How can my iphone app detect its own version number?

Question

I'm writing an iPhone app. It's already been published, but I would like to add a feature where its version number is displayed.

I'd rather not have to do this manually with each version I release...

Is there a way in objective-C to find out what the version is of my app?

This question has already been answered here http://stackoverflow.com/a/16888788/2890157. — Akshat Singhal, Oct 22 '13 at 05:28
.. the linked question is 4 year later, so the real issue here is that cmos never *accepted* an answer. Regardless, the linked question's answers are useful, as are the answers here. On both threads, look beyond first answer - sometimes there is more up-to-date info on a later answer. — ToolmakerSteve, Jan 30 '17 at 19:40

score 224 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

224

As I describe here, I use a script to rewrite a header file with my current Subversion revision number. That revision number is stored in the kRevisionNumber constant. I can then access the version and revision number using something similar to the following:

[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Version %@ (%@)", [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleVersion"], kRevisionNumber]

which will create a string of the format "Version 1.0 (51)".

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Jan 19 '09 at 19:00

Brad Larson

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That returned my build version so I used this one. [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleShortVersionString"] – jspooner May 19 '12 at 02:08
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CFBundleVersion is incorrect, because Xcode erroneously populates that plist entry with the build number and not the version number. jspooner is correct. – Oscar Jan 30 '13 at 20:34
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See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6851660/version-vs-build-in-xcode-4 for a great explanation of Version vs Build numbers. Confirms that `CFBundleShortVersionString` what you'd normally want for 'version' and `CFBundleVersion` for Build number. – Rory Feb 02 '13 at 18:15
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kRevisionNumber doen't seem to work for me. To get the output specified I did this (using @jspooner 's fix): `[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Version: %@ (%@)", [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleShortVersionString"], [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleVersion"]]` – Adam Apr 30 '15 at 18:19

score 151 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 15 '12 at 04:13

Building on Brad Larson's answer, if you have major and minor version info stored in the info plist (as I did on a particular project), this worked well for me:

- (NSString *)appNameAndVersionNumberDisplayString {
    NSDictionary *infoDictionary = [[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary];
    NSString *appDisplayName = [infoDictionary objectForKey:@"CFBundleDisplayName"];
    NSString *majorVersion = [infoDictionary objectForKey:@"CFBundleShortVersionString"];
    NSString *minorVersion = [infoDictionary objectForKey:@"CFBundleVersion"];

    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@, Version %@ (%@)", 
                appDisplayName, majorVersion, minorVersion];
}

Now revving a minor version manually can be a pain, and so using a source repository revision number trick is ideal. If you've not tied that in (as I hadn't), the above snippet can be useful. It also pulls out the app's display name.

score 60 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 13 '16 at 16:50

Swift version for both separately:

Swift 3

let versionNumber = Bundle.main.object(forInfoDictionaryKey: "CFBundleShortVersionString") as! String
let buildNumber = Bundle.main.object(forInfoDictionaryKey: "CFBundleVersion") as! String

Swift 2

let versionNumber = NSBundle.mainBundle().objectForInfoDictionaryKey("CFBundleShortVersionString") as! String
let buildNumber = NSBundle.mainBundle().objectForInfoDictionaryKey("CFBundleVersion") as! String

Its included in this repo, check it out:

https://github.com/goktugyil/EZSwiftExtensions

score 43 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 02 '13 at 20:01

43

This is what I did in my application

NSString *appVersion = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleVersion"];

Hopefully this simple answer will help somebody...

answered Nov 02 '13 at 20:01

Arkady

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This return the build name, not version – chancyWu May 07 '14 at 04:14
@chancyWu, CFBundleShortVersionString appears to give the version. – Brian F Leighty Aug 03 '16 at 17:45

score 31 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 26 '12 at 00:43

31

You can specify the CFBundleShortVersionString string in your plist.info and read that programmatically using the provided API.

edited Apr 26 '12 at 00:43

CharlesB

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answered Jan 19 '09 at 18:46

Jasper Bekkers

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score 30 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 08 '16 at 09:16

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There are two things - build version and app version.

