What similar functionality method (viewWillAppear) exists on UIView?

Question

viewWillAppear is called on UIViewController when a view is about to be shown on screen. Is it possible to get similar callback on UIView?

Answer 1

• Note, I was originally going to post this answer here but seeing as this was asked years prior I marked that one as a duplicate and will now answer here instead.

Macro Solution

I've made a macro solution for this that is very elegant and easy to use.

---

.m

Add the following to your .m

-(void)viewDidLoad {
    //normal stuff
}

__METHOD_MACRO_wasRemovedFromSuperview() {
    //Code here will run whenever this view is removed from its superview
}

__METHOD_MACRO_wasAddedAsSubview() {
    //Code here will run whenever this view is added as the subview of another view
}

Yup! It really is that easy!

(Due to how the ifdef toggling of the macro is set-up below, you can use one or the other or both!)

---

.h

Add the following to your .h beneath @end (or, if you want to keep things clean, you can simply add to a file called macros.h and #import it)

Note: If you add this (or import this) to multiple files that also import each other or @class each other you can end up messing up the #ifdef logic and this macro could fail, I suggest importing it from a separate .h file for each class you need it in, this macro was created more as a proof of concept than something to be used in production code

//Logic for __METHOD_MACRO_wasAddedAsSubview() and __METHOD_MACRO_wasRemovedFromSuperview()

#define startSuppressingWarnings() \
_Pragma("clang clang diagnostic push")\
_Pragma("clang diagnostic ignored \"-Weverything\"")

#define stopSuppressingWarnings() \
_Pragma("clang clang diagnostic pop")

#define __INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup() \
-(void)didMoveToWindow {\
[super didMoveToWindow];\
if (self.window && self.superview) {\
startSuppressingWarnings()/*Hide potential undeclared selector warnings*/\
if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(__wasAddedAsSubview)]) {\
[self performSelector:@selector(__wasAddedAsSubview)];\
}\
stopSuppressingWarnings()\
} else {\
startSuppressingWarnings()/*Hide potential undeclared selector warnings*/\
if ([self respondsToSelector:@selector(__wasRemovedFromSuperview)]) {\
[self performSelector:@selector(__wasRemovedFromSuperview)];\
}\
stopSuppressingWarnings()\
}\
}

#ifdef __INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup_wasSetup
///Called when UIView was added as subview OR moved to another superview OR if another VC was presented
#define __METHOD_MACRO_wasAddedAsSubview() \
-(void)__wasAddedAsSubview/*{ //perform extra processes here }*/
#else
#define __INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup_wasSetup 1
///Called when UIView was added as subview OR moved to another superview
#define __METHOD_MACRO_wasAddedAsSubview() \
__INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup() \
-(void)__wasAddedAsSubview/*{ //perform extra processes here }*/
#endif

#ifdef __INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup_wasSetup
///Called when UIView is removed as subview from superview or when its parent window is removed
#define __METHOD_MACRO_wasRemovedFromSuperview() \
-(void)__wasRemovedFromSuperview/*{ //perform extra processes here }*/
#else
#define __INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup_wasSetup 1
///Called when UIView is removed as subview from superview
#define __METHOD_MACRO_wasRemovedFromSuperview() \
__INTERNAL_METHOD_MACRO__didChangeSuperviewsSetup() \
-(void)__wasRemovedFromSuperview/*{ //perform extra processes here }*/
#endif