Animate text change in UILabel

Question

I\'m setting a new text value to a UILabel. Currently, the new text appears just fine. However, I\'d like to add some animation when the new text appears. I\

Answer 1

With Swift 5, you can choose one of the two following Playground code samples in order to animate your UILabel's text changes with some cross dissolve animation.

---

#1. Using UIView's transition(with:duration:options:animations:completion:) class method

import UIKit
import PlaygroundSupport

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let label = UILabel()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        label.text = "Car"

        view.backgroundColor = .white
        view.addSubview(label)

        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        label.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
        label.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor).isActive = true

        let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(toggle(_:)))
        view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
    }

    @objc func toggle(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
        let animation = {
            self.label.text = self.label.text == "Car" ? "Plane" : "Car"
        }
        UIView.transition(with: label, duration: 2, options: .transitionCrossDissolve, animations: animation, completion: nil)
    }

}

let controller = ViewController()
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = controller

---

#2. Using CATransition and CALayer's add(_:forKey:) method

import UIKit
import PlaygroundSupport

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let label = UILabel()
    let animation = CATransition()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        label.text = "Car"

        animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction(name: CAMediaTimingFunctionName.easeInEaseOut)
        // animation.type = CATransitionType.fade // default is fade
        animation.duration = 2

        view.backgroundColor = .white
        view.addSubview(label)

        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        label.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
        label.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor).isActive = true

        let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(toggle(_:)))
        view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
    }

    @objc func toggle(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
        label.layer.add(animation, forKey: nil) // The special key kCATransition is automatically used for transition animations
        label.text = label.text == "Car" ? "Plane" : "Car"
    }

}

let controller = ViewController()
PlaygroundPage.current.liveView = controller