:scrollPosition: so the highlight happens as well as any associated logic.