I have a UILabel that is visible only when my UITableView is empty. How can I center the text of that label in Swift?

Question

I have a UITableView in my app and I want to present there a UILabel when there is no content. So far I'm doing:

@IBOutlet var tview: UITableView!

var emptyLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(0, 10, 100, 100))

override func viewDidLoad(){

    let refreshControl = UIRefreshControl()

    refreshControl.addTarget(self, action: "refresh:", forControlEvents: .ValueChanged)
    refreshControl.attributedTitle = NSAttributedString(string: "last updated on \(NSDate())")

    tview.separatorStyle = UITableViewCellSeparatorStyle.None
    tview.addSubview(refreshControl)


    emptyLabel.numberOfLines = 0
    emptyLabel.text = "There is no content in this table for now. Please pull down the list to refresh and something should appear"
    emptyLabel.font = emptyLabel.font.fontWithSize(10)
    tview.backgroundView = emptyLabel
}

But when I do like that, I have the following result:

and instead of the alignment to the left I would like to center the text, so that it looks something like:

       There is no content in this table for now. Please pull down the
                list to refresh and something should appear

Also, currently it's centered vertically - is there a way of putting this message let's say in 1/3 of the screen from the top?

====== EDIT

@Md.Muzahidul Islam this is how I present the label when the table is empty:

override func tableView(tview: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {

    if self.items.count == 0{
        self.emptyLabel.hidden = false
        return 0
    } else {
        self.emptyLabel.hidden = true
    return self.items.count;
    }
}

When your data array count is zero then in return 1 for the datasource method 'numberOfCellForTheSection' and add your emptyLabel as subview of cell content view in your cellForIndexpath data source method. — Muzahid, Mar 20 '16 at 12:12
@Md.MuzahidulIslam please check the update to my question - this is how I show the label so far. Can you post an answer of how could I do it your way? — user3766930, Mar 20 '16 at 12:16
Did you check `emptyLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center` ? — Midhun MP, Mar 20 '16 at 12:19
`emptyLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center` this did the trick! but what about the vertical alignment then? — user3766930, Mar 20 '16 at 12:23

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

You can achieve this by:

override func viewDidLoad()
{
   // Other codes
   emptyLabel               = UILabel(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, tview.bounds.size.width, view.bounds.size.height))
   emptyLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignment.Center
   emptyLabel.numberOfLines = 0
   emptyLabel.text          = "There is no content in this table for now. Please pull down the list to refresh and something should appear"
   emptyLabel.font          = emptyLabel.font.fontWithSize(10)
   tview.backgroundView     = emptyLabel
}

You can read more about it here

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '17 at 07:25

Swift3.0

I hope it server your purpose...... In your UITableViewController .

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    if searchController.isActive && searchController.searchBar.text != "" {
        if filteredContacts.count > 0 {
            self.tableView.backgroundView = .none;
            return filteredContacts.count
        } else {
            Helper.EmptyMessage(message: ConstantMap.NO_CONTACT_FOUND, viewController: self)
            return 0
        }
    } else {
        if contacts.count > 0 {
            self.tableView.backgroundView = .none;
            return contacts.count
        } else {
            Helper.EmptyMessage(message: ConstantMap.NO_CONTACT_FOUND, viewController: self)
            return 0
        }
    }
}

Helper Class with function :

 /* Description: This function generate alert dialog for empty message by passing message and
           associated viewcontroller for that function
           - Parameters:
            - message: message that require for  empty alert message
            - viewController: selected viewcontroller at that time
         */
        static func EmptyMessage(message:String, viewController:UITableViewController) {
            let messageLabel = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: viewController.view.bounds.size.width, height: viewController.view.bounds.size.height))
            messageLabel.text = message
            let bubbleColor = UIColor(red: CGFloat(57)/255, green: CGFloat(81)/255, blue: CGFloat(104)/255, alpha :1)

            messageLabel.textColor = bubbleColor
            messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
            messageLabel.textAlignment = .center;
            messageLabel.font = UIFont(name: "TrebuchetMS", size: 18)
            messageLabel.sizeToFit()

            viewController.tableView.backgroundView = messageLabel;
            viewController.tableView.separatorStyle = .none;
        }

I have a UILabel that is visible only when my UITableView is empty. How can I center the text of that label in Swift?

2 Answers2