Customize Segmented Control or ..?

Question

Screenshot from twitter

I want this type of segmented control in Swift 4. I've researched Apple Documents but I couldn't find some of things which are I need such as removing borders, removing cornerRadius etc. How can I customize Segmented Control like Twitter's ? Or is there any another tab/segment solution ? Thanks.

Answer 1

Here is how to customize the UISegmentedControl to display a bottom border when it is selected:

• Create a container view for the segmented control and pin it with Auto Layout to its super view.
• Add a segmented control to the container view as a subview, and pin it with Auto Layout to the container view's edges.
• Create a bottom underline view, add it as a subview to the container view, and apply Auto Layout to it (see example implementation).
• Then set up an event listener: on the segmented control's value changed event, change the origin of the bottom underline view so that it is moved below the selected segment.
• I also added some code on how to format the segmented control labels' font and text color, see it in the example below.

This is how it will look like:

Example implementation where the container and segmented control views are created programmatically:

Swift 4.2:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    private enum Constants {
        static let segmentedControlHeight: CGFloat = 40
        static let underlineViewColor: UIColor = .blue
        static let underlineViewHeight: CGFloat = 2
    }

    // Container view of the segmented control
    private lazy var segmentedControlContainerView: UIView = {
        let containerView = UIView()
        containerView.backgroundColor = .clear
        containerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return containerView
    }()

    // Customised segmented control
    private lazy var segmentedControl: UISegmentedControl = {
        let segmentedControl = UISegmentedControl()

        // Remove background and divider colors
        segmentedControl.backgroundColor = .clear
        segmentedControl.tintColor = .clear

        // Append segments
        segmentedControl.insertSegment(withTitle: "First", at: 0, animated: true)
        segmentedControl.insertSegment(withTitle: "Second", at: 1, animated: true)
        segmentedControl.insertSegment(withTitle: "Third", at: 2, animated: true)

        // Select first segment by default
        segmentedControl.selectedSegmentIndex = 0

        // Change text color and the font of the NOT selected (normal) segment
        segmentedControl.setTitleTextAttributes([
            NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.black,
            NSAttributedStringKey.font: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 16, weight: .regular)], for: .normal)

        // Change text color and the font of the selected segment
        segmentedControl.setTitleTextAttributes([
            NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.blue,
            NSAttributedStringKey.font: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 16, weight: .bold)], for: .selected)

        // Set up event handler to get notified when the selected segment changes
        segmentedControl.addTarget(self, action: #selector(segmentedControlValueChanged), for: .valueChanged)

        // Return false because we will set the constraints with Auto Layout
        segmentedControl.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return segmentedControl
    }()

    // The underline view below the segmented control
    private lazy var bottomUnderlineView: UIView = {
        let underlineView = UIView()
        underlineView.backgroundColor = Constants.underlineViewColor
        underlineView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return underlineView
    }()

    private lazy var leadingDistanceConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint = {
        return bottomUnderlineView.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControl.leftAnchor)
    }()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // Add subviews to the view hierarchy
        // (both segmentedControl and bottomUnderlineView are subviews of the segmentedControlContainerView)
        view.addSubview(segmentedControlContainerView)
        segmentedControlContainerView.addSubview(segmentedControl)
        segmentedControlContainerView.addSubview(bottomUnderlineView)

        // Constrain the container view to the view controller
        let safeLayoutGuide = self.view.safeAreaLayoutGuide
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            segmentedControlContainerView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: safeLayoutGuide.topAnchor),
            segmentedControlContainerView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: safeLayoutGuide.leadingAnchor),
            segmentedControlContainerView.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: safeLayoutGuide.widthAnchor),
            segmentedControlContainerView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: Constants.segmentedControlHeight)
            ])

        // Constrain the segmented control to the container view
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            segmentedControl.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControlContainerView.topAnchor),
            segmentedControl.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControlContainerView.leadingAnchor),
            segmentedControl.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControlContainerView.centerXAnchor),
            segmentedControl.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControlContainerView.centerYAnchor)
            ])

        // Constrain the underline view relative to the segmented control
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            bottomUnderlineView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControl.bottomAnchor),
            bottomUnderlineView.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: Constants.underlineViewHeight),
            leadingDistanceConstraint,
            bottomUnderlineView.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: segmentedControl.widthAnchor, multiplier: 1 / CGFloat(segmentedControl.numberOfSegments))
            ])
    }

    @objc private func segmentedControlValueChanged(_ sender: UISegmentedControl) {
        changeSegmentedControlLinePosition()
    }

    // Change position of the underline
    private func changeSegmentedControlLinePosition() {
        let segmentIndex = CGFloat(segmentedControl.selectedSegmentIndex)
        let segmentWidth = segmentedControl.frame.width / CGFloat(segmentedControl.numberOfSegments)
        let leadingDistance = segmentWidth * segmentIndex
        UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.3, animations: { [weak self] in
            self?.leadingDistanceConstraint.constant = leadingDistance
            self?.layoutIfNeeded()
        })
    }

}