Setting UITextView height to a variable number of lines - ios

I have a a UITextView populated with a paragraph of text with variable height at runtime.
At runtime, how do I adjust the height of UITextView to the height of a variable number of lines (not necessarily equal to the number lines in the paragraph of text)?
For example:
Set UITextView to the height of 2 lines of text for some cases of text, then
Set UITextView to the height of 5 lines of text for other cases of text (with a scroll-bar to scroll for the other lines as is default behavior)
The analogue in CSS would be to set the view height to 2em if the text is "small", or to 5em if the text is "large", or in Android setting maxLines on a TextView at runtime.

you can use autolayout. first you create a height constraint for your UITextView. then you outlet this constraint to your controller. then you can manipulate height from controller anytime you like.
#IBOutlet weak var heightConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
heightConstraint.constant = 200 // or something else
}

Related

How can one set constraints to the title text such that it's size is relative to that of the superview using the Storyboard UI in "XCODE"?

I need to set constraints on the title text of my application such that the font size of the text is relative to that of the superview. This would help the text to vary with the screen size.
Found how to do so.
So what I did was:
I linked and made a variable for my title text by:
#IBOutlet weak var iXyloTitle: UILabel!
then what I did was, set the size of the title text relative to the superview ie: 0.031 to the size of the superview by:
iXyloTitle.font = iXyloTitle.font.withSize(self.view.frame.height * 0.031)

Cannot set dynamic height based on text

I have a textview within which is a label. The label gets texts of varying lengths from the server.
Now the texts from the server are displayed like so on my label (which is in a textview)
In order to increase the textview height as per the text in the label, I did this...
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
// Initialization code
incidentTextView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = true
incidentTextView.sizeToFit()
actionTextView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = true
actionTextView.sizeToFit()
submitByTextView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = true
submitByTextView.sizeToFit()
}
But this gives me the result as shown below..
How can I align the fields like the first image and yet have the height of the textview increased dynamically as per the text in the label..?
EDIT 1: I cannot see the scrolling option also for UIView..
You could use UILabel instead UITextView and just set numberOfLines = 0.
Make sure you used correct constraints to align UILable proper.

How to prevent UILabel to fill the entire screen?

I am trying to display a UILabel that may take up multiple lines but I'm having problem with how the height is resized.
Here is what it looks when I have text over a single line, displaying correctly:
When the text spans multiple lines however this happens:
Here's the interface builder settings I'm using:
Ideally I'd like the text view to remain at athe top of the screen and just take up as much space as it needs to diaplay the text but I really can't tell where I am going wrong.
The text view is a bit tricky to handle with automatic layout. If possible use an UILabel. If not then there are several issues with the text view and the most manageable solution is to add the height constraint which is then manipulated in the code.
The height of the text view content can be determined as:
let height = textView.sizeThatFits(textView.frame.size).height
It is also possible to use
let height = textView.contentSize.height
But the results are sometimes incorrect.
You do need to then set the delegate for the text view so that on change you will refresh the size of the text view.
Well you did give it permission to do so based on your constraints. Any height > 0 as long as it's 20 from the top margin. Since you don't have any other views to base your height off of you can hook up an outlet to your label and use this:
#IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewDidAppear(animated)
label.sizeToFit()
}
Uncheck the "Preferred Width" explicit checkbox(In Size Inspector)
Remove the height constraint on you UILabel.
It will definitely work.

Auto height UICollectionView

I am using UICollectionView and in it my cells have auto width based on the content(text size) e.g. first row might contain 8 items and 2nd row might contains only 1. This is working fine.
I want to set the height of my UICollectionView to show all the available items but not more(not the empty space at the bottom...). If I use auto layout than I have to set the height or bottom align constraint.
But in this way the height will be fixed. Is there any way I can get number of rows in and calculate height dynamically?
Here is what my story board look like:
You could use fixed height constraint at design time and than change it at runtime when deferred height value calculated. Height constraint need to be referenced in code and than needs to be changed with your calculated height.
// Height constraint of collection view
#IBOutlet weak var heightContstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
setHeightOfCollectionView()
}
func setHeightOfCollectionView() {
// Calculate height of collection view depending on collection item count
let calculatedHeight:CGFloat = 500.0
heightContstraint.constant = calculatedHeight
}
You should check the images below that demonstrate how to do.
Hope it would help.

