Programmatically setting tabBarItem title in Swift

Question

I have four UIViewControllers that are linked to a UITabBarController's tab bar. I need to set the tab bar item titles outside of the storyboard, and inside of their classes.

I've tried..

class MyViewController: UIViewController {

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)

        self.title = NSLocalizedString(MyConstants.StringKeys.TabName, tableName: Constants.Strings.MyTable, comment: Constants.EmptyString);
    }
}

This is called, but the title is never set. Same with self.tabBarItem.title = "the title"

I've also tried setting the title in viewDidLoad, but that only updates the title after going to the view controller.

Thoughts?

keithbhunter · Answer 1 · 2017-10-06T14:38:11.020

42

You can set the tab titles in the view controllers themselves in viewDidLoad by setting the view controller's title property.

title = "Number 0"

Alternatively, if want to set the titles from your tab bar controller, you can set them like this in your tab bar controller's viewDidLoad:

tabBar.items?[0].title = "Number 0"
tabBar.items?[1].title = "Number 1"

edited Oct 06 '17 at 14:38

answered Dec 10 '14 at 18:11

keithbhunter

12,258
4
33
58

11

IMHO tabBar shouldn't give a sh*t about how its view controllers are named. – vahotm Sep 26 '17 at 10:45
2

@vahotm use `self.navigationItem.title = "Number 0"` in that case – Nike Kov Jan 26 '18 at 15:04

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 10 '14 at 18:11

I figured it out, looks like it was being over written by awakeFromNib().

override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()

    self.title = NSLocalizedString(MyConstants.StringKeys.TabName, tableName: Constants.Strings.MyTable, comment: Constants.EmptyString);
}

I moved my self.title assignment there and it corrected my issue.

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 14:22

14

I've been trying different solutions but the only one what worked for me was adding the tab bar set up the code in the viewWillAppear method in the UITabBarController. I don't do it in each view controller individually because it works only when the tab bar button is pressed:

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)

    guard let items = tabBar.items else { return }

    items[0].title = "Title0"
    items[1].title = "Title1"
    items[2].title = "Title2"
    items[3].title = "Title3"
}

answered Oct 05 '17 at 14:22

Ginés SM

233
2
5

1

This works for me. I tried both viewDidLoad() and awakeFromNib() but not working from there. By the way, I don't think guard ... is good. You do want to get exception if failed to set titles for 3 items. – David.Chu.ca Dec 03 '17 at 05:08
This works for me.. viewDidLoad is not working.. – chengsam Jan 03 '22 at 10:39

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 31 '16 at 22:25

8

Here is the solution in every viewController.swift file you can just add the following code

    override func awakeFromNib() {
    self.tabBarItem.title = "title"
    self.tabBarItem.image = "image.png"
}

That's a super easy awakeFromNib method and you can easily call any thing when nib has created simple on start because in ViewDidLoad or any viewControllerDelegate method called when you clicked or select. So that's a super easy function.

Thanks.

answered Dec 31 '16 at 22:25

Poran Ramen

123
2
8

2

Note that if your view controller is in a UINavigationController (that you didn't subclass), you can use `navigationController?.tabBarItem.title = "title"`` – Dulgan Jun 01 '18 at 13:57
1

@dulgan Thanks, that's what I was looking for ! – ElectroBuddha Aug 30 '19 at 07:52

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 06 '21 at 11:01

In ViewDidLoad on first Viewcontroller do this:

override func viewDidLoad() {

...

    self.tabBarController?.viewControllers?[1].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Home", comment: "")
    self.tabBarController?.viewControllers?[2].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Tab 1", comment: "")
    self.tabBarController?.viewControllers?[3].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Tab 2", comment: "")
    self.tabBarController?.viewControllers?[4].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Tab 3", comment: "")

...
}

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 10 '21 at 02:52

In Swift 5:

Create Custom Tabbar class.

In ViewDidLoad add:

 self.viewControllers?[0].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Home", comment: "")
 self.viewControllers?[1].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Action", comment: "")
 self.viewControllers?[2].tabBarItem.title = NSLocalizedString("Find LifePass", comment: "")

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 21 '18 at 12:19

If you create your ViewControllers programmatically before putting to the TabBarController, try this:

override init(style: UITableViewStyle) {
    super.init(style: style)

    self.title = "Title"
}

or this, if it is not a TableViewController:

override init(nibName nibNameOrNil: String?, bundle nibBundleOrNil: Bundle?) {
    super.init(nibName: nibNameOrNil, bundle: nibBundleOrNil)

    self.title = "Title"
}

Programmatically setting tabBarItem title in Swift

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