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

If you would like to do this in Swift with a delay try this:

delay(1.0) {
        UIView.transitionWithView(self.introLabel, duration: 0.25, options: [.TransitionCrossDissolve], animations: {
            self.yourLabel.text = "2"
            }, completion:  { finished in

                self.delay(1.0) {
                    UIView.transitionWithView(self.introLabel, duration: 0.25, options: [.TransitionCrossDissolve], animations: {
                        self.yourLabel.text = "1"
                        }, completion:  { finished in

                    })
                }

        })
    }

using the following function created by @matt - https://stackoverflow.com/a/24318861/1982051:

func delay(delay:Double, closure:()->()) {
    dispatch_after(
        dispatch_time(
            DISPATCH_TIME_NOW,
            Int64(delay * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC))
        ),
        dispatch_get_main_queue(), closure)
}

which will become this in Swift 3

func delay(_ delay:Double, closure:()->()) {
    let when = DispatchTime.now() + delay
    DispatchQueue.main.after(when: when, execute: closure)
}

Answer 2

With Swift 5, you can choose one of the two following Playground code samples in order to animate your UILabel's text changes with some cross dissolve animation.

---

#1. Using UIView's transition(with:duration:options:animations:completion:) class method

import UIKit
import PlaygroundSupport

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let label = UILabel()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        label.text = "Car"

        view.backgroundColor = .white
        view.addSubview(label)

        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        label.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
        label.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor).isActive = true

        let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(toggle(_:)))
        view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
    }

    @objc func toggle(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
        let animation = {
            self.label.text = self.label.text == "Car" ? "Plane" : "Car"
        }
        UIView.transition(with: label, duration: 2, options: .transitionCrossDissolve, animations: animation, completion: nil)
    }

}

let controller = ViewController()
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = controller

---

#2. Using CATransition and CALayer's add(_:forKey:) method

import UIKit
import PlaygroundSupport

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let label = UILabel()
    let animation = CATransition()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        label.text = "Car"

        animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction(name: CAMediaTimingFunctionName.easeInEaseOut)
        // animation.type = CATransitionType.fade // default is fade
        animation.duration = 2

        view.backgroundColor = .white
        view.addSubview(label)

        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        label.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
        label.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor).isActive = true

        let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(toggle(_:)))
        view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
    }

    @objc func toggle(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
        label.layer.add(animation, forKey: nil) // The special key kCATransition is automatically used for transition animations
        label.text = label.text == "Car" ? "Plane" : "Car"
    }

}

let controller = ViewController()
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = controller

Answer 3

Swift 4.2 solution (taking 4.0 answer and updating for new enums to compile)

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)
    }
}

func updateLabel() {
myLabel.fadeTransition(0.4)
myLabel.text = "Hello World"
}

Answer 4

This is a C# UIView extension method that's based on @SwiftArchitect's code. When auto layout is involved and controls need to move depending on the label's text, this calling code uses the Superview of the label as the transition view instead of the label itself. I added a lambda expression for the action to make it more encapsulated.

public static void FadeTransition( this UIView AView, double ADuration, Action AAction )
{
  CATransition transition = new CATransition();

  transition.Duration = ADuration;
  transition.TimingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction.FromName( CAMediaTimingFunction.Linear );
  transition.Type = CATransition.TransitionFade;

  AView.Layer.AddAnimation( transition, transition.Type );
  AAction();
}

Calling code:

  labelSuperview.FadeTransition( 0.5d, () =>
  {
    if ( condition )
      label.Text = "Value 1";
    else
      label.Text = "Value 2";
  } );

Answer 5

I wonder if it works, and it works perfectly!

Objective-C

[UIView transitionWithView:self.label 
                  duration:0.25f 
                   options:UIViewAnimationOptionTransitionCrossDissolve 
                animations:^{

    self.label.text = rand() % 2 ? @"Nice nice!" : @"Well done!";

  } completion:nil];

Swift 3, 4, 5

UIView.transition(with: label,
              duration: 0.25,
               options: .transitionCrossDissolve,
            animations: { [weak self] in
                self?.label.text = (arc4random()() % 2 == 0) ? "One" : "Two"
         }, completion: nil)

Answer 6

Objective-C

To achieve a true cross-dissolve transition (old label fading out while new label fading in), you don't want fade to invisible. It would result in unwanted flicker even if text is unchanged.

Use this approach instead:

CATransition *animation = [CATransition animation];
animation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseInEaseOut];
animation.type = kCATransitionFade;
animation.duration = 0.75;
[aLabel.layer addAnimation:animation forKey:@"kCATransitionFade"];

// This will fade:
aLabel.text = "New"

Also see: Animate UILabel text between two numbers?

Demonstration in iOS 10, 9, 8:

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Tested with Xcode 8.2.1 & 7.1, ObjectiveC on iOS 10 to 8.0.

► To download the full project, search for SO-3073520 in Swift Recipes.