iOS: why can not I programmatically set frame for the button?

Question

Here is a strange thing, but I couldn't figure it out. I can not programmatically set frame for the button.

I have a button with IBOutlet as beyondViewButton and I control-dragged it from view to the ViewController.m file @interface and @end section, then @synthesized it.

in the viewDidLoad method, I added this:

   //x = x + widthToUse * 0.25;
   //y += h + 50;
   x = 50; //either hard code x value or set it mathematically, not working
   y = 300;
   w = 200;
   h = 60;
   //[beyondViewButton setFrame:CGRectMake(x, y, w, h)]; //not working 
   beyondViewButton.frame = CGRectMake(x, y, w, h); //not working
   //[beyondViewButton setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"bgImage.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal]; //this line actually works
   //[beyondViewButton setTitle:@"iCool!" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
   [beyondViewButton setTitle:@"iShit!" forState:UIControlStateNormal]; //change from iCool to iShit, I can see change
   //[self.view addSubview:beyondViewButton]; //either adding this line or not, both work

Why I can not set up the frame?

One thing, I don't know if relevant, is that this button was set up in the "selection view" which comes from Navigation controller and goes to next view/scene. When this button is clicked, app moves from the "selection view" to the next view --- this was implemented via storyboard. I have not mastered storyboard well yet and have lots of uncertainty about it.

Can anyone shed some lights on this? Thanks!!

More diagnosis info: I checked the button.description before and after I set frame code:

     2012[25830:12503] beyond button <UIRoundedRectButton: 0x8821cd0; frame = (0 0; 0 0); opaque = NO; autoresize = TM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x8821da0>>

that's before and following is after. Interestingly, the frame values are not what I set, as in code shown here, I have x=50, y=300, w=200, h=60, while NSLog description gives out x=190, y=345, w=110, h=94, which is around the position I saw in run time. It's the values I set in storyboard.

     2012[25830:12503] beyond button <UIRoundedRectButton: 0x8821cd0; frame = (190 345; 110 94); opaque = NO; autoresize = TM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x8821da0>>

If I commented out set frame lines of the code, when I check button description, before and after the button settings, I got 0,0,0,0 as button frame --- although I see buttons in the bottom half of the view. In another word, the line of setting frame does work SOME WAY, but not the way I wanted. It just takes storyboard values, but not those I set by x,y,w,h.

Answer 1

If you have Auto-layout enabled on interface builder, you can also remove the button from view, size it, and then re-add it. Kind of ghetto, but it works.

Something similar to this...

[self.myButton removeFromSuperview];
[self.myButton setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:YES];
[self.myButton sizeToFit];
[self.myView addSubview:self.myButton];