How to access all labels in my view controller programmatically - ios

Question

I am not sure is this even possible, but I will ask anyway.
This is my ViewController.h
#interface TBL_GameViewController : UIViewController
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *roundText;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *roundNumber;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *playerText;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *playerScore;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *computerText;
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *computerScore;
#end
And this is one method from .m file
- (void) lablesHiden:(BOOL)on
{
self.roundText.hidden = on;
self.roundNumber.hidden = on;
self.playerText.hidden = on;
self.playerScore.hidden = on;
self.computerText.hidden = on;
self.computerScore.hidden = on;
}
All this is working file.
Question
is the some way to a access all available labels in my view controller programmatically ?
Reason why I am asking this is:
I will have around 10 methods that will need access these labels, to change various properties (color, text, ...).
If tomorrow I add more label, I will also need add new label to all those methods and I would like to avoid that ?
UPDATE
I the end I used this approach
- (NSArray*) getAllLabels
{
NSArray *labels = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:self.roundText, self.roundNumber, self.playerText, self.playerScore, self.computerText, self.computerScore, nil];
return labels;
}
- (void) appear:(BOOL)on
{
for (UILabel *label in [self getAllLabels]) {
label.alpha = 0.0;
}
// more code
}

Answer 1

There absolutely is a way:
for (id label in self.view.subviews) {
if ([label isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
// do your stuff...
}
}

Answer 2

You get more granular control about which labels to address by using tags. This is also cleaner than doing class introspection.
For example:
#define kPlayer 100
#define kRound 200
#define kComputer 300
#define kText 10
#define kNumber 20
You assign tags e.g. in viewDidLoad like this:
roundText.tag = kRound + kText;
Now there is no need to iterate through all subviews (you just have one iteration per transaction).
for (int x = 100; x < 400; x += 100) {
for (int y = 10; y < 30; y += 10) {
UILabel *label = (UILabel*) [self.view viewWithTag:x+y];
// do something with label
}
}
You can see that you can very conveniently exclude certain labels if you need to.
Also, via KVC, all labels can be accessed like this:
[self.view.subviews filteredArrayUsingPredicate:
[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"tag > 99"]];