How to find topmost view controller on iOS

Question

I\'ve run into a couple of cases now where it would be convenient to be able to find the \"topmost\" view controller (the one responsible for the current view), but haven\'t

Answer 1

I recently got this situation in one my project, which required to displayed a notification view whatever the controller displayed was and whatever was the type (UINavigationController, classic controller or custom view controller), when network status changed.

So I juste released my code, which is quite easy and actually based on a protocol so that it is flexible with every type of container controller. It seems to be related with the last answers, but in a much flexible way.

You can grab the code here : PPTopMostController

And got the top most controller using

UIViewController *c = [UIViewController topMostController];

Answer 2

A complete non-recursive version, taking care of different scenarios:

• The view controller is presenting another view
• The view controller is a UINavigationController
• The view controller is a UITabBarController

Objective-C

 UIViewController *topViewController = self.window.rootViewController;
 while (true)
 {
     if (topViewController.presentedViewController) {
         topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
         UINavigationController *nav = (UINavigationController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = nav.topViewController;
     } else if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
         UITabBarController *tab = (UITabBarController *)topViewController;
         topViewController = tab.selectedViewController;
     } else {
         break;
     }
 }

Swift 4+

extension UIWindow {
    func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        var top = self.rootViewController
        while true {
            if let presented = top?.presentedViewController {
                top = presented
            } else if let nav = top as? UINavigationController {
                top = nav.visibleViewController
            } else if let tab = top as? UITabBarController {
                top = tab.selectedViewController
            } else {
                break
            }
        }
        return top
    }
}

Answer 3

A concise yet comprehensive solution in Swift 4.2, takes into account UINavigationControllers, UITabBarControllers, presented and child view controllers:

extension UIViewController {
  func topmostViewController() -> UIViewController {
    if let navigationVC = self as? UINavigationController,
      let topVC = navigationVC.topViewController {
      return topVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    if let tabBarVC = self as? UITabBarController,
      let selectedVC = tabBarVC.selectedViewController {
      return selectedVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    if let presentedVC = presentedViewController {
      return presentedVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    if let childVC = children.last {
      return childVC.topmostViewController()
    }
    return self
  }
}

extension UIApplication {
  func topmostViewController() -> UIViewController? {
    return keyWindow?.rootViewController?.topmostViewController()
  }
}

Usage:

let viewController = UIApplication.shared.topmostViewController()

Answer 4

This is an improvement to Eric's answer:

UIViewController *_topMostController(UIViewController *cont) {
    UIViewController *topController = cont;

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    if ([topController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UIViewController *visible = ((UINavigationController *)topController).visibleViewController;
        if (visible) {
            topController = visible;
        }
    }

    return (topController != cont ? topController : nil);
}

UIViewController *topMostController() {
    UIViewController *topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    UIViewController *next = nil;

    while ((next = _topMostController(topController)) != nil) {
        topController = next;
    }

    return topController;
}

_topMostController(UIViewController *cont) is a helper function.

Now all you need to do is call topMostController() and the top most UIViewController should be returned!

Answer 5

Swift 4.2 Extension

---

extension UIApplication {

    class func topViewController(controller: UIViewController? = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController) -> UIViewController? {
        if let navigationController = controller as? UINavigationController {
            return topViewController(controller: navigationController.visibleViewController)
        }
        if let tabController = controller as? UITabBarController {
            if let selected = tabController.selectedViewController {
                return topViewController(controller: selected)
            }
        }
        if let presented = controller?.presentedViewController {


            return topViewController(controller: presented)
        }
        return controller
    }
}

Use it from anywhere like,

 UIApplication.topViewController()?.present(yourController, animated: true, completion: nil)

or like,

 UIApplication.topViewController()?
                    .navigationController?
                    .popToViewController(yourController,
                                         animated: true)

Fit to any classes like UINavigationController, UITabBarController

Enjoy!

Answer 6

Great solution in Swift, implement in AppDelegate

func getTopViewController()->UIViewController{
    return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow!.rootViewController!)
}
func topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController:UIViewController)->UIViewController{
    if rootViewController is UITabBarController{
        let tabBarController = rootViewController as! UITabBarController
        return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(tabBarController.selectedViewController!)
    }
    if rootViewController is UINavigationController{
        let navBarController = rootViewController as! UINavigationController
        return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(navBarController.visibleViewController)
    }
    if let presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController {
        return topViewControllerWithRootViewController(presentedViewController)
    }
    return rootViewController
}