How to find topmost view controller on iOS

Question

I think you need a combination of the accepted answer and @fishstix's

+ (UIViewController*) topMostController
{
    UIViewController *topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    return topController;
}

Swift 3.0+

func topMostController() -> UIViewController? {
    guard let window = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow, let rootViewController = window.rootViewController else {
        return nil
    }

    var topController = rootViewController

    while let newTopController = topController.presentedViewController {
        topController = newTopController
    }

    return topController
}

To complete JonasG's answer (who left out tab bar controllers while traversing), here is my version of returning the currently visible view controller:

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)rootViewController {
    if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navigationController = (UINavigationController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navigationController.visibleViewController];
    } else if (rootViewController.presentedViewController) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    } else {
        return rootViewController;
    }
}

iOS 4 introduced the rootViewController property on UIWindow:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

You'll need to set it yourself after you create the view controller though.

A complete non-recursive version, taking care of different scenarios:

• The view controller is presenting another view
• The view controller is a UINavigationController
• The view controller is a UITabBarController

Objective-C

 UIViewController *topViewController = self.window.rootViewController;
 while (true)
 {
     if (topViewController.presentedViewController) {
         topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
         UINavigationController *nav = (UINavigationController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = nav.topViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
         UITabBarController *tab = (UITabBarController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = tab.selectedViewController;
     } else {
         break;
     }
 }

Swift 4+

extension UIWindow {
    func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        var top = self.rootViewController
        while true {
            if let presented = top?.presentedViewController {
                top = presented
            } else if let nav = top as? UINavigationController {
                top = nav.visibleViewController
            } else if let tab = top as? UITabBarController {
                top = tab.selectedViewController
            } else {
                break
            }
        }
        return top
    }
}

Getting top most view controller for Swift using extensions

Code:

extension UIViewController {
    @objc func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        // Handling Modal views
        if let presentedViewController = self.presentedViewController {
            return presentedViewController.topMostViewController()
        }
        // Handling UIViewController's added as subviews to some other views.
        else {
            for view in self.view.subviews
            {
                // Key property which most of us are unaware of / rarely use.
                if let subViewController = view.next {
                    if subViewController is UIViewController {
                        let viewController = subViewController as! UIViewController
                        return viewController.topMostViewController()
                    }
                }
            }
            return self
        }
    }
}

extension UITabBarController {
    override func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        return self.selectedViewController!.topMostViewController()
    }
}

extension UINavigationController {
    override func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        return self.visibleViewController!.topMostViewController()
    }
}

Usage:

UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow!.rootViewController!.topMostViewController()

To complete Eric's answer (who left out popovers, navigation controllers, tabbarcontrollers, view controllers added as subviews to some other view controllers while traversing), here is my version of returning the currently visible view controller:

=====================================================================

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)viewController {
    if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)viewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navContObj = (UINavigationController*)viewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navContObj.visibleViewController];
    } else if (viewController.presentedViewController && !viewController.presentedViewController.isBeingDismissed) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = viewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    }
    else {
        for (UIView *view in [viewController.view subviews])
        {
            id subViewController = [view nextResponder];
            if ( subViewController && [subViewController isKindOfClass:[UIViewController class]])
            {
                if ([(UIViewController *)subViewController presentedViewController]  && ![subViewController presentedViewController].isBeingDismissed) {
                    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[(UIViewController *)subViewController presentedViewController]];
                }
            }
        }
        return viewController;
    }
}

=====================================================================

And now all you need to do to get top most view controller is call the above method as follows:

UIViewController *topMostViewControllerObj = [self topViewController];

This answer includes childViewControllers and maintains a clean and readable implementation.

+ (UIViewController *)topViewController
{
    UIViewController *rootViewController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    return [rootViewController topVisibleViewController];
}

- (UIViewController *)topVisibleViewController
{
    if ([self isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]])
    {
        UITabBarController *tabBarController = (UITabBarController *)self;
        return [tabBarController.selectedViewController topVisibleViewController];
    }
    else if ([self isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]])
    {
        UINavigationController *navigationController = (UINavigationController *)self;
        return [navigationController.visibleViewController topVisibleViewController];
    }
    else if (self.presentedViewController)
    {
        return [self.presentedViewController topVisibleViewController];
    }
    else if (self.childViewControllers.count > 0)
    {
        return [self.childViewControllers.lastObject topVisibleViewController];
    }

    return self;
}