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 know its very late and might be redundant. But following is the snippet I came up with which is working for me :

    static func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        return topViewController(vc: UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController)
    }

    private static func topViewController(vc:UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let rootVC = vc {
            guard let presentedVC = rootVC.presentedViewController else {
                return rootVC
            }
            if let presentedNavVC = presentedVC as? UINavigationController {
                let lastVC = presentedNavVC.viewControllers.last
                return topViewController(vc: lastVC)
            }
            return topViewController(vc: presentedVC)
        }
        return nil
    }

Answer 2

Another solution relies on the responder chain, which may or may not work depending on what the first responder is:

1. Get the first responder.
2. Get the UIViewController associated with that first responder.

Example pseudo code:

+ (UIViewController *)currentViewController {
    UIView *firstResponder = [self firstResponder]; // from the first link above, but not guaranteed to return a UIView, so this should be handled more appropriately.
    UIViewController *viewController = [firstResponder viewController]; // from the second link above
    return viewController;
}

Answer 3

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)rootViewController {
    if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navigationController = (UINavigationController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navigationController.visibleViewController];
    } else if (rootViewController.presentedViewController) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    } else {
        return rootViewController;
    }
}

Answer 4

For latest Swift Version:
Create a file, name it UIWindowExtension.swift and paste the following snippet:

import UIKit

public extension UIWindow {
    public var visibleViewController: UIViewController? {
        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(self.rootViewController)
    }

    public static func getVisibleViewControllerFrom(vc: UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let nc = vc as? UINavigationController {
            return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(nc.visibleViewController)
        } else if let tc = vc as? UITabBarController {
            return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(tc.selectedViewController)
        } else {
            if let pvc = vc?.presentedViewController {
                return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(pvc)
            } else {
                return vc
            }
        }
    }
}

func getTopViewController() -> UIViewController? {
    let appDelegate = UIApplication.sharedApplication().delegate
    if let window = appDelegate!.window {
        return window?.visibleViewController
    }
    return nil
}

Use it anywhere as:

if let topVC = getTopViewController() {

}

Answer 5

@implementation UIWindow (Extensions)

- (UIViewController*) topMostController
{
    UIViewController *topController = [self rootViewController];

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

    return topController;
}

@end

Answer 6

Simple extension for UIApplication in Swift:

NOTE:

It cares about moreNavigationController within UITabBarController

extension UIApplication {

    class func topViewController(baseViewController: UIViewController? = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController) -> UIViewController? {

        if let navigationController = baseViewController as? UINavigationController {
            return topViewController(navigationController.visibleViewController)
        }

        if let tabBarViewController = baseViewController as? UITabBarController {

            let moreNavigationController = tabBarViewController.moreNavigationController

            if let topViewController = moreNavigationController.topViewController where topViewController.view.window != nil {
                return topViewController(topViewController)
            } else if let selectedViewController = tabBarViewController.selectedViewController {
                return topViewController(selectedViewController)
            }
        }

        if let splitViewController = baseViewController as? UISplitViewController where splitViewController.viewControllers.count == 1 {
            return topViewController(splitViewController.viewControllers[0])
        }

        if let presentedViewController = baseViewController?.presentedViewController {
            return topViewController(presentedViewController)
        }

        return baseViewController
    }
}

Simple usage:

if let topViewController = UIApplication.topViewController() {
    //do sth with top view controller
}