UIButton that resizes to fit its titleLabel

Question

I have a UIButton that I add to my view controller's view in a storyboard. I add centering constraints to position it and leading space constraints to limit its width. In code I add:

self.button.titleLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
self.button.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
[self.button setTitle:@"A real real real real real real real real long long name." forState:UIControlStateNormal];
self.button.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
self.button.titleLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];

The result is shown below:

I want the button to size to its content. How can I do this?

I've tried

[self.button sizeToFit];

and I've tried setting the content hugging and compression resistance autolayout constraints priorities to required.

I've also tried explicitly setting the contentEdgeInsets and titleEdgeInsets to UIEdgeInsetsZero and calling invalidateIntrinsicContentSize.

I've also noticed that if I place newline characters in the title string, the button does seem to resize to fit its content.

I'm running on Xcode 6 and iOS 8 on the iPhone 6 Simulator.

Bantling

Answer 1

I've gotten this to work, but you have to use a custom button, not a system type. Give the button both width and height constraints, and make an IBOutlet to the height constraint (heightCon in my code) so you can adjust it in code.

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.button.titleLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
    self.button.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
    [self.button setTitle:@"A real real real real real real real real long long name." forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [self.button addTarget:self action:@selector(doStuff:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    self.button.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
    self.button.titleLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
    [self.button layoutIfNeeded]; // need this to update the button's titleLabel's size
    self.heightCon.constant = self.button.titleLabel.frame.size.height;
}

After Edit:

I found that you can also do this more simply, and with a system button if you make a subclass, and use this code,

@implementation RDButton

-(CGSize)intrinsicContentSize {
    return CGSizeMake(self.frame.size.width, self.titleLabel.frame.size.height);
}

The overridden intrinsicContentSize method is called when you set the title. You shouldn't set a height constraint in this case.

Simile

Answer 2

Swift 4.x version of Kubba's answer:

Need to Update Line Break as Clip/WordWrap/ in Interface builder to corresponding buttons.

class ResizableButton: UIButton {
    override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
       let labelSize = titleLabel?.sizeThatFits(CGSize(width: frame.width, height: .greatestFiniteMagnitude)) ?? .zero
       let desiredButtonSize = CGSize(width: labelSize.width + titleEdgeInsets.left + titleEdgeInsets.right, height: labelSize.height + titleEdgeInsets.top + titleEdgeInsets.bottom)

       return desiredButtonSize
    }
}

Crump

Didn't work for me: titleLabel still exceeds the frame of the UIButton. – Lattonia

@Lattonia - forget to set the subclass in the attribute inspector? – Wallford

I added imageView's size and contentEdgeInsets too. to this code. – Leaflet

It's work, but you should implement override func setTitle(_ title: String?, for state: UIControl.State) { super.setTitle(title, for: state) layoutIfNeeded() } – Suffice

How can we animate this change? – Jesseniajessey

Just a little completion: let with = labelSize.width + (image(for:[])?.size.width)! + titleEdgeInsets.left + titleEdgeInsets.right + imageEdgeInsets.left + imageEdgeInsets.right + contentEdgeInsets.left + contentEdgeInsets.right – Weirick

In my case, I have frame.width == 0.0. This leads to a wrong result (height of 1 line when the height of multiple lines would be correct). I had ti get a suitable width from somewhere else. So if this approach doesn't work, check the value of frame.width – Sheepish

Answer 3

Got same issue. It happens only if UIButton's titleLabel has more than one line. Is it a bug in UIKit?

My Swift solution:

class ResizableButton: UIButton {    
    override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
        let labelSize = titleLabel?.sizeThatFits(CGSize(width: frame.size.width, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)) ?? .zero
        let desiredButtonSize = CGSize(width: labelSize.width + titleEdgeInsets.left + titleEdgeInsets.right, height: labelSize.height + titleEdgeInsets.top + titleEdgeInsets.bottom)

        return desiredButtonSize
    }
}

Colner

How can we animate this change? – Jesseniajessey

@AlexanderKhitev you can call invalidateIntrinsicContentSize() in UIView.animation block – Transept

Answer 4

I struggled with this for a while and ended up making it work by subclassing UIButton and adding these two functions

class GoalsButton: UIButton {

    override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
        return self.titleLabel!.intrinsicContentSize
    }

    // Whever the button is changed or needs to layout subviews,
    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        titleLabel?.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = self.titleLabel!.frame.size.width
    }
}

Beating

Answer 5

I am away from my computer so I can't add the code right now, but I have found a workaround of this before.

