How do I set adaptive multiline UILabel text? - ios

Question

I have a UILabel named titleLabel in my storyboard nib set to its default height. I want it to programatically expand in height to fit it's content. Here is what I have tried so far:
// just setting content
titleLabel.text = "You don't always know what you are getting with mass-market cloud computing services. But with SimpliCompute, the picture is clear. SimpliCompute gives you powerful virtual servers you can deploy using just your web browser. That’s enterprise grade technology you can deploy and control on-the-fly."
titleLabel.numberOfLines = 0
titleLabel.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = 700
titleLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.ByWordWrapping
titleLabel.sizeToFit()
None of this works for me in any combination! I always only see one line of text in my UILabel. What am I doing wrong?
I absolutely need the text content to be variable.

Answer 1

I kind of got things working by adding auto layout constraints:
But I am not happy with this. Took a lot of trial and error and couldn't understand why this worked.
Also I had to add to use titleLabel.numberOfLines = 0 in my ViewController

Answer 2

I know it's a bit old but since I recently looked into it :
let l = UILabel()
l.numberOfLines = 0
l.lineBreakMode = .ByWordWrapping
l.text = "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH"
l.frame.size.width = 300
l.sizeToFit()
First set the numberOfLines property to 0 so that the device understands you don't care how many lines it needs.
Then specify your favorite BreakMode
Then the width needs to be set before sizeToFit() method. Then the label knows it must fit in the specified width

Answer 3

This is much better approach if you are looking for multiline dynamic text label which exactly takes the space based on its text.
No sizeToFit, preferredMaxLayoutWidth used
Below is how it will work.
Lets set up the project. Take a Single View application and in Storyboard Add a UILabel and a UIButton. Define constraints to UILabel as below snapshot:
Set the Label properties as below image:
Add the constraints to the UIButton. Make sure that vertical spacing of 100 is between UILabel and UIButton
Now set the priority of the trailing constraint of UILabel as 749
Now set the Horizontal Content Hugging and Horizontal Content Compression properties of UILabel as 750 and 748
Below is my controller class. You have to connect UILabel property and Button action from storyboard to viewcontroller class.
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var textLabel: UILabel!
var count = 0
let items = ["jackson is not any more in this world", "Jonny jonny yes papa eating sugar no papa", "Ab", "What you do is what will happen to you despite of all measures taken to reverse the phenonmenon of the nature"]
#IBAction func updateLabelText(sender: UIButton) {
if count > 3 {
count = 0
}
textLabel.text = items[count]
count = count + 1
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
//self.textLabel.sizeToFit()
//self.textLabel.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = 500
}
override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
// Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}
}
Thats it. This will automatically resize the UILabel based on its content and also you can see the UIButton is also adjusted accordingly.

Answer 4

It should work. Try this
var label:UILabel = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(10
,100, 300, 40));
label.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center;
label.numberOfLines = 0;
label.font = UIFont.systemFontOfSize(16.0);
label.text = "First label\nsecond line";
self.view.addSubview(label);

Answer 5

With Graphical User Interface (GUI) in Xcode, you can do the following:
Go to "Attribute Inspector" and set Lines value to 0. By default, it is set to 1.
The Label text can be written in multi-line by hitting option + return.
Now, go to "Size Inspector" and set the width, height, X & Y position of the Label.
That's all.

Answer 6

Programmatically, Swift
label.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.byWordWrapping
label.titleView.numberOfLines = 2

Answer 7

Programmatically in Swift 5 with Xcode 10.2
Building on top of #La masse's solution, but using autolayout to support rotation
Set anchors for the view's position (left, top, centerY, centerX, etc). You can also set the width anchor or set the frame.width dynamically with the UIScreen extension provided (to support rotation)
label = UILabel()
label.numberOfLines = 0
label.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
self.view.addSubview(label)
// SET AUTOLAYOUT ANCHORS
label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
label.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.view.leftAnchor, constant: 20).isActive = true
label.rightAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.view.rightAnchor, constant: -20).isActive = true
label.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.view.topAnchor, constant: 20).isActive = true
// OPTIONALLY, YOU CAN USE THIS INSTEAD OF THE WIDTH ANCHOR (OR LEFT/RIGHT)
// label.frame.size = CGSize(width: UIScreen.absoluteWidth() - 40.0, height: 0)
label.text = "YOUR LONG TEXT GOES HERE"
label.sizeToFit()
If setting frame.width dynamically using UIScreen:
extension UIScreen { // OPTIONAL IF USING A DYNAMIC FRAME WIDTH
class func absoluteWidth() -> CGFloat {
var width: CGFloat
if UIScreen.main.bounds.width > UIScreen.main.bounds.height {
width = self.main.bounds.height // Landscape
} else {
width = self.main.bounds.width // Portrait
}
return width
}
}

Answer 8

extension UILabel {
var textSize: CGSize { text?.size(withAttributes: [.font: font!]) ?? .zero }
func setSizeForText(_ str: String, maxWidth: CGFloat) {
text = str
let dividedByMaxWidth = Int(textSize.width / maxWidth)
if dividedByMaxWidth == 0 {
frame.size = textSize
} else {
numberOfLines = dividedByMaxWidth + 1
frame.size = CGSize(width: maxWidth, height: frame.size.height * CGFloat(numberOfLines))
sizeToFit()
}
}
}
sizeToFit() in the end will shrink the label's width to the widest line after word break

Answer 9

This has worked for me:
Set the numberOfLines property of UILabel to 0
add this line: yourLabel.sizeToFit() after assigning text to the UILabel