Swift - Programmatically create and display UIPickerView when BarButtonItem is pressed - ios

Question

Initially I wanted to add a hidden UIPickerView onto the Main.storyboard alongside my existing UISearchBar and when a BarButtonItem is clicked, the UIPickerView should be displayed; but it appears I cannot have them both at once in a given space.
So instead, my best alternative was to create it programmatically. I've followed existing tutorials (http://sourcefreeze.com/ios-uipickerview-example-using-swift/) and similar questions (Programmatically Create and Show UIPickerView) and seems like I do (?) have a UIPickerView as the description of it is being printed and I get the following:
<UIPickerView: 0x7f86425b1fb0; frame = (100 100; 100 162); layer = <CALayer: 0x7f8642543a20>>
Here is part of my current code which may be of help:
AnimalTableViewController.swift
import UIKit
class AnimalTableViewController: UITableViewController, UINavigationControllerDelegate, UISearchBarDelegate, UISearchDisplayDelegate, UISearchResultsUpdating, UIPickerViewDelegate, UIPickerViewDataSource {
#IBOutlet var segmentedSortOption: UISegmentedControl!
var array : NSArray = Animal.animalStruct.jsonResult["animal"] as NSArray
var filteredArray = [[String:AnyObject]]()
var timer = NSTimer()
var counter:Int = 1
var typePickerView: UIPickerView = UIPickerView()
#IBOutlet var typeBarButton: UIBarButtonItem!
var resultSearchController = UISearchController()
var indexArray:String!
#IBAction func refresh(sender: AnyObject) {
self.tableView.reloadData()
println("refreshed")
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.typePickerView.hidden = true
self.typePickerView.dataSource = self
self.typePickerView.delegate = self
self.typePickerView.frame = CGRectMake(100, 100, 100, 162)
self.typePickerView.backgroundColor = UIColor.blackColor()
self.typePickerView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.whiteColor().CGColor
self.typePickerView.layer.borderWidth = 1
timer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(0.2, target: self, selector: Selector("result"), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)
self.resultSearchController = ({
let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
controller.searchResultsUpdater = self
controller.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
controller.searchBar.sizeToFit()
self.tableView.tableHeaderView = controller.searchBar
return controller
})()
}
func numberOfComponentsInPickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView) -> Int {
return 1
}
func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, numberOfRowsInComponent component: Int) -> Int {
return array.count
}
func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, titleForRow row: Int, forComponent component: Int) -> String! {
return array[row]["type1"] as String
}
func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, didSelectRow row: Int, inComponent component: Int) {
typeBarButton.title = array[row]["type1"] as? String
typePickerView.hidden = false
}
func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, widthForComponent component: Int) -> CGFloat {
return 36.0
}
func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, rowHeightForComponent component: Int) -> CGFloat {
return 36.0
}
#IBAction func typePickerViewSelected(sender: AnyObject) {
typePickerView.hidden = false
println(typePickerView.description)
}
}
Please could you help me display the programmatically created UIPickerView when the BarButtonItem is pressed? If you have any more questions, please do ask.
Many thanks.

Answer 1

You never add the pickerView as a subview of the ViewController, which you can do in viewDidLoad() since you're hiding it. Then when you unhide it your view should be there.
EDIT: Added Code
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.typePickerView.hidden = true
//other pickerView code like dataSource and delegate
self.view.addSubview(pickerView) //will add the subview to the view hierarchy
}
With the above code, now when you unhide it on button press the view will show up.