Is there a better way to hide the backBarButtonItem than this?

Question

I have a way of hiding the back button used by the navigation controller. It's set by the previous controller, not the one managing the current view, and that makes it tricky to get to. I needed to do this in editing mode so that I could prevent the user from navigating away from the screen.

if(self.editing) {
    // Get rid of the back button   
    UIView *emptyView = [[UIView alloc] init];;
    UIBarButtonItem *emptyButton = [[[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:emptyView] autorelease];
    [self.navigationItem setLeftBarButtonItem:emptyButton animated:YES];
} else {
    // Restore the back button
    [self.navigationItem setLeftBarButtonItem:nil animated:YES];        
}

Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

Swift5:

self.navigationItem.setHidesBackButton(true, animated: false)

Answer 2

use this to hide back button

[self.navigationItem setHidesBackButton:YES]

use this to show back button

[self.navigationItem setHidesBackButton:NO]

Answer 3

Here's the method I use in my view controller to show and hide the back button when editing is enabled and disabled:

- (void)setEditing:(BOOL)editing animated:(BOOL)animated
{
    if (editing) {
        // Disable the back button
        [self.navigationItem setHidesBackButton:YES animated:YES];
    }
    else {
        // Enable the back button
        [self.navigationItem setHidesBackButton:NO animated:YES];
    }

    [super setEditing:editing animated:animated];
}