UISegmentedControl text with multiple lines?

Question

How can I make the text in one of the buttons in my UISegmentedControl span multiple lines?

Answer 1

Use UIAppearance to get things done. The below code snippet will work. Call this before creating your segment.

Objective-C

[[UILabel appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UISegmentedControl class], nil] setNumberOfLines:0]; 

Swift

UILabel.appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses([UISegmentedControl.self]).numberOfLines = 0 

Answer 2

I did it this way:

• create a multiline UILabel
• fill the label with N lines of text
• convert the label into an UIImage
• set the image as a segments content

This works smooth on iOS 4, 5, 6

and iOS 7 (just remove the text shadow)

MultiLineSegmentedControl - header file

// //  MultiLineSegmentedControl.h // //  Created by Jens Kreiensiek on 20.07.11. //  Copyright 2011 SoButz. All rights reserved. // #import <Foundation/Foundation.h>  @interface MultiLineSegmentedControl : UISegmentedControl - (void)setMultilineTitle:(NSString *)title forSegmentAtIndex:(NSUInteger)segment; @end 

MultiLineSegmentedControl - implementation file

// //  MultiLineSegmentedControl.m // //  Created by Jens Kreiensiek on 20.07.11. //  Copyright 2011 SoButz. All rights reserved. // #import "MultiLineSegmentedControl.h" #import "UIView+LayerShot.h"  @interface MultiLineSegmentedControl() @property (nonatomic, retain) UILabel *theLabel; @end  @implementation MultiLineSegmentedControl @synthesize theLabel;  - (void)dealloc {     self.theLabel = nil;     [super dealloc]; }   - (UILabel *)theLabel {     if (!self->theLabel) {          self->theLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];         self->theLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];         self->theLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];         self->theLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:13];         self->theLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;         self->theLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;         self->theLabel.shadowColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];         self->theLabel.numberOfLines = 0;     }      return self->theLabel; }   - (void)setMultilineTitle:(NSString *)title forSegmentAtIndex:(NSUInteger)segment {     self.theLabel.text = title;     [self.theLabel sizeToFit];      [self setImage:self.theLabel.imageFromLayer forSegmentAtIndex:segment]; }  @end 

UIView+LayerShot - header file

// //  UIView+LayerShot.h // //  Created by Jens Kreiensiek on 29.06.12. //  Copyright (c) 2012 SoButz. All rights reserved. // #import <UIKit/UIKit.h>  @interface UIView (LayerShot) - (UIImage *)imageFromLayer; @end 

UIView+LayerShot - implementation file

// //  UIView+LayerShot.m // //  Created by Jens Kreiensiek on 29.06.12. //  Copyright (c) 2012 SoButz. All rights reserved. // #import "UIView+LayerShot.h" #import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>  @implementation UIView (LayerShot)  - (UIImage *)imageFromLayer {     UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.bounds.size, NO, 0);     [self.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];     UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();     UIGraphicsEndImageContext();     return image; }  @end 

Use it just like a normal UISegmentedControl:

...  MultiLineSegmentedControl *segment = [[MultiLineSegmentedControl alloc]      initWithItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"A", @"B", nil]];  segment.segmentedControlStyle = UISegmentedControlStyleBar; segment.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, segment.frame.size.height * 1.5);  [segment setMultilineTitle:@"Title A\nSubtitle A" forSegmentAtIndex:0]; [segment setMultilineTitle:@"Title B\nSubtitle B" forSegmentAtIndex:1];  [self.view addSubview:segment]; [segment release];  ...