How to make a group of labels to align themselves in iOS? - ios

Question

Im relatively new to iOS development, and my constraints skill is at a basic level. I'm having a group of labels like so
However the Company Name and Address Line 2 are not always required so they are hidden in some cases, but when they are I don't know how to push the other labels up so that they fill the space created by the hidden labels.
Much appreciated if you guys can give a solution on this.

Answer 1

HI Joel why don't you try stack view inside table view cell and set
tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 44.0
tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
and stackview and tableview will handle everything for you.

Answer 2

If you are using constraints then for instance the top label should have leading, trailing and top to superview.
Now this label will have its height depending on its font and text. If its text is empty then its height will be zero which you basically want.
Now next label is best to have leading and trailing to superview (or the label above it) and then vertical spacing to label before it. This means it will be just below the first one. And if first one has no text it will be on top.
Now do the same for all other labels one blow the other using vertical offset constraint.
Note for what you are doing it seems more appropriate to use an UITableView or maybe stack view. But if you want constraints then this is the procedure.
If things get complicated you can also drag constraints into your code and manipulate them manually.. For instance:
self.companyNameHeightConstraint.constant = myDataMode.companyName.isEmpty == true ? 0.0 : 50.0
EDIT: Since it is a bit unclear if fields are displayed depending on some external flags or if these strings are shown if they exist I am adding a minimum table view procedure with external flags:
#interface TableViewController () <UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource>
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *name;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *lastName;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *companyName;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *address1;
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *address2;
#property (nonatomic, readonly) BOOL isAddress2Shown;
#property (nonatomic, readonly) BOOL isCompanyNameShown;
#end
#implementation TableViewController
- (NSArray *)generateDsiaplyableStrings {
NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
if(self.name) [array addObject:self.name];
if(self.lastName) [array addObject:self.lastName];
if(self.companyName && self.isCompanyNameShown) [array addObject:self.companyName];
if(self.address1) [array addObject:self.address1];
if(self.address2 && self.isAddress2Shown) [array addObject:self.address2];
return array;
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
return [self generateDsiaplyableStrings].count;
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
NSArray *items = [self generateDsiaplyableStrings];
UITableViewCell *cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleValue1 reuseIdentifier:nil];
cell.textLabel.text = items[indexPath.row];
return cell;
}
#end