Too much boiler plate code switch statement - iOS

Question

I have a switch statement which will add texts to 11 UILabels appropriately. However, its getting a bit long now and there is far too much copies of the same code. How can I further improve it? Could I maybe make an array of labels and then just access them via a for loop??

Here is code switch statement:

switch ([number_sorted count]) {

            case 1:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 2:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 3:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 4:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 5:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 6:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 7:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
                label_7.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[6] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 8:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
                label_7.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[6] integerValue]];
                label_8.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[7] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 9:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
                label_7.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[6] integerValue]];
                label_8.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[7] integerValue]];
                label_9.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[8] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 10:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
                label_7.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[6] integerValue]];
                label_8.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[7] integerValue]];
                label_9.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[8] integerValue]];
                label_10.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[9] integerValue]];
                break;

            case 11:
                label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
                label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
                label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
                label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
                label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
                label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
                label_7.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[6] integerValue]];
                label_8.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[7] integerValue]];
                label_9.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[8] integerValue]];
                label_10.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[9] integerValue]];
                label_11.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[10] integerValue]];
                break;

            default:
                break;
        }

Thanks for your time, Dan.

Answer 1

Another option is to use the "fall through" property of switch statements

switch ([number_sorted count]) {
    case 11:
        label_11.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[10] integerValue]];
    case 10:
        label_10.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[9] integerValue]];
    case 9:
        label_9.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[8] integerValue]];
    case 8:
        label_8.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[7] integerValue]];
    case 7:
        label_7.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[6] integerValue]];
    case 6:
        label_6.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[5] integerValue]];
    case 5:
        label_5.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[4] integerValue]];
    case 4:
        label_4.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[3] integerValue]];
    case 3:
        label_3.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[2] integerValue]];
    case 2:
        label_2.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[1] integerValue]];
    case 1:
        label_1.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld", (long)[number_sorted[0] integerValue]];
    default:
        break;
}

Answer 2

Just put your UILabel's in an NSArray. Then you can iterate over the array. In Interface Builder, you can add a bunch of elements to an IBOutletCollection, which is convenient (just drag multiple things together, like creating an IBOutlet, and it'll offer to make an IBOutletCollection).

Just note that IBOutletCollection makes no promises on order. So you may need to add a tag in IB to keep track of them. I often sort my collection by tag in viewDidLoad.

If you build this system programmatically, you can just put them in the array to start with.

Sometimes keeping track of tag is still too much of a pain, so I cheat a bit. I just use subviews to walk all the views and find my labels. Then I sort them by y-origin and stick them in an array. That of course is a bit fragile and requires a lot of special knowledge about your view, but a view controller is expected to have that knowledge. I occasionally use this technique to create a hybrid IB/programmatic interface, which lets me lay everything out in IB, but then wire everything up (actions, font selection, etc) in code. I especially do that when there are a lot of almost identical UI elements.