ios - Add "...Read More" to the end of UILabel

Question

I have a UILabel and in some cases the text is longer then the UILabel itself, so I see the text as "bla bla bla..." I want to add a ...Read More button text at the end of the UILabel..

I've read some posts but they offer solutions that are not good to me, for example: to calculate how many characters will enter the UILabel, but with the font i'm using each character has a different width.

How can I manage to do that?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Swift4 (IOS 11.2)

Readmore at the end of the label without action

extension UILabel {

    func addTrailing(with trailingText: String, moreText: String, moreTextFont: UIFont, moreTextColor: UIColor) {
        let readMoreText: String = trailingText + moreText

        let lengthForVisibleString: Int = self.visibleTextLength
        let mutableString: String = self.text!
        let trimmedString: String? = (mutableString as NSString).replacingCharacters(in: NSRange(location: lengthForVisibleString, length: ((self.text?.count)! - lengthForVisibleString)), with: "")
        let readMoreLength: Int = (readMoreText.count)
        let trimmedForReadMore: String = (trimmedString! as NSString).replacingCharacters(in: NSRange(location: ((trimmedString?.count ?? 0) - readMoreLength), length: readMoreLength), with: "") + trailingText
        let answerAttributed = NSMutableAttributedString(string: trimmedForReadMore, attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.font: self.font])
        let readMoreAttributed = NSMutableAttributedString(string: moreText, attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.font: moreTextFont, NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: moreTextColor])
        answerAttributed.append(readMoreAttributed)
        self.attributedText = answerAttributed
    }

    var visibleTextLength: Int {
        let font: UIFont = self.font
        let mode: NSLineBreakMode = self.lineBreakMode
        let labelWidth: CGFloat = self.frame.size.width
        let labelHeight: CGFloat = self.frame.size.height
        let sizeConstraint = CGSize(width: labelWidth, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)

        let attributes: [AnyHashable: Any] = [NSAttributedStringKey.font: font]
        let attributedText = NSAttributedString(string: self.text!, attributes: attributes as? [NSAttributedStringKey : Any])
        let boundingRect: CGRect = attributedText.boundingRect(with: sizeConstraint, options: .usesLineFragmentOrigin, context: nil)

        if boundingRect.size.height > labelHeight {
            var index: Int = 0
            var prev: Int = 0
            let characterSet = CharacterSet.whitespacesAndNewlines
            repeat {
                prev = index
                if mode == NSLineBreakMode.byCharWrapping {
                    index += 1
                } else {
                    index = (self.text! as NSString).rangeOfCharacter(from: characterSet, options: [], range: NSRange(location: index + 1, length: self.text!.count - index - 1)).location
                }
            } while index != NSNotFound && index < self.text!.count && (self.text! as NSString).substring(to: index).boundingRect(with: sizeConstraint, options: .usesLineFragmentOrigin, attributes: attributes as? [NSAttributedStringKey : Any], context: nil).size.height <= labelHeight
            return prev
        }
        return self.text!.count
    }
}

Swift 4.2

extension UILabel {

        func addTrailing(with trailingText: String, moreText: String, moreTextFont: UIFont, moreTextColor: UIColor) {
            let readMoreText: String = trailingText + moreText

            let lengthForVisibleString: Int = self.vissibleTextLength
            let mutableString: String = self.text!
            let trimmedString: String? = (mutableString as NSString).replacingCharacters(in: NSRange(location: lengthForVisibleString, length: ((self.text?.count)! - lengthForVisibleString)), with: "")
            let readMoreLength: Int = (readMoreText.count)
            let trimmedForReadMore: String = (trimmedString! as NSString).replacingCharacters(in: NSRange(location: ((trimmedString?.count ?? 0) - readMoreLength), length: readMoreLength), with: "") + trailingText
            let answerAttributed = NSMutableAttributedString(string: trimmedForReadMore, attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.font: self.font])
            let readMoreAttributed = NSMutableAttributedString(string: moreText, attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.font: moreTextFont, NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: moreTextColor])
            answerAttributed.append(readMoreAttributed)
            self.attributedText = answerAttributed
        }

        var vissibleTextLength: Int {
            let font: UIFont = self.font
            let mode: NSLineBreakMode = self.lineBreakMode
            let labelWidth: CGFloat = self.frame.size.width
            let labelHeight: CGFloat = self.frame.size.height
            let sizeConstraint = CGSize(width: labelWidth, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)

            let attributes: [AnyHashable: Any] = [NSAttributedString.Key.font: font]
            let attributedText = NSAttributedString(string: self.text!, attributes: attributes as? [NSAttributedString.Key : Any])
            let boundingRect: CGRect = attributedText.boundingRect(with: sizeConstraint, options: .usesLineFragmentOrigin, context: nil)

            if boundingRect.size.height > labelHeight {
                var index: Int = 0
                var prev: Int = 0
                let characterSet = CharacterSet.whitespacesAndNewlines
                repeat {
                    prev = index
                    if mode == NSLineBreakMode.byCharWrapping {
                        index += 1
                    } else {
                        index = (self.text! as NSString).rangeOfCharacter(from: characterSet, options: [], range: NSRange(location: index + 1, length: self.text!.count - index - 1)).location
                    }
                } while index != NSNotFound && index < self.text!.count && (self.text! as NSString).substring(to: index).boundingRect(with: sizeConstraint, options: .usesLineFragmentOrigin, attributes: attributes as? [NSAttributedString.Key : Any], context: nil).size.height <= labelHeight
                return prev
            }
            return self.text!.count
        }
    }

Usage

let readmoreFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica-Oblique", size: 11.0)
let readmoreFontColor = UIColor.blue
DispatchQueue.main.async {
    self.yourLabel.addTrailing(with: "... ", moreText: "Readmore", moreTextFont: readmoreFont!, moreTextColor: readmoreFontColor)
}

Result

NOTE: - Action is not included for Readmore