What you can do is create a UILabel and add a UITapGestureRecognizer to the label. Do whatever you want for the button's action by handling the tap event. And also make sure that you enable user interactions on the UILabel.

This label will now behave as a auto resizing button.

Vinylidene

This works exactly the way I want in terms of sizing, and it's what I tried first, but I want the text highlighting behaviour of a button when the user touches it. – Bantling

Hey Darren, you can set both UILabel.textColor and UILabel.highlightedTextColor properties. Then later you can update UILabel.highlighted property in order to change text color (for instance depends of UITapGestureRecognizer state). Gist – Scuffle

Answer 6

What I would suggest is to calculate the width of the text, and calculate the frame by yourself. It's not complicated anyway, get the width of the text first:

[NSString sizeWithFont:font];

Do a mod operation and you'll easily find out the number of lines for the text.

Note this method is for pre iOS7, for iOS 7 and after you might want to try

[NSString sizeWithAttributes:aDictionary];

Photosynthesis

Answer 7

[self.button sizeToFit] should work if your Autolayout is turned Off. If you have to use autolayout then other suggestions (calculating line width) etc are more appropriate.

Norway

Answer 8

I had the same problem with UIButton with multilined text, and it also had an image. I used sizeThatFits: to calculate the size but it calculated wrong height.

I did not make it UIButtonTypeCustom, instead of that I called sizeThatFits: on button's titleLabel with size with smaller width (due to image in button):

CGSize buttonSize = [button sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(maxWidth, maxHeight)];
CGSize labelSize = [button.titleLabel sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(maxWidth - offset, maxHeight)]; // offset for image
buttonSize.height = labelSize.height;
buttonFrame.size = buttonSize;

And then I used height from that size to set button's frame correctly, and it WORKED :)

Maybe they have some bug in internal sizing of UIButton.

Culosio

Answer 9

Override the -(CGSize)intrinsicContentSize in Custom UIButton as given below.

Objective - C:

-(CGSize)intrinsicContentSize {
    CGSize titleLabelIntrinsicSize = [self.titleLabel intrinsicContentSize];
    return CGSizeMake(titleLabelIntrinsicSize.width + self.contentEdgeInsets.left + self.contentEdgeInsets.right, titleLabelIntrinsicSize.height + self.contentEdgeInsets.top + self.contentEdgeInsets.bottom);
}

Swfit :

override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
        get {
            if let thisSize = self.titleLabel?.intrinsicContentSize {
                return CGSize(width: thisSize.width + self.contentEdgeInsets.left + self.contentEdgeInsets.right, height: thisSize.height + self.contentEdgeInsets.top + self.contentEdgeInsets.bottom)
            }
            return super.intrinsicContentSize
        }
    }

Attitude

Answer 10

I had to invalidate the intrinsic content size when the views were laid out and then calculate the height of the button for the intrinsicContentSize property.

Here's the code in Swift3/Xcode 9

override func layoutSubviews() {
    self.invalidateIntrinsicContentSize()
    super.layoutSubviews()
}


override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
    return CGSize(width: self.frame.size.width, height: titleLabel!.frame.size.height + contentEdgeInsets.top + contentEdgeInsets.bottom)
}

Flee

Answer 11

/*
In SWIFT : Create an IBDesignable sub class of UIButton and override the intrinsicContentSize as shown below. It will resize appropriately for text and images. Then change your line break property to Word Wrap. Add a "fixedWidth" inspectable property that will adjust the height if you need buttons with fixed widths or when set to false will adjust the width and keep the height fixed.
*/

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class UIButtonX: UIButton {
    
    //...

