How to add line break for UILabel?

Question

Let see that I have a string look like this:

NSString *longStr = @"AAAAA\nBBBBB\nCCCCC";  

How do I make it so that the UILabel display the message like this

AAAAA
BBBBB
CCCCC

I don't think \n is recognized by UILabel, so is there anything that I can put inside NSString so that UILabel knows that it has to create a line break there?

Faulk

Answer 1

Use \n as you are using in your string.

Set numberOfLines to 0 to allow for any number of lines.

label.numberOfLines = 0;

Update the label frame to match the size of the text using sizeWithFont:. If you don't do this your text will be vertically centered or cut off.

UILabel *label; // set frame to largest size you want
...
CGSize labelSize = [label.text sizeWithFont:label.font
                          constrainedToSize:label.frame.size
                              lineBreakMode:label.lineBreakMode];
label.frame = CGRectMake(
    label.frame.origin.x, label.frame.origin.y, 
    label.frame.size.width, labelSize.height);

Update : Replacement for deprecated

sizeWithFont:constrainedToSize:lineBreakMode:

Reference, Replacement for deprecated sizeWithFont: in iOS 7?

CGSize labelSize = [label.text sizeWithAttributes:@{NSFontAttributeName:label.font}];

label.frame = CGRectMake(
    label.frame.origin.x, label.frame.origin.y, 
    label.frame.size.width, labelSize.height);

Twofold

UILabel doesn't have a origin nor size property on iOS? It should probably be label.frame.origin.x etc. – Cerium

Instead of using sizeWithAttributes then setting the frame, you can just call sizeToFit to work-out and set the frame size in one quick step. – Philipps

@Hermang, thanks for editing the answer to bring it up to date. – Twofold

Answer 2

Use option-return when typing in the little box in Interface Builder to insert a line feed (\n). In Interface Builder's Label attributes, set # Lines = 0.

Select the label and then change Lines property to 0 like in the above image, and then use \n in your string for line break.

Triptych

Does not work when setting label programmatically and adding \n (newline) to the string. – Munson

amazing. My requirement was to do this with storyboard label only. And this worked like a charm. – Aigrette

NOTE: If you are setting in the storyboard label, and you're still having issues, make sure the label height is long enough to account for two lines. Even if it properly displays before building, it might have insufficient height upon loading – Antecede

Answer 3

In the interface builder, you can use Ctrl + Enter to insert /n to the position you want. This way could implement the following situation

aaa
aaaaaaa

Slyke

or use alt+enter – Brunn

Great post! Small correction: I believe you mean insert \n instead of insert /n – Antecede

That worked for me for getting paragraphs in CATextLayer using NSAttributedString as a @IBInspectable – Mckamey

Answer 4

If you read a string from an XML file, the line break \n in this string will not work in UILabel text. The \n is not parsed to a line break.

Here is a little trick to solve this issue:

// correct next line \n in string from XML file
NSString *myNewLineStr = @"\n";
myLabelText = [myLabelText stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"\\n" withString:myNewLineStr];

myLabel.text = myLabelText;

So you have to replace the unparsed \n part in your string by a parsed \n in a hardcoded NSString.

Here are my other label settings:

myLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
myLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
myLabel.textColor = [UIColor redColor]; 
myLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica Neue" size:14.0];   
myLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;

Most important is to set numberOfLines to 0 (= unlimited number of lines in label).

No idea why Apple has chosen to not parse \n in strings read from XML?

Jessen

iOS doesn't parse \n when getting strings from Parse.com (I guess it will also happen when getting string from other APIs) – Davisdavison

You saved my day. I'm getting string with newline from xml files. – Larimor

Answer 5

You have to set the numberOfLines property on the UILabel. The default is 1, if you set it to 0 it will remove all limits.

Jehovist

Answer 6

Important to note it's \n (backslash) rather than /n.

Prakash

Answer 7

For those of you who want an easy solution, do the following in the text Label input box in Interface Builder:

Make sure your number of lines is set to 0.

Alt + Enter

(Alt is your option key)

Cheers!

