How to create UILabel programmatically using Swift?
How do I create a UILabel
programmatically using Swift in Xcode 6?
I have started with a new "Single View Application" in Xcode 6 and selected Swift for this project. I have my files AppDelegate.swift
and ViewController.swift
and I'm not sure what to do from here.
Creating a UILabel programmatically in Swift 3+:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let label = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 21))
label.center = CGPoint(x: 160, y: 285)
label.textAlignment = .center
label.text = "I'm a test label"
self.view.addSubview(label)
}
Here is the correct code for Swift 3, with comments for instructional purposes:
override func viewDidLoad()
{
super.viewDidLoad()
// CGRectMake has been deprecated - and should be let, not var
let label = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 21))
// you will probably want to set the font (remember to use Dynamic Type!)
label.font = UIFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .footnote)
// and set the text color too - remember good contrast
label.textColor = .black
// may not be necessary (e.g., if the width & height match the superview)
// if you do need to center, CGPointMake has been deprecated, so use this
label.center = CGPoint(x: 160, y: 284)
// this changed in Swift 3 (much better, no?)
label.textAlignment = .center
label.text = "I am a test label"
self.view.addSubview(label)
}
Just to add onto the already great answers, you might want to add multiple labels in your project so doing all of this (setting size, style etc) will be a pain. To solve this, you can create a separate UILabel class.
import UIKit
class MyLabel: UILabel {
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
initializeLabel()
}
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame: frame)
initializeLabel()
}
func initializeLabel() {
self.textAlignment = .left
self.font = UIFont(name: "Halvetica", size: 17)
self.textColor = UIColor.white
}
}
To use it, do the following
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
var myLabel: MyLabel()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
myLabel = MyLabel(frame: CGRect(x: self.view.frame.size.width / 2, y: self.view.frame.size.height / 2, width: 100, height: 20))
self.view.addSubView(myLabel)
}
}
Swift 4.X and Xcode 10
let lbl = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 50, width: 230, height: 21))
lbl.textAlignment = .center //For center alignment
lbl.text = "This is my label fdsjhfg sjdg dfgdfgdfjgdjfhg jdfjgdfgdf end..."
lbl.textColor = .white
lbl.backgroundColor = .lightGray//If required
lbl.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 17)
//To display multiple lines in label
lbl.numberOfLines = 0 //If you want to display only 2 lines replace 0(Zero) with 2.
lbl.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping //Word Wrap
// OR
lbl.lineBreakMode = .byCharWrapping //Charactor Wrap
lbl.sizeToFit()//If required
yourView.addSubview(lbl)
If you have multiple labels in your class use extension to add properties.
//Label 1
let lbl1 = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 50, width: 230, height: 21))
lbl1.text = "This is my label fdsjhfg sjdg dfgdfgdfjgdjfhg jdfjgdfgdf end..."
lbl1.myLabel()//Call this function from extension to all your labels
view.addSubview(lbl1)
//Label 2
let lbl2 = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 150, width: 230, height: 21))
lbl2.text = "This is my label fdsjhfg sjdg dfgdfgdfjgdjfhg jdfjgdfgdf end..."
lbl2.myLabel()//Call this function from extension to all your labels
view.addSubview(lbl2)
extension UILabel {
func myLabel() {
textAlignment = .center
textColor = .white
backgroundColor = .lightGray
font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 17)
numberOfLines = 0
lineBreakMode = .byCharWrapping
sizeToFit()
}
}