Format Uilabel with Bullet Points

Format UILabel with bullet points?

Perhaps use the Unicode code point for the bullet character in your string?

Objective-c

myLabel.text = @"\u2022 This is a list item!";

Swift 4

myLabel.text = "\u{2022} This is a list item!"

How to make a bullet list with Swift?

use 2 labels inside a view for the columns. both labels being multulined

class Helper {

    static func bulletedList(strings:[String], textColor:UIColor, font:UIFont, bulletColor:UIColor, bulletSize:BulletSize) -> NSAttributedString {
        let textAttributesDictionary = [NSFontAttributeName : font, NSForegroundColorAttributeName:textColor]

        let bulletAttributesDictionary = [NSFontAttributeName : font.withSize(bulletSize.rawValue), NSForegroundColorAttributeName:bulletColor]
        let fullAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString.init()

        for string: String in strings
        {
            let bulletPoint: String = "\u{2022}"
            let formattedString: String = "\(bulletPoint) \(string)\n"
            let attributedString: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: formattedString)
            let paragraphStyle = createParagraphAttribute()

            attributedString.addAttributes([NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: paragraphStyle], range: NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))
            attributedString.addAttributes(textAttributesDictionary, range: NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))

            let string:NSString = NSString(string: formattedString)
            let rangeForBullet:NSRange = string.range(of: bulletPoint)

            attributedString.addAttributes(bulletAttributesDictionary, range: rangeForBullet)
            fullAttributedString.append(attributedString)
        }
        return fullAttributedString
    }

    static func createParagraphAttribute() -> NSParagraphStyle {

        var paragraphStyle: NSMutableParagraphStyle
        paragraphStyle = NSParagraphStyle.default.mutableCopy() as! NSMutableParagraphStyle
        paragraphStyle.tabStops = [NSTextTab(textAlignment: .left, location: 15, options: NSDictionary() as! [String : AnyObject])]
        paragraphStyle.defaultTabInterval = 15
        paragraphStyle.firstLineHeadIndent = 0
        paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = 3
        paragraphStyle.headIndent = 10
        return paragraphStyle
    }
}

and simply use Helper.bulletedList to create your bulletted list as Attributed text for the label

NSAttributedString inserting a bullet point?

The easy bit: [mutableAttributedString insertAttributedString: @"•\t" atIndex:0];

The hard bit. Something along the following lines. (This is extracted from a bigger project, but it may give you a decent start.)

NSMutableAttributedString * string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"•\texample bullet fill out the text to check what happens on the second line and make sure it is lining up OK"];

CTTextAlignment alignment = kCTLeftTextAlignment;
CGFloat paragraphSpacing = 0.0;
CGFloat paragraphSpacingBefore = 0.0;
CGFloat firstLineHeadIndent = 15.0;
CGFloat headIndent = 30.0;

CGFloat firstTabStop = 15.0; // width of your indent
CGFloat lineSpacing = 0.45;

CTTextTabRef tabArray[] = { CTTextTabCreate(0, firstTabStop, NULL) };

CFArrayRef tabStops = CFArrayCreate( kCFAllocatorDefault, (const void**) tabArray, 1, &kCFTypeArrayCallBacks );
CFRelease(tabArray[0]);

CTParagraphStyleSetting altSettings[] = 
{
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierLineSpacing, sizeof(CGFloat), &lineSpacing},
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierAlignment, sizeof(CTTextAlignment), &alignment},
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierFirstLineHeadIndent, sizeof(CGFloat), &firstLineHeadIndent},
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierHeadIndent, sizeof(CGFloat), &headIndent},
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierTabStops, sizeof(CFArrayRef), &tabStops},
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierParagraphSpacing, sizeof(CGFloat), ¶graphSpacing},
    { kCTParagraphStyleSpecifierParagraphSpacingBefore, sizeof(CGFloat), ¶graphSpacingBefore}
}; 

CTParagraphStyleRef style;
style = CTParagraphStyleCreate( altSettings, sizeof(altSettings) / sizeof(CTParagraphStyleSetting) );

if ( style == NULL )
{
    NSLog(@"*** Unable To Create CTParagraphStyle in apply paragraph formatting" );
    return;
}

[string addAttributes:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:(NSObject*)style,(NSString*) kCTParagraphStyleAttributeName, nil] range:NSMakeRange(0,[string length])];

CFRelease(tabStops);
CFRelease(style);

You need to include the CoreText framework and then import CoreText/CoreText.h

Adding some bullet points to my application

You can use Unicode characters:

NSString *stringWithBullets = @"\u00b7 one";

will produce:

• one

iOS7 TextKit: bullet point alignment

Below it the code I use to set a bulleted paragraph. This comes straight out of a working app and is used to apply the style to the entire paragraph in response to a user clicking on a formatting button. I have tried to put in all the dependent methods but may have missed some.

