Is there a way to remove of add a tab to a tab bar dynamically while using the app in iOS?

Question

I have a tab bar with 5 tabs on it in my app. The final tab shows some ads. I want to add a setting where a user can turn that 5th tab "off".... so essentially I just remove it from the screen.

Note that I don't want to HIDE it, I want to REMOVE it, so that the 4 remaining tabs are evenly spaced automatically.

I want to do the same with ADDING the tab back in.

Is it possible to do this without the user having to restart the app?

See a related question here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5909727/how-to-remove-programmatically-a-tab-bar-item-created-in-parent-class-nib-file — architectpianist, May 10 '13 at 00:07
http://luventas-webdesign.de/2012/09/19/remove-add-hide-uitabbaritems-on-the-fly/ — Mohammad Razipour, Mar 06 '20 at 08:14

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered May 10 '13 at 00:09

You just need to use UITabBarController's viewControllers property.

Use this code to remove the last view controller:

NSMutableArray *mutableViewControllers = [tabBarController.viewControllers mutableCopy];
[mutableViewControllers removeLastObject];
tabBarController.viewControllers = mutableViewControllers;

Use this code to restore the last view controller when needed:

NSMutableArray *mutableViewControllers = [tabBarController.viewControllers mutableCopy];
[mutableViewControllers addObject:previouslyRemovedViewController];
tabBarController.viewControllers = mutableViewControllers;

Of course this example assumes that you have a reference to tabBarController, and that you keep your lastViewController (on a property for example).

Also, make sure to run this code on the main thread.

Is there a way to remove of add a tab to a tab bar dynamically while using the app in iOS?

1 Answers1