How to easily collapse vertical space around label when its text is nil?

Suppose I have three labels that are laid out below each other in a column. The uppermost label's top edge is pinned to the superview's top edge. All following labels' top edges are pinned to the preceding label's bottom edge. The leading and trailing edges of all labels are pinned to the leading and trailing edge of the superview. Here's what it looks like in Interface Builder (I added a blue background on every label to visualize its extent).
In the simulator the result looks like this.
All labels are connected to outlets in a view controller.
#IBOutlet weak var label1: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var label2: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var label3: UILabel!
When I set the text of label2 to nil
label2.text = nil
the label itself collapses.
However, the top and bottom spaces around the label do not collapse. This is evident by the fact that there is no blue background on the middle label in the last screenshot. As a result, the space between label1 and label3 is double the space of the layout in the first screenshot.
My question is - on iOS8 - what is the easiest way to collapse either the middle label's top or bottom space so that the two remaining labels still use the vertical spacing defined in the original layout? To be clear, this is the result I want to achieve.
Options I've found so far:
Bottom/Top Spacing Constraint Outlet
Define an outlet for the middle label's top or bottom spacing constraint.
#IBOutlet weak var spacingConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
Store the constraint's initial constant into a variable (e.g. in awakeFromNib or viewDidLoad).
private var initialSpacing: CGFloat!
override func viewDidLoad() {
initialSpacing = spacingConstraint.constant
...
Set the constraint's constant to zero whenever the text is set to nil or back to its initial value when the text is not nil.
spacingConstraint.constant = label2.text == nil ? 0 : initialSpacing
This approach feels a bit clumsy since it requires two additional variables.
Height Constraint Outlet
Set the vertical spacing around the middle label to zero and increase its height by the same amount. Define an outlet for the height constraint and proceed as above, setting the height to zero when the text is nil and back to it's initial value when the height is not nil.
This is still as clumsy as the previous approach. In addition, you have to hardcode the spacing and cannot use the built-in default spacings (blank fields in Interface builder).
UIStackView
This is not an option since UIStackView is only available on iOS 9 and above.
I'm using this UIView category for this purpose.
It extends UIView by adding two more property named fd_collapsed and fd_collapsibleConstraints using objective-c runtime framework. You simply drag constraints that you want to be disabled when fd_collapsed property set to YES. Behind the scene, it captures the initial value of these constraints, then set to zero whenever fd_collapsed is YES. Reset to initial values when fd_collapsed is NO.
There is also another property called fd_autocollapsed
Not every view needs to add a width or height constraint, views like UILabel, UIImageView have their Intrinsic content size when they have content in it. For these views, we provide a Auto collapse property, when its content is gone, selected constraints will collapse automatically.
This property automatically sets fd_collapsed property to YES whenever specified view has content to display.
It's really simple to use. It's kinda shame that there is no builtin solution like that.
Your solutions are good enough for me and I'd do Bottom/Top Spacing Constraint Outlet solution but since you want something different. You can use this third party: https://github.com/orta/ORStackView It has iOS7+ support and do exactly what you need.
This is low-key a pain all perfectionist devs learn about when trying to stack a bunch of labels. Solutions can get too verbose, annoying to folow, and really annoying to implement (ie. keeping a reference to the top constraint... gets annoying once you do it multiple times, or just change the order of the labels)
Hopefully my code below puts an end to this:
class MyLabel: UILabel {
var topPadding: CGFloat = 0
override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {
var newRect = rect
newRect.origin.y += topPadding/2
super.drawText(in: newRect)
}
override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
var newIntrisicSize = super.intrinsicContentSize
guard newIntrisicSize != .zero else {
return .zero
}
newIntrisicSize.height += topPadding
return newIntrisicSize
}
}
Usage:
let label = MyLabel()
label.topPadding = 10
// then use autolayout to stack your labels with 0 offset
Granted, its only for top padding, but that should be the only thing you need to layout your labels properly. It works great with or without autolayout. Also its a big plus not needing to do any extra mental gymnastics just to do something so simple. Enjoy!

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