Note that I am setting most indents in centimetres and hence the use of the conversion functions at the end of the listing.

I am also checking for the presence of a tab character (no tab key on iOS!) and automatically insert a dash and a tab.

If all you need is the paragraph style then look at the last few methods below where the firstLineIndent etc get set up.

Note that these calls all get wrapped in [textStorage beginEditing/endEditing]. Despite the (IBAction) below the method is not getting called by a UI object directly.

        - (IBAction) styleBullet1:(id)sender
        {
            NSRange charRange = [self rangeForUserParagraphAttributeChange];
            NSTextStorage *myTextStorage = [self textStorage];

            // Check for "-\t" at beginning of string and add if not found
            NSAttributedString *attrString = [myTextStorage attributedSubstringFromRange:charRange];
            NSString *string = [attrString string];

            if ([string rangeOfString:@"\t"].location == NSNotFound) {
                NSLog(@"string does not contain tab so insert one");
                NSAttributedString * aStr = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"-\t"];
                // Insert a bullet and tab
                [[self textStorage] insertAttributedString:aStr atIndex:charRange.location];

            } else {
                NSLog(@"string contains tab");
            }

            if ([self isEditable] && charRange.location != NSNotFound)
            {
                [myTextStorage setAttributes:[self bullet1Style] range:charRange];
            }
        }

        - (NSDictionary*)bullet1Style
        {
            return [self createStyle:[self getBullet1ParagraphStyle] font:[self normalFont] fontColor:[UIColor blackColor] underlineStyle:NSUnderlineStyleNone];

        }

        - (NSDictionary*)createStyle:(NSParagraphStyle*)paraStyle font:(UIFont*)font fontColor:(UIColor*)color underlineStyle:(int)underlineStyle
        {
            NSMutableDictionary *style = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
            [style setValue:paraStyle forKey:NSParagraphStyleAttributeName];
            [style setValue:font forKey:NSFontAttributeName];
            [style setValue:color forKey:NSForegroundColorAttributeName];
            [style setValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt: underlineStyle] forKey:NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName];

            FLOG(@" font is %@", font);

            return style;
        }

        - (NSParagraphStyle*)getBullet1ParagraphStyle
        {
            NSMutableParagraphStyle *para;
            para = [self getDefaultParagraphStyle];
            NSMutableArray *tabs = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
            [tabs addObject:[[NSTextTab alloc] initWithTextAlignment:NSTextAlignmentLeft location:[self ptsFromCMF:1.0] options:nil]];
            //[tabs addObject:[[NSTextTab alloc] initWithType:NSLeftTabStopType location:[self ptsFromCMF:1.0]]];
            [para setTabStops:tabs];
            [para setDefaultTabInterval:[self ptsFromCMF:2.0]];
            [para setFirstLineHeadIndent:[self ptsFromCMF:0.0]];
            //[para setHeaderLevel:0];
            [para setHeadIndent:[self ptsFromCMF:1.0]];
            [para setParagraphSpacing:3];
            [para setParagraphSpacingBefore:3];
            return para;
        }
    - (NSMutableParagraphStyle*)getDefaultParagraphStyle
    {
        NSMutableParagraphStyle *para;
        para = [[NSParagraphStyle defaultParagraphStyle]mutableCopy];
        [para setTabStops:nil];
        [para setAlignment:NSTextAlignmentLeft];
        [para setBaseWritingDirection:NSWritingDirectionLeftToRight];
        [para setDefaultTabInterval:[self ptsFromCMF:3.0]];
        [para setFirstLineHeadIndent:0];
        //[para setHeaderLevel:0];
        [para setHeadIndent:0.0];
        [para setHyphenationFactor:0.0];
        [para setLineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByWordWrapping];
        [para setLineHeightMultiple:1.0];
        [para setLineSpacing:0.0];
        [para setMaximumLineHeight:0];
        [para setMinimumLineHeight:0];
        [para setParagraphSpacing:6];
        [para setParagraphSpacingBefore:3];
        //[para setTabStops:<#(NSArray *)#>];
        [para setTailIndent:0.0];
        return para;
    }
-(NSNumber*)ptsFromCMN:(float)cm
{
    return [NSNumber numberWithFloat:[self ptsFromCMF:cm]];
}
-(float)ptsFromCMF:(float)cm
{
    return cm * 28.3464567;
}

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