Xcode 11: Safe Area code implementation using Objective-C not working - ios

Question

I am new to iOS application development and I am currently working on an existing iOS application written using Objective-C. I came across a requirement where I need to implement Safe Area programmatically. So I have implemented the following piece of code in "viewDidLoad" method.
if(#available(iOS 11, *)){
UILayoutGuide * guide = self.view.safeAreaLayoutGuide;
[self.view.leadingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.leadingAnchor].active = YES;
[self.view.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
[self.view.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.topAnchor].active = YES;
[self.view.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.bottomAnchor].active = YES;
}else{
UILayoutGuide * margins = self.view.layoutMarginsGuide;
[self.view.leadingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:margins.leadingAnchor].active = YES;
[self.view.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:margins.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
[self.view.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.topLayoutGuide.bottomAnchor].active = YES;
[self.view.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.bottomLayoutGuide.topAnchor].active = YES;
}
But, when I try to run the application connecting to iPhone XR iOS Simulator device, the above code is not working. The view is not getting started after the safe area in landscape mode instead it is getting started from the safe area itself due to which the text is getting cut off
Am I missing anything? Can you please suggest on what needs to be done so that the safe area can be implemented?

Answer 1

What UI element are you trying to layout in your view? You mention text is getting cut off. The code you provided is setting the anchor from the view to itself and not to the UI element. Update your code to set the anchors of the UI element to the view.
UITextField *textField; // Your text UI element
UILayoutGuide * guide = self.view.safeAreaLayoutGuide;
[textField.leadingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.leadingAnchor].active = YES;
[textField.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.trailingAnchor].active = YES;
[textField.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.topAnchor].active = YES;
[textField.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:guide.bottomAnchor].active = YES;

Answer 2

I'd recommend you to use
constraintEqualToSystemSpacingAfterAnchor: multiplier:
and
constraintEqualToSystemSpacingBelowAnchor: multiplier:
instead of
constraintEqualToAnchor:
Also I'd recommend you to try setting translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints to NO manually:
textField.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
The full code:
UITextField *textField = [[UITextField alloc] init];
textField.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
[self.view addSubview:textField];
if (#available(iOS 11, *)) {
UILayoutGuide * guide = self.view.safeAreaLayoutGuide;
[textField.leadingAnchor constraintEqualToSystemSpacingAfterAnchor:guide.leadingAnchor
multiplier:1.0].active = YES;
[textField.trailingAnchor constraintEqualToSystemSpacingAfterAnchor:guide.trailingAnchor
multiplier:-1.0].active = YES;
[textField.topAnchor constraintEqualToSystemSpacingBelowAnchor:guide.topAnchor
multiplier:1.0].active = YES;
[textField.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToSystemSpacingBelowAnchor:guide.bottomAnchor
multiplier:1.0].active = YES;
} else {
// ...
}