Allow user to select text from UILabel to copy

Question

I have a UILabel, but how can I allow the user to select a portion of it's text. I don't want the user to be able to edit the text nor the label/textfield to have a border.

See my answer here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1246198/show-iphone-cut-copy-paste-menu-on-uilabel/55805279#55805279 — Naresh, Apr 23 '19 at 06:12

score 63 · Accepted Answer · edited May 13 '20 at 18:28

63

It is not possible with UILabel.

You should use UITextView for that. Just disable editing using textFieldShouldBeginEditing delegate method.

edited May 13 '20 at 18:28

Chris Villa

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answered Nov 03 '10 at 19:57

Yuras

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But that will have the 3D border doesn't it? – Jonathan. Nov 03 '10 at 20:01
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I used UITextField few week ago and I remember that there were no border (it was created in xib). If your UITextField has a border, then just read documentation to find out how to disable border. – Yuras Nov 03 '10 at 20:06
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http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UITextField_Class/Reference/UITextField.html [textField setBorderStyle:UITextBorderStyleNone] – Yuras Nov 03 '10 at 20:08
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You mean UITextView not UITextField, right? There is no `editable` property on UITextField. – Gregory Cosmo Haun Nov 13 '13 at 06:25
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Here is a category that does just that: https://github.com/alexandreos/UILabel-Copyable – Michael Peterson Apr 08 '16 at 23:38
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Actually, it IS possible with any `UIResponder` subclass. – kelin Apr 21 '17 at 08:08

score 35 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 03 '10 at 19:58

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You use create a UITextView and make its .editable to NO. Then you have a text view which (1) the user cannot edit (2) have no border and (3) the user can select text from it.

answered Nov 03 '10 at 19:58

kennytm

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score 26 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 23 '18 at 11:39

A poor man's version of copy and paste, if you cannot, or don't need to use a text view, would be to add a gesture recognizer to the label and then just copy the entire text to the pasteboard. It's not possible to do just a portion unless you use a UITextView

Make sure you let the user know it's been copied and that you support both a single tap gesture as well as a long press, as it will pick up users trying to highlight a portion of text. Here is a bit of sample code to get you started:

Register the gesture recognizers on your label when you create it:

UITapGestureRecognizer *tap = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(textTapped:)];
UILongPressGestureRecognizer *longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(textPressed:)];
                [myLabel addGestureRecognizer:tap];
                [myLabel addGestureRecognizer:longPress];
                [myLabel setUserInteractionEnabled:YES];

Next up handle the gestures:

- (void) textPressed:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *) gestureRecognizer {
    if (gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateRecognized &&
        [gestureRecognizer.view isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
        UILabel *someLabel = (UILabel *)gestureRecognizer.view;
        UIPasteboard *pasteboard = [UIPasteboard generalPasteboard];
        [pasteboard setString:someLabel.text];
        ...
        //let the user know you copied the text to the pasteboard and they can no paste it somewhere else
        ...
    }
}

- (void) textTapped:(UITapGestureRecognizer *) gestureRecognizer {
    if (gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateRecognized &&
        [gestureRecognizer.view isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]) {
            UILabel *someLabel = (UILabel *)gestureRecognizer.view;
            UIPasteboard *pasteboard = [UIPasteboard generalPasteboard];
            [pasteboard setString:someLabel.text];
            ...
            //let the user know you copied the text to the pasteboard and they can no paste it somewhere else
            ...
    }
}

nice answer, but you should add one line of code: myLabel.userInteractionEnabled = YES; — Ilario, Mar 08 '16 at 09:45

Allow user to select text from UILabel to copy

3 Answers3

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