Multi line SKLabels in Swift

Updated for Swift 3!

Sometimes Apple seems to have made some pretty obvious oversights – a SKLabel without multi-line capability? Strange.

I’ve had a look at some third party solutions and each seemed to have their own limitations. Here is my take on a multiline SKLabel in Swift (doesn’t account for \n but does account for word wrapping)


//
// SKMultilineLabel.swift
//
// Created by Craig on 10/04/2015.
// Copyright (c) 2015 Interactive Coconut.
// MIT License, http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
//
/* USE:
(most component parameters have defaults)
let multiLabel = SKMultilineLabel(text: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.", labelWidth: 250, pos: CGPoint(x: size.width / 2, y: size.height / 2))
self.addChild(multiLabel)
*/
import SpriteKit
class SKMultilineLabel: SKNode {
//props
var labelWidth:Int {didSet {update()}}
var labelHeight:Int = 0
var text:String {didSet {update()}}
var fontName:String {didSet {update()}}
var fontSize:CGFloat {didSet {update()}}
var pos:CGPoint {didSet {update()}}
var fontColor:UIColor {didSet {update()}}
var leading:Int {didSet {update()}}
var alignment:SKLabelHorizontalAlignmentMode {didSet {update()}}
var dontUpdate = false
var shouldShowBorder:Bool = false {didSet {update()}}
//display objects
var rect:SKShapeNode?
var labels:[SKLabelNode] = []
init(text:String, labelWidth:Int, pos:CGPoint, fontName:String="ChalkboardSE-Regular",fontSize:CGFloat=10,fontColor:UIColor=UIColor.white,leading:Int? = nil, alignment:SKLabelHorizontalAlignmentMode = .center, shouldShowBorder:Bool = false)
{
self.text = text
self.labelWidth = labelWidth
self.pos = pos
self.fontName = fontName
self.fontSize = fontSize
self.fontColor = fontColor
self.leading = leading ?? Int(fontSize)
self.shouldShowBorder = shouldShowBorder
self.alignment = alignment
super.init()
self.update()
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
//if you want to change properties without updating the text field,
// set dontUpdate to false and call the update method manually.
func update() {
if (dontUpdate) {return}
if (labels.count>0) {
for label in labels {
label.removeFromParent()
}
labels = []
}
let separators = NSCharacterSet.whitespacesAndNewlines
let words = (text as NSString).components(separatedBy: separators)
var finalLine = false
var wordCount = -1
var lineCount = 0
while (!finalLine) {
lineCount+=1
var lineLength = CGFloat(0)
var lineString = ""
var lineStringBeforeAddingWord = ""
// creation of the SKLabelNode itself
let label = SKLabelNode(fontNamed: fontName)
// name each label node so you can animate it if u wish
label.name = "line\(lineCount)"
label.horizontalAlignmentMode = alignment
label.fontSize = fontSize
label.fontColor = fontColor
while lineLength < CGFloat(labelWidth)
{
wordCount+=1
if wordCount > words.count1
{
//label.text = "\(lineString) \(words[wordCount])"
finalLine = true
break
}
else
{
lineStringBeforeAddingWord = lineString
lineString = "\(lineString) \(words[wordCount])"
label.text = lineString
lineLength = label.frame.width
}
}
if lineLength > 0 {
wordCount-=1
if (!finalLine) {
lineString = lineStringBeforeAddingWord
}
label.text = lineString
var linePos = pos
if (alignment == .left) {
linePos.x -= CGFloat(labelWidth / 2)
} else if (alignment == .right) {
linePos.x += CGFloat(labelWidth / 2)
}
linePos.y += CGFloat(leading * lineCount)
label.position = CGPoint(x:linePos.x , y:linePos.y )
self.addChild(label)
labels.append(label)
}
}
labelHeight = lineCount * leading
showBorder()
}
func showBorder() {
if (!shouldShowBorder) {return}
if let rect = self.rect {
self.removeChildren(in: [rect])
}
self.rect = SKShapeNode(rectOf: CGSize(width: labelWidth, height: labelHeight))
if let rect = self.rect {
rect.strokeColor = UIColor.white
rect.lineWidth = 1
rect.position = CGPoint(x: pos.x, y: pos.y (CGFloat(labelHeight) / 2.0))
self.addChild(rect)
}
}
}

iOS development with Swift - book: https://manning.com/books/ios-development-with-swift video course: https://www.manning.com/livevideo/ios-development-with-swift-lv

Tagged with:
Posted in Swift
One comment on “Multi line SKLabels in Swift
  1. Thank you so much super helpful. Saved me a huge head ache from having to figure this out myself.

    I also needed
    required init(coder: NSCoder) {
    fatalError(“NSCoding not supported”)
    }

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