Remove text from Back button keeping the icon

Question

I want to remove the text from the back button, but I want to keep the icon. I have tried

let backButton = UIBarButtonItem(title: \"\", style: UIBarButtonIt         


        

Answer 1

The method of @rmd2 is almost right, but instead you should select the navigation bar of the controller to which back button will point to and type " " in the Back Button field.

Answer 2

Details

• Xcode Version 10.2.1 (10E1001), Swift 5

Solution

1. Create custom class of the UINavigationController

import UIKit

class NavigationController: UINavigationController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        delegate = self
    }
}

extension NavigationController: UINavigationControllerDelegate {
    func navigationController(_ navigationController: UINavigationController, willShow viewController: UIViewController, animated: Bool) {
        if viewController.navigationItemBackButtonTextIsHidden {
            viewController.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
        }
    }
}

2. Add UIViewController extension

import UIKit

extension UIViewController {
    @objc var navigationItemBackButtonTextIsHidden: Bool { return false }
}

3. Update your ViewController class

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override var navigationItemBackButtonTextIsHidden: Bool { return true }
}

Full sample

import UIKit

// MARK: - ViewController

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    var screenCounter = 1

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        setupNavigationItem()
    }

    override var navigationItemBackButtonTextIsHidden: Bool { return (screenCounter % 2) == 0 }
}

extension ViewController {

    private func setupNavigationItem() {
        navigationItem.title = "VC \(screenCounter)"
        navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "push", style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(pushBarButtonTouchedUpInside))
    }

    @objc func pushBarButtonTouchedUpInside(button: UIBarButtonItem) {
        guard let navigationController = navigationController else { return }
        let viewController = ViewController()
        viewController.screenCounter = screenCounter + 1
        viewController.view.backgroundColor = .white
        navigationController.pushViewController(viewController, animated: true)
    }
}

// MARK: - NavigationController

class NavigationController: UINavigationController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        delegate = self
    }
}

extension NavigationController: UINavigationControllerDelegate {
    func navigationController(_ navigationController: UINavigationController, willShow viewController: UIViewController, animated: Bool) {
        if viewController.navigationItemBackButtonTextIsHidden {
            viewController.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
        }
    }
}

// MARK: - UIViewController extension

extension UIViewController {
    @objc var navigationItemBackButtonTextIsHidden: Bool { return false }
}

Result

Answer 3

For me this did the trick:

override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(true)
    self.navigationItem.title = " "
}

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    self.navigationItem.title = "my amazing title"
    navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: " ", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
}

Notice that if you only set the title without modifying the backBarButtonItem it will appear to work. But if you try to go back using a gesture and than cancel and stay on the pushed view controller, the back title will come back.

Working in Swift 4

Answer 4

After Searching a lot I found best and simple solution, this will affect all the viewControllers written in Swift 4.2 and also working in Swift 5

extension UIViewController {
    open override func awakeFromNib() {
        navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "", style: .plain, target: nil, action: nil)
    }  
}

Answer 5

I solved this problem by adding a " " on the StoryBoard Title of the previous ViewController. Just a space, not empty ;D

Answer 6

I've tried a couple of answers and I can't get them to work in all cases. So this is a workaround to not affect the title of the navigation bar if it's set.

    guard let items = viewController.navigationController?.navigationBar.items else { return }
    for item in items {
        if item.title == nil {
            item.title = ""
        }
    }