Why is my left view in text field not working?

Question

I've added a left view to my text field using the code below:

    usernameField.leftViewMode = UITextFieldViewMode.always
    passwordField.leftViewMode = UITextFieldViewMode.always

    let usernameImageView = UIImageView()
    let usernameImage = UIImage(named: "user icon grey.png")
    usernameImageView.image = usernameImage
    usernameField.leftView = usernameImageView

    let passwordImageView = UIImageView()
    let passwordImage = UIImage(named: "lock icon grey.png")
    passwordImageView.image = passwordImage
    passwordField.leftView = passwordImageView

This didn't work, I then added a UIDesignable, a very neat process that I took from this question below on StackOverflow. This means that I can see the icons in the storyboard, as can be seen below. However, this doesn't show up.

Swift add icon/image in UITextField

Can you open up view debugger and check if the frames are not zero ? — GoodSp33d, Feb 26 '17 at 14:38
@GoodSp33d Never used that before, feel like a rookie now... The frames are zero, what could be the cause of that? — Jake Walker, Feb 26 '17 at 14:49
Awesome ! please do put down an answer yourself which solved it so that others who stumble on this post will know how to fix it. Rookies only go Pro :P — GoodSp33d, Feb 26 '17 at 14:52

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 26 '17 at 15:52

The problem is with how you create the image view. You first create an empty image view which then has no size. You then assign the image to the image view but this does not automatically resize the image view.

There are two solutions.

Tell the image view to resize itself after assigning the image.

let usernameImageView = UIImageView()
let usernameImage = UIImage(named: "user icon grey.png")
usernameImageView.image = usernameImage
usernameImageView.sizeToFit()

Create the image view with the image. This is simpler approach.

let usernameImage = UIImage(named: "user icon grey.png")
let usernameImageView = UIImageView(image: usernameImage)

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '18 at 10:35

The problem is with your code. using this code now your left view in textField is working.

@IBOutlet weak var name: UITextField!
override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()
  usernameField.leftViewMode = .always
  let usernameImageView = UIImageView()
  usernameImageView.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 25, height: 25)
  let usernameImage = (your image name)
  usernameImageView.image = usernameImage
  usernameField.leftView = usernameImageView

Why is my left view in text field not working?

2 Answers2