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How can I programmatically change the selected item in a UITabBar?

ndmeiri
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Zia
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2 Answers2

42

Swift 3 and later

As of Swift 3, you can also use

tabBarController.selectedIndex = 0 // (or any other existing index)

(Thank you, @nidomiro.)

Swift 2.2 and earlier

Try the following

tabBar.selectedItem = tabBar.items![newIndex] as! UITabBarItem

Assuming you have access to the UITabBarController that owns the UITabBar, you can do the following

self.selectedViewController = self.viewControllers![newIndex] as! UIViewController

The above line of code should be put somewhere inside of the UITabBarController subclass.

But if you have access to the tab bar controller from "outside," do the following

tabBarController.selectedViewController = tabBarController.viewControllers![newIndex] as! UIViewController
starball
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ndmeiri
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  • I get this error: Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Directly modifying a tab bar managed by a tab bar controller is not allowed.' – Zia Jul 09 '15 at 23:29
  • Is the `UITabBar` owned by a `UITabBarController`? And, if so, can you obtain a reference to it? – ndmeiri Jul 09 '15 at 23:31
  • Yes. Setting the property on the reference gives the same error. – Zia Jul 09 '15 at 23:35
  • Thanks! That worked. Can you please modify your answer to: selectedViewController = viewControllers![newIndex] as UIViewController – Zia Jul 09 '15 at 23:53
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    Great! I'm glad I could help. I modified my answer. I updated it to use the forced downcast operator `as!`, which is Swift 2 syntax. – ndmeiri Jul 10 '15 at 00:00
1

Swift 5 and Later

class YOUR_TABBAR_CONTROLLER: UITabBarController {    

  override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()

  self.selectedIndex = 0 (or any other existing index)

  }
}
asilturk
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