How to set top-left alignment for UILabel for iOS application?

Question

I have added one label in my nib file, then its required to have top-left alignment for that lable. As I am providing text at runtime so its not sure that how much lines there are. So if text contains only single line then it appears as vertical-center aligned. That alignment is not matching with my respective lable in front of it.

For example:

Which is looking odd :(

Is there any way where i can set label text proper to Top-Left alignment?

Answer 1

It's fairly easy to do. Create a UILabel sublcass with a verticalAlignment property and override textRectForBounds:limitedToNumberOfLines to return the correct bounds for a top, middle or bottom vertical alignment. Here's the code:

SOLabel.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

typedef enum
{
    VerticalAlignmentTop = 0, // default
    VerticalAlignmentMiddle,
    VerticalAlignmentBottom,
} VerticalAlignment;

@interface SOLabel : UILabel

   @property (nonatomic, readwrite) VerticalAlignment verticalAlignment;

@end

SOLabel.m

@implementation SOLabel

-(id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (!self) return nil;

    // set inital value via IVAR so the setter isn't called
    _verticalAlignment = VerticalAlignmentTop;

    return self;
}

-(VerticalAlignment) verticalAlignment
{
    return _verticalAlignment;
}

-(void) setVerticalAlignment:(VerticalAlignment)value
{
    _verticalAlignment = value;
    [self setNeedsDisplay];
}

// align text block according to vertical alignment settings
-(CGRect)textRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds 
    limitedToNumberOfLines:(NSInteger)numberOfLines
{
   CGRect rect = [super textRectForBounds:bounds 
                   limitedToNumberOfLines:numberOfLines];
    CGRect result;
    switch (_verticalAlignment)
    {
       case VerticalAlignmentTop:
          result = CGRectMake(bounds.origin.x, bounds.origin.y, 
                              rect.size.width, rect.size.height);
           break;

       case VerticalAlignmentMiddle:
          result = CGRectMake(bounds.origin.x, 
                    bounds.origin.y + (bounds.size.height - rect.size.height) / 2,
                    rect.size.width, rect.size.height);
          break;

       case VerticalAlignmentBottom:
          result = CGRectMake(bounds.origin.x, 
                    bounds.origin.y + (bounds.size.height - rect.size.height),
                    rect.size.width, rect.size.height);
          break;

       default:
          result = bounds;
          break;
    }
    return result;
}

-(void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    CGRect r = [self textRectForBounds:rect 
                limitedToNumberOfLines:self.numberOfLines];
    [super drawTextInRect:r];
}

@end