How to render a multiline UILabel with NSMutableAttributedString

Question

I am trying to create a multiline UILabel with an NSMutableAttributedString. This works fine when I assign an attribute to the complete string like this:

UILabel *contentLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,200,100)];
[contentLabel setLineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByWordWrapping];
[contentLabel setNumberOfLines:0];
[contentLabel setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:13];

NSMutableAttributedString *string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"hello I am a long sentence that should break over multiple lines"];
[string addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:13] range:NSMakeRange(0, [string length])];

contentLabel.attributedText = string;

But I what I need is to apply a number of attributes for different subranges of the NSAttributedString (to bold certain words).

UILabel *contentLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,200,100)];
[contentLabel setLineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByWordWrapping];
[contentLabel setNumberOfLines:0];
[contentLabel setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:13];

NSMutableAttributedString *string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"hello I am a long sentence that should break over multiple lines"];
[string addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:13] range:NSMakeRange(3, 5)];

contentLabel.attributedText = string;

What I am finding is that if I do this, the text isn't rendered over multiple lines in the label anymore. It is rendered as a single line, centered vertically in the label's frame.

Is there something I'm missing here?

I can't reproduce this on 6.1. I note that your code is slightly incorrect (there's a missing ] in the setFont: line and you use "label" instead of "contentLabel" in one place). Are you sure this is the actual code? — Rob Napier, Feb 27 '13 at 18:02
@Rob Napier: My bad, edited the code. I edited this code sample for presentation purposes - my actual code has a bit more going on, but this is the essence of where I have the issue. — adriaan, Feb 27 '13 at 21:10
@RobNapier : You are right, the sample I gave actually does work. It appears my problem is elsewhere in my code. — adriaan, Feb 27 '13 at 21:18
@KevinBallard : Turns out you were right, the required height I calculated for and assigned to the the label's frame was incorrect. Thanks for putting me on the right track. — adriaan, Feb 27 '13 at 21:47
You should probably write your last comment down as an answer and accept it, this way other users (like me) will see it immediately. — gchbib, Jul 30 '13 at 22:15

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 07 '14 at 21:08

4

As discussed in the question's comments, the code presented in the question actually works correctly, and does render the attributed string as intended. (The problem was elsewhere in my code)

answered May 07 '14 at 21:08

adriaan

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 14 '13 at 07:23

I use frequently the UITextView and assign it a text attributed with a similar way:

        // creiamo textView descrizione
    UITextView *description = [[UITextView alloc] init];
    description.frame = CGRectMake(20, 453, 500, 190);

    NSDictionary *attribute1 = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor blackColor],
                                     NSBackgroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor clearColor],
                                     NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue-Bold" size:22.0],
                                     };

    NSDictionary *attribute2 = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor blackColor],
                                        NSBackgroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor clearColor],
                                        NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue" size:10],
                                        };

    NSDictionary *attribute3 = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor blackColor],
                                           NSBackgroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor clearColor],
                                           NSFontAttributeName: [UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue" size:14.0]
                                           };

    NSMutableAttributedString *info = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@ %@ \n\n%@ \n     ", string1, string2 , string3, string4]];

    [info setAttributes:attribute1 range:NSMakeRange(0, ([string1 length]))];
    [info setAttributes:attribute2 range:NSMakeRange(([string1 length]),([string2 length]+[string3 length]))];
    [info setAttributes:attribute3 range:NSMakeRange(([string1 length] [string2 length]+[string3 length]), [string4 length])];

    description.attributedText = info;
    description.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    description.editable = NO;
    description.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    [viewInfo addSubview:description];
    [description sizeToFit];

How to render a multiline UILabel with NSMutableAttributedString

2 Answers2