To get App version:

NSString *appVersion = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleShortVersionString"];

To get Build version:

NSString *buildVersion = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleVersion"];

edited Aug 08 '16 at 09:16

Pang

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answered Jan 23 '15 at 09:01

Shaik Riyaz

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Is there any difference between these two? They both return the same for me. – jjnevis Mar 19 '15 at 13:21
yes , may be your build number and app version are same in settings . – Shaik Riyaz Mar 19 '15 at 13:29
Okay, I only have one setting in my RAKEFILE - app.version (I'm using RubyMotion). I guess either will do for my needs. Thanks – jjnevis Mar 19 '15 at 16:40
Thanks, mate. Worked smoothly. – Felipe Apr 15 '15 at 17:07
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FYI It's preferable to use `objectForInfoDictionaryKey:` instead of `infoDictionary] objectForKey:` because the former returns the localised value (if there is one). Probably won't make a difference here though ;) – deanWombourne Jun 15 '15 at 10:00

score 18 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 07 '13 at 02:58

A succinct way to obtain a version string in X.Y.Z format is:

[NSBundle mainBundle].infoDictionary[@"CFBundleVersion"]

Or, for just X.Y:

[NSBundle mainBundle].infoDictionary[@"CFBundleShortVersionString"]

Both of these snippets returns strings that you would assign to your label object's text property, e.g.

myLabel.text = [NSBundle mainBundle].infoDictionary[@"CFBundleVersion"];

score 17 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 23 '14 at 18:15

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// Syncs with App Store and Xcode Project Settings Input
NSString *appVersion = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleShortVersionString"];

answered Jul 23 '14 at 18:15

John Erck

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score 7 · Answer 9 · edited May 15 '14 at 10:23

7

You can try using dictionary as:-

NSDictionary *infoDictionary = [[NSBundle mainBundle]infoDictionary];

NSString *buildVersion = infoDictionary[(NSString*)kCFBundleVersionKey];
NSString *bundleName = infoDictionary[(NSString *)kCFBundleNameKey]

edited May 15 '14 at 10:23

Xavi López

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answered May 15 '14 at 09:58

Abhishek Verma

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score 6 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 16 '19 at 03:58

Swift 5:

There are two things - App version and build version

To get App version:

 if let appVersion = Bundle.main.infoDictionary?["CFBundleShortVersionString"] as? String {
      // present appVersion
}

To get Build version:

 if let buildVersion = Bundle.main.infoDictionary?["CFBundleVersion"] as? String {
      // present buildVersion
 }

Thanks @Brad Larson♦ a lot

score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 31 '17 at 12:31

You can use the infoDictionary which gets the version details from info.plist of you app. This code works for swift 3. Just call this method and display the version in any preferred UI element.

Swift-3  

func getVersion() -> String {
    let dictionary = Bundle.main.infoDictionary!
    let version = dictionary["CFBundleShortVersionString"] as! String
    let build = dictionary["CFBundleVersion"] as! String
    return "v\(version).\(build)"
}

score 4 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 22 '09 at 05:05

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Read the info.plist file of your app and get the value for key CFBundleShortVersionString. Reading info.plist will give you an NSDictionary object

answered Jan 22 '09 at 05:05

lostInTransit

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Jeehut · Answer 13 · 2016-12-21T09:43:25.570

If you need a combination of both version and build num, here's a short way using Swift 3:

let appVersion = Bundle.main.infoDictionary!["CFBundleShortVersionString"]!
let buildNum = Bundle.main.infoDictionary!["CFBundleVersion"]!
let versionInfo = "\(appVersion) (build \(buildNum))"
// versionInfo is now something like "2.3.0 (build 17)"

Add an as! String to the end of either the appVersion or buildNum line to get only that portion as a String object. No need for that though if you're looking for the full versionInfo.

I hope this helps!

apex39 · Answer 14 · 2019-04-10T10:50:46.793

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func getAppVersion() -> String {
    let dictionary = Bundle.main.infoDictionary!
    let versionValue = dictionary["CFBundleShortVersionString"] ?? "0"
    let buildValue = dictionary["CFBundleVersion"] ?? "0"
    return "\(versionValue) (build \(buildValue))"
}

Based on @rajat chauhan answer without forced cast to String.

edited Apr 10 '19 at 10:50

answered Apr 10 '19 at 10:42

apex39

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jan 19 '09 at 18:46

This is a good thing to handle with a revision control system. That way when you get a bug report from a user, you can check out that revision of code and (hopefully) reproduce the bug running the exact same code as the user.

The idea is that every time you do a build, you will run a script that gets the current revision number of your code and updates a file within your project (usually with some form of token replacement). You can then write an error handling routine that always includes the revision number in the error output, or you can display it on an "About" page.

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Oct 24 '17 at 18:15

0

You can try this method:

NSString *version = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleShortVersionString"];

answered Oct 24 '17 at 18:15

BatyrCan

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How can my iphone app detect its own version number?

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