Get search bar in navigation bar in Swift - ios

Question

So I've tried everything trying to get a search bar into the navigation bar in Swift. But sadly I haven't gotten it working, just yet...
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I'm trying to do something like this
Note the search bar in the navigation bar. So here's what I'm currently using
self.searchDisplayController?.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = true
I popped that in my viewDidLoad, and then when I load up the app I'm presented with, just an empty navigation bar.... :( Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try this
let leftNavBarButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView:Yoursearchbar)
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = leftNavBarButton
Update
You keep a lazy UISearchBar property
lazy var searchBar:UISearchBar = UISearchBar(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 20))
In viewDidLoad
searchBar.placeholder = "Your placeholder"
var leftNavBarButton = UIBarButtonItem(customView:searchBar)
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = leftNavBarButton
If you want to use storyboard
just drag your searchbar as a outlet,then replace the lazy property with your outlet searchbar

Answer 2

// create the search bar programatically since you won't be
// able to drag one onto the navigation bar
searchBar = UISearchBar()
searchBar.sizeToFit()
// the UIViewController comes with a navigationItem property
// this will automatically be initialized for you if when the
// view controller is added to a navigation controller's stack
// you just need to set the titleView to be the search bar
navigationItem.titleView = searchBar

Answer 3

Swift 5, XCode 11, Storyboard way so you can easily add all the search bar attributes through the storyboard and you have less code in your view controller class.
1.) Add your search bar view as external view in viewcontroller.
2.) Connect searchBarView to you viewcontroller.
3.) Add your searchBarView to your navigationBar title item.
navigationItem.titleView = searchBarView
Result:

Answer 4

In your view controller:
lazy var searchBar = UISearchBar(frame: CGRectZero)
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
searchBar.placeholder = "Search"
navigationItem.titleView = searchBar
}
Doing it this way, by setting the navigationItem.titleView, the search bar is automatically centered across the iPhone and iPad devices. Note: only tested with v8.4 and v9.0
for SWIFT 3
lazy var searchBar = UISearchBar(frame: CGRect.zero)

Answer 5

In 2019, you should use UISearchController.
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self.viewModel
searchController.obscuresBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
searchController.searchBar.placeholder = "Search artists"
self.navigationItem.searchController = searchController
self.definesPresentationContext = true
}
And some class should conform to UISearchResultsUpdating. I usually add this as extension to my ViewModel.
extension ArtistSearchViewModel: UISearchResultsUpdating {
func updateSearchResults(for searchController: UISearchController) {
print("Searching with: " + (searchController.searchBar.text ?? ""))
let searchText = (searchController.searchBar.text ?? "")
self.currentSearchText = searchText
search()
}
}
This will spawn something like this:

Answer 6

For iOS 11 and above
navigationItem.searchController = searchController
For iOS 10 and below
navigationItem.titleView = searchController.searchBar;
or you can assign it as leftBarButtonItem as described in this answer

Answer 7

For Swift 5 or letter
also, you can use this code. Fully Programmatically
import UIKit
class SearchTableViewController: UITableViewController {
private lazy var searchController: UISearchController = {
let sc = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
sc.searchResultsUpdater = self
sc.delegate = self
sc.obscuresBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
sc.searchBar.placeholder = "Enter A Compiny Name Or Symbole"
sc.searchBar.autocapitalizationType = .allCharacters
return sc
}()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
setupNavigationBar()
}
private func setupNavigationBar() {
navigationItem.searchController = searchController
}
}
// MARK: - UISearchResult Updating and UISearchControllerDelegate Extension
extension SearchTableViewController: UISearchResultsUpdating, UISearchControllerDelegate {
func updateSearchResults(for searchController: UISearchController) {
}
}

Answer 8

let searchBar = UISearchBar()
searchBar.sizeToFit()
searchBar.placeholder = ""
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.topItem?.titleView = searchBar

Answer 9

func searchBarSearchButtonClicked(_ searchBar: UISearchBar) {
searchBar.endEditing(true)
searchBar.text = nil
print("## search btn clicked : \(searchBar.text ?? "")")
}

Answer 10

Setting SearchBar as titleView, changes height of navigationBar to 56. To fix this, you can embed searchBar in view and set that as titleView.
var offset: CGFloat = 20
// If VC is pushed, back button should be visible
if navigationController?.navigationBar.backItem != nil {
offset = 40
}
let customFrame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: view.frame.size.width - offset, height: 44.0)
let searchBarContainer = UIView(frame: customFrame)
searchBar = UISearchBar(frame: customFrame)
searchBarContainer.addSubview(searchBar)
navigationItem.titleView = searchBarContainer