Programmatically send to front/back elements created from interface builder

Question

In interface builder, there are layout options to send to back or send to front any elements such as UIButton, UIImage, UILabel etc...

Now, I would like to do the same at runtime, programmatically.

Is there an easy way to do that?

I do not want to create different views, just update the z-axis.

score 192 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 21 '17 at 12:46

192

There are a number of methods of UIView that allow you to modify the view hierarchy.

Since your views are already inserted into your superview, you could easily call bringSubviewToFront: once for each view in whatever order you like.

edited Aug 21 '17 at 12:46

Nikhil Manapure

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answered Jun 28 '09 at 13:34

Sebastian Celis

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Are you saying that I can't directly send a UIButton to front/back? I have to create a view and add it to that view. Then use the methods above? If so, Is the controller class the place to create such a view? – Yohann T. Jun 28 '09 at 13:42
11

A UIButton is a subclass of UIView. Just call: [[myButton superview] bringSubviewToFront:myButton]; – Sebastian Celis Jun 28 '09 at 13:47
Just to clear a small doubt I had: if you insert a subview that's already in the view hierarchy, the OS will only move its position. So, inserting as long as the view exists will not cause any overhead. – olivaresF Jul 18 '11 at 21:45
"call `bringSubviewToFront:` once for each view in whatever order you like" thats a really trick. Good one. – Ans Aug 18 '15 at 20:39

score 43 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 25 '13 at 21:14

43

You could use:

[self.view bringSubviewToFront:myButton];

edited Mar 25 '13 at 21:14

Tom Walters

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answered Aug 29 '10 at 17:18

hanumanDev

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Programmatically send to front/back elements created from interface builder

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