UIView with a Dashed line

Question

What I have:

To create this line, I basically have a

Answer 1

Update Swift 5 & UIBezierPath

For those working with UIBezierPath instead of CAShapeLayer, here is how to achieve it

class MyView: UIView {

    override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {

        let path = UIBezierPath()
        // >> define the pattern & apply it 
        let dashPattern: [CGFloat] = [4.0, 4.0]
        path.setLineDash(dashPattern, count: dashPattern.count, phase: 0)
        // <<
        path.lineWidth = 1
        path.move(to: CGPoint(x: 0, y: 0))
        path.addLine(to: CGPoint(x: 100, y: 100))
        path.stroke()

    }
}

As said many times in this thread, you can play with the pattern and the phase to achieve a complex dotted line.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Note: The code from Prince did really help me out, so I will give him +10 for the tips. But in the end, I add to come with my own code. I will also add some context to it, so it can be useful for future readers

---

The final code was like this:

-(void)updateLine{

      // Important, otherwise we will be adding multiple sub layers
      if ([[[self layer] sublayers] objectAtIndex:0])
        {
            self.layer.sublayers = nil;
        }

        CAShapeLayer *shapeLayer = [CAShapeLayer layer];
        [shapeLayer setBounds:self.bounds];
        [shapeLayer setPosition:self.center];
        [shapeLayer setFillColor:[[UIColor clearColor] CGColor]];
        [shapeLayer setStrokeColor:[[UIColor blackColor] CGColor]];
        [shapeLayer setLineWidth:3.0f];
        [shapeLayer setLineJoin:kCALineJoinRound];
        [shapeLayer setLineDashPattern:
        [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSNumber numberWithInt:10],
        [NSNumber numberWithInt:5],nil]];

        // Setup the path
        CGMutablePathRef path = CGPathCreateMutable();
        CGPathMoveToPoint(path, NULL, beginPoint.center.x, beginPoint.center.y);
        CGPathAddLineToPoint(path, NULL, endPoint.center.x, endPoint.center.y);

        [shapeLayer setPath:path];
        CGPathRelease(path);

        [[self layer] addSublayer:shapeLayer];
}

In my case, the beginPoint and endPoint are movable by the user, by using KVO. So when one of them moves:

-(void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context
{
    if ([keyPath isEqual:@"position"])
    {
        [self updateLine];
    }
}

I did play a lot with Prince's code. I tried on the draw: method, which add a thin line between the dashed line (a bit weird...) and I also tried on initWithFrame:. By itself his code, without any modifications, would give me this kind of errors on the console:

<Error>: CGContextSaveGState: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextSetLineWidth: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextSetLineJoin: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextSetLineCap: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextSetMiterLimit: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextSetFlatness: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextAddPath: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextDrawPath: invalid context 0x0
<Error>: CGContextRestoreGState: invalid context 0x0