AutoLayout + RTL + UILabel text alignment

Question

I\'m finally getting round to wrestling with Auto Layout and can\'t seem to figure out how to get right-to-left (RTL) support to work the way I\'d expect/want...

I h

Answer 1

Here is my version. It's simpler and also handles multiple languages in the source document.

The Main point is to use the dominantLanguage:

let lang = tagger.dominantLanguage

Code Snippet:

 extension UILabel {
    func determineTextDirection () {
        guard self.text != nil else {return}

        let tagger = NSLinguisticTagger(tagSchemes: [.language], options: 0)
        tagger.string = self.text

        let lang = tagger.dominantLanguage

        let rtl = lang == "he" || lang == "ar"

        self.textAlignment = rtl ? .right : .left
    }
}

Usage:

titleLabel.text = "UILabel היפוך שפה עבור"
titleLabel.determineTextDirection()

Finally: Note that if the App is localized and you may rely on the phones language - the solution your after is: "Natural Text Alignment for RTL": i.e:

titleLabel.textAlignment = .natural

Use the NSLinguisticTagger when your app shows multiple lines with different languages. or when you allow free search in any language, regardless of the local.