TabBarController returns null

Question

I have a tabbarcontroller in storyboard as initial view controller

How does this return null

UITabBarController* tabbarController = (UITabBarController*) self.tabBarController;
NSLog(@"%@",tabbarController);
NSLog(@"%@",self.navigationController.tabBarController);

Originally what I am trying to do

NSMutableArray *newTabs = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[self.tabBarController viewControllers]];
NSLog(@"\n\n\n%lu\n\n\n",(unsigned long)[newTabs count]);
NSLog(@"self.tabBarController.viewControllers %@ \n\n",self.tabBarController);
[newTabs removeObjectAtIndex: 1];
[self.tabBarController setViewControllers:newTabs];

Why am I getting null?

Answer 1

The reason null is returned, is that self is your UITabBarController, therefore, it doesn't have anything on self.tabBarController

Your code should look like this:

NSMutableArray *newTabs = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[self viewControllers]];
NSLog(@"\n\n\n%lu\n\n\n",(unsigned long)[newTabs count]);
NSLog(@"self.viewControllers %@ \n\n",self);
[newTabs removeObjectAtIndex: 1];
[self setViewControllers:newTabs];

Answer 2

In Swift

        let indexToRemove = 1
        if indexToRemove < (self.viewControllers?.count)! {
            var viewControllers = self.viewControllers
            viewControllers?.remove(at: indexToRemove)
            self.viewControllers = viewControllers
        }

directly use self in UITabBarController class, not self.tabBarControllers.

Answer 3

Check out Joe's Answer self.tabBarController is NULL

If you have a navigation controller you need to add this to your YourTabBarViewController.h file

 @property (nonatomic, retain) UITabBarController * myTabBarController;

Then in YourTabBarViewController.m file in viewDidLoad just assign it to self and add the delegate

self.myTabBarController = self;
self.myTabBarController.delegate = self;