    @IBInspectable var fixedWidth : Bool = true
override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
    let labelSize = titleLabel?.sizeThatFits(CGSize(width: fixedWidth ? frame.width : .greatestFiniteMagnitude, height: fixedWidth ? .greatestFiniteMagnitude : frame.height)) ?? .zero

    let wImage = image(for: [])?.size.width ?? 0
    let wTitleInset = titleEdgeInsets.left + titleEdgeInsets.right
    let wImageInset = imageEdgeInsets.left + imageEdgeInsets.right
    let wContentInset = contentEdgeInsets.left + contentEdgeInsets.right
    let width : CGFloat = labelSize.width + wImage + wTitleInset + wImageInset + wContentInset
    
    let biggerHeight = max(image(for: [])?.size.height ?? 0, labelSize.height)
    let hTitleInset = titleEdgeInsets.top + titleEdgeInsets.bottom
    let hImageInset = imageEdgeInsets.top + imageEdgeInsets.bottom
    let hContentInset = contentEdgeInsets.top + contentEdgeInsets.bottom
    let height : CGFloat = biggerHeight + hTitleInset + hImageInset + hContentInset
    
    let desiredButtonSize = CGSize(width: width, height: height)
    
    return desiredButtonSize
}
    
    //...

}

Shilohshim

Answer 12

class SFResizableButton: UIButton {
  override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
    get {
      var labelSize = CGSize.zero
        if let text = titleLabel?.text, let font = titleLabel?.font {
          labelSize.width = text.width(constrained: .greatestFiniteMagnitude, font: font)
        } else if let att = titleLabel?.attributedText {
          labelSize.width = att.width(constrained: .greatestFiniteMagnitude)
        }
      if let imageView = imageView {
        labelSize.width = labelSize.width + imageView.frame.width
      }
      let desiredButtonSize = CGSize(width: ceil(labelSize.width) + titleEdgeInsets.left + titleEdgeInsets.right + imageEdgeInsets.left + imageEdgeInsets.right, height: labelSize.height + titleEdgeInsets.top + titleEdgeInsets.bottom + imageEdgeInsets.top + imageEdgeInsets.bottom)

        return desiredButtonSize
    }
  }
}
extesion String {
  func width(constrained height: CGFloat, font: UIFont) -> CGFloat {
    let constraintRect = CGSize(width: .greatestFiniteMagnitude, height: height)
      let boundingBox = (self as NSString).boundingRect(with: constraintRect, options: .usesLineFragmentOrigin, attributes: [NSFontAttributeName: font], context: nil)

      return boundingBox.width
  }
}

extension NSAttributedString {
  func width(constrained height: CGFloat) -> CGFloat {
    let constraintRect = CGSize(width: .greatestFiniteMagnitude, height: height)
      let boundingBox = boundingRect(with: constraintRect, options: .usesLineFragmentOrigin, context: nil)

      return boundingBox.width
  }
}

Katheykathi

You may want to consider adding some context ( An explanation ) around all of this code. – Mareah

well, as a common solution when cal the button title, we should know if the title is set by String, or NSAttributedString. so i add the value check, and cal extension. In the end, we should consider if the button also set the image to imageView, above all in consider, intrinsicContentSize should be right – Katheykathi

Answer 13

I made a subclass that works well inside UITableViewCell. It's needed if you want for example a border around the button like in the screenshot

import Foundation
import UIKit

class IntrinsicTitleButton: UIButton {
    
    override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
       let labelSize = titleLabel?.sizeThatFits(CGSize(width: frame.width - titleEdgeInsets.left - titleEdgeInsets.right, height: .greatestFiniteMagnitude)) ?? .zero
       let desiredButtonSize = CGSize(width: labelSize.width + titleEdgeInsets.left + titleEdgeInsets.right, height: labelSize.height + titleEdgeInsets.top + titleEdgeInsets.bottom)

       return desiredButtonSize
    }
    
    required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: coder)
    }
    
    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
    }
    
    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        invalidateIntrinsicContentSize()
    }
    
    func setup() {
        titleLabel?.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
    }
    
    override func setTitle(_ title: String?, for state: UIControl.State) {
        super.setTitle(title, for: state)
        layoutIfNeeded()
    }
    
}

Cristalcristate