Animate text change in UILabel

Question

I\'m setting a new text value to a UILabel. Currently, the new text appears just fine. However, I\'d like to add some animation when the new text appears. I\

Answer 1

since iOS4 it can be obviously done with blocks:

[UIView animateWithDuration:1.0
                 animations:^{
                     label.alpha = 0.0f;
                     label.text = newText;
                     label.alpha = 1.0f;
                 }];

Answer 2

Swift 2.0:

UIView.transitionWithView(self.view, duration: 1.0, options: UIViewAnimationOptions.TransitionCrossDissolve, animations: {
    self.sampleLabel.text = "Animation Fade1"
    }, completion: { (finished: Bool) -> () in
        self.sampleLabel.text = "Animation Fade - 34"
})

OR

UIView.animateWithDuration(0.2, animations: {
    self.sampleLabel.alpha = 1
}, completion: {
    (value: Bool) in
    self.sampleLabel.alpha = 0.2
})

Answer 3

There is one more solution to achieve this. It was described here. The idea is subclassing UILabel and overriding action(for:forKey:) function in the following way:

class LabelWithAnimatedText: UILabel {
    override var text: String? {
        didSet {
            self.layer.setValue(self.text, forKey: "text")
        }
    }

    override func action(for layer: CALayer, forKey event: String) -> CAAction? {
        if event == "text" {
            if let action = self.action(for: layer, forKey: "backgroundColor") as? CAAnimation {
                let transition = CATransition()
                transition.type = kCATransitionFade

                //CAMediatiming attributes
                transition.beginTime = action.beginTime
                transition.duration = action.duration
                transition.speed = action.speed
                transition.timeOffset = action.timeOffset
                transition.repeatCount = action.repeatCount
                transition.repeatDuration = action.repeatDuration
                transition.autoreverses = action.autoreverses
                transition.fillMode = action.fillMode

                //CAAnimation attributes
                transition.timingFunction = action.timingFunction
                transition.delegate = action.delegate

                return transition
            }
        }
        return super.action(for: layer, forKey: event)
    }
}

Usage examples:

// do not forget to set the "Custom Class" IB-property to "LabelWithAnimatedText"
// @IBOutlet weak var myLabel: LabelWithAnimatedText!
// ...

UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.5) {
    myLabel.text = "I am animated!"
}

myLabel.text = "I am not animated!"

Answer 4

The system default values of 0.25 for duration and .curveEaseInEaseOut for timingFunction are often preferable for consistency across animations, and can be omitted:

let animation = CATransition()
label.layer.add(animation, forKey: nil)
label.text = "New text"

which is the same as writing this:

let animation = CATransition()
animation.duration = 0.25
animation.timingFunction = .curveEaseInEaseOut
label.layer.add(animation, forKey: nil)
label.text = "New text"

Answer 5

Swift 4

The proper way to fade a UILabel (or any UIView for that matter) is to use a Core Animation Transition. This will not flicker, nor will it fade to black if the content is unchanged.

A portable and clean solution is to use a Extension in Swift (invoke prior changing visible elements)

// Usage: insert view.fadeTransition right before changing content


extension UIView {
    func fadeTransition(_ duration:CFTimeInterval) {
        let animation = CATransition()
        animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction(name:
            CAMediaTimingFunctionName.easeInEaseOut)
        animation.type = CATransitionType.fade
        animation.duration = duration
        layer.add(animation, forKey: CATransitionType.fade.rawValue)
    }
}

Invocation looks like this:

// This will fade
aLabel.fadeTransition(0.4)
aLabel.text = "text"

---

► Find this solution on GitHub and additional details on Swift Recipes.

Answer 6

Swift 4.2 version of SwiftArchitect's solution above (works great):

    // Usage: insert view.fadeTransition right before changing content    

extension UIView {

        func fadeTransition(_ duration:CFTimeInterval) {
            let animation = CATransition()
            animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction(name: CAMediaTimingFunctionName.easeInEaseOut)
            animation.type = CATransitionType.fade
            animation.duration = duration
            layer.add(animation, forKey: CATransitionType.fade.rawValue)
        }
    }

Invocation:

    // This will fade

aLabel.fadeTransition(0.4)
aLabel.text = "text"