Styling the cancel button in a UISearchBar

Question

I have a UISearchBar that has a cancel button (it\'s displayed using -(void)setShowsCancelButton:animated). I\'ve changed the tintColor of the sear

Answer 1

Well, here is function, which can change Cancel's button label. Modify it, if you want. Usage is:

nStaticReplaceStringInView(mySearchBar, @"Cancel", @"NewCancelButtonLabel");

void nStaticReplaceStringInView(UIView * view, NSString * haystack, NSString * needle)
{
 for(int i=0; i<[view.subviews count]; i++)
 {
  nStaticReplaceStringInView([view.subviews objectAtIndex:i], haystack,needle);
 }
 if([view respondsToSelector:@selector(titleForState:)])
 {
  //NSLog(@"%@ || %@",[view titleForState:UIControlStateNormal], haystack);
  if(NSStrEq([view titleForState:UIControlStateNormal] , haystack))
  {
   [view setTitle: needle forState: UIControlStateNormal];
  }
 }
}

Answer 2

For iOS 11 and Swift 4. Create a subclass of UISearchController. Override method:

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
        super.viewDidLayoutSubviews()
        print("layout")
        if let btn = searchBar.subviews[0].subviews[2] as? UIButton {
            btn.frame = CGRect(x: 306, y: 20, width: 53, height: 30)
        }
}

Answer 3

You can use UIAppearance to style the cancel button without iterating subviews of the UISearchBar, but the UIButton header does not currently have any methods annotated with UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR.

EDIT: Drill down the subviews till you get that cancel button

But this usually returns nil until searchBar.setShowsCancelButton(true, animated: true) is called.

extension UISearchBar {

var cancelButton : UIButton? {
    if let view = self.subviews.first {
        for subView in view.subviews {
            if let cancelButton = subView as? UIButton {
                return cancelButton
            }
        }
    }
    return nil
}
}

Answer 4

You can find the cancel button by looping through the subviews of the search bar and checking for the class type (instead of the size):

UIButton *cancelButton = nil;
for(UIView *subView in yourSearchBar.subviews){
    if([subView isKindOfClass:UIButton.class]){
    cancelButton = (UIButton*)subView;
    }
}

And then change the tint color:

[cancelButton setTintColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:145.0/255.0 green:159.0/255.0 blue:179.0/255.0 alpha:1.0]];

Answer 5

For iOS 10 & above, use following method

[[UIBarButtonItem appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[[UISearchBar class]]] setTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];

Answer 6

stupid way

for(id cc in [SearchBar subviews])
{
    if([cc isKindOfClass:[UIButton class]])
    {
        UIButton *btn = (UIButton *)cc;
        ......
        Do whatever you want
        .......        
    }
}