Kemp

Answer 8

In Swift 2.2, > iOS 8

I've set Lines = 0 on Storyboard, under Attribute Inspector and linked a referencing outlet to the label. Then use in controller like this:

 @IBOutlet weak var listLabel: UILabel!

 override func viewDidLoad() {
      ...
      listLabel.text = "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3\nLine 4\nLine 5\nLine 6\nLine 7\nLine 8"
 }

Landau

Answer 9

In xCode 11, Swift 5 the \n works fine, try the below code:

textlabel.numberOfLines = 0
textlabel.text = "This is line one \n This is line two \n This is line three"

Classicist

Answer 10

Just do it like this

NSString * strCheck = @"A\nB";

strCheck = [strCheck stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"\\n" withString:@"\n"];  //This is to prevent for fetching string from plist or data structure

label.numberOfLines = 0;

label.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;

label.text = strCheck;

Fiscal

Answer 11

// DO not forget to set numberOfLines to zero

UILabel* locationTitle = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(5, 30, 230, 40)];
locationTitle.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:13.0];
locationTitle.numberOfLines = 0;
locationTitle.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Eaton industries pvt. Ltd \nUK Apr 12"];
[cell addSubview:locationTitle];

Footworn

Answer 12

If your using a UILabel you have to remember that the default setting is 1 line, so it does not matter how many breaks you add (\n or \r), you need to make sure it is set to more than one line so it could be allowed to append more lines.

One alternative is to use UITextView which is really meant for multilines.

You can easily achieve this in XCode attribute section of the UILabel, see screenshot:

Wineskin

If you set the number of lines to 0 then you are guaranteed unlimited number of lines, so that if your code changes in the future to say... beyond 3 lines, then you will not run into problems. It's unknown why Apple took this approach. – Classicist

Answer 13

On Xcode 6, you can just use \n even inside a string when using word wrap. It will work. So for example:

UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 100, screenRect.size.width, 50)];
label.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentCenter;
label.text = @"This will be on the first line\nfollowed by a line under it.";
label.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
label.numberOfLines = 0;

Yippee

Answer 14

In my case also \n was not working, I fixed issue by keeping number of lines to 0 and copied and pasted the text with new line itself for example instead of Hello \n World i pasted

Hello

World

in the interface builder.

Schutzstaffel

Excellent! Works. – Hertz

Answer 15

Just using label.numberOfLines = 0;

Suboceanic

Answer 16

textLabel.text = @"\nAAAAA\nBBBBB\nCCCCC";
textLabel.numberOfLines = 3; \\As you want - AAAAA\nBBBBB\nCCCCC
textLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
NSLog(@"The textLabel text is - %@",textLabel.text);

Milwaukee

Answer 17

For anyone else that might have trouble with sizeWithFont:constrainedToSize:lineBreakMode: or anyone switching to ios8 (the method is deprecated as of ios7), I adjusted my height by using sizeToFit instead.

UILabel *label;
label.numberOfLines = 0;
// Setup label with desired settings
...
[label sizeToFit];
label.frame = CGRectMake(label.frame.origin.x,     // Or use any desired origin
                         label.frame.origin.y, 
                         label.frame.size.width,   // Or use any desired width
                         label.frame.size.height);

Reverberatory

Answer 18

NSCharacterSet *charSet = NSCharacterSet.newlineCharacterSet;
NSString *formatted = [[unformatted componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:charSet] componentsJoinedByString:@"\n"];

Subtangent

Answer 19

It seems wrong to me to change the label frame sizes especially when using autolayout. Using the appendFormat method seems more appropriate. Here is my example:

NSMutableString *list = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
NSArray *textArray = @[@"AAAA", @"BBBB"];
for (NSString *string in textArray) {
    [list appendFormat:@"%@\n", string.mutableCopy];
}
self.label.text = list;
self.label.numberOfLines = 0;

Squeeze

Answer 20

If you set your UILable properties from Plain to Attributed...the UILabel will hold multiline text no matter how many paragraphs for along as your UILabel height and width are set to fit the screen area you want to display the text in.

Carnassial

Answer 21

I have faced same problem, and here is, how i solved the problem. Hope this will be helpful for someone.

// Swift 2

   lblMultiline.lineBreakMode = .ByWordWrapping // or use NSLineBreakMode.ByWordWrapping
   lblMultiline.numberOfLines = 0 

// Objective-C

  lblMultiline.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
  lblMultiline.numberOfLines = 0;

// C# (Xamarin.iOS)

  lblMultiline.LineBreakMode = UILineBreakMode.WordWrap;
  lblMultiline.Lines = 0;  

Preparation