UIButton with two lines of text in the title (numberOfLines=2)

Question

I'm trying to make a UIButton that has two lines of text in its titleLabel. This is the code I'm using:

    UIButton *titleButton = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(15, 10, frame.size.width-100, 100)];
    titleButton.titleLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:24.0];
    [titleButton setTitle:@"This text is very long and should get truncated at the end of the second line" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    titleButton.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeTailTruncation;
    titleButton.titleLabel.numberOfLines = 2;
    [self addSubview:titleButton];

When I try this, the text only appears on one line. It seems the only way to achieve more than one line of text in UIButton.titleLabel is to set numberOfLines=0 and use UILineBreakModeWordWrap. But this doesn't guarantee the text to be exactly two lines.

Using a plain UILabel, however, does work:

    UILabel *titleLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(15, 10, frame.size.width-100, 100)];
    titleLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:24.0];
    titleLabel.text = @"This text is very long and should get truncated at the end of the second line";
    titleLabel.numberOfLines = 2;
    titleLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeTailTruncation;
    [self addSubview:titleLabel];

Does anyone know how to make the UIButton work with two lines? Is the only solution to create a separate UILabel to hold the text, and add it as a subview of the button?

Answer 1

You don't need to add a UILabel to the UIButton. That's just extra objects and work.

Set these properties on the titleLabel of your button.

button.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
button.titleLabel.numberOfLines = 2;//if you want unlimited number of lines put 0

Swift:

button.titleLabel!.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.ByWordWrapping
button.titleLabel!.numberOfLines = 2//if you want unlimited number of lines put 0