Changing navigation title programmatically

Question

I have a navigation bar with a title. When I double click the text to rename it, it actually says it's a navigation item, so it might be that.

I'm trying to change the text using code, like:

declare navigation bar as navagationbar here
button stuff {
    navigationbar.text = "title"
}

That's not my code obviously, just showing how it would work.

So whenever I press the button, I want the title to change.

Answer 1

You change the title by changing the title of the view controller being displayed:

viewController.title = "some title"

Normally this is done in view did load on the view controller:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.title = "some title"
}

However, this only works if you have your view controller embedded in a UINavigationController. I highly recommend doing this instead of creating a navigation bar yourself. If you insist on creating a navigation bar yourself, you can change the title by doing:

navigationBar.topItem.title = "some title"

Answer 2

Try the following in viewDidLoad

self.navigationItem.title = "Your Title"

Answer 3

The code below works for me with Xcode 7:

override func viewDidLoad() {        
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.navigationItem.title = "Your Title"
}

Answer 4

I found this to work:

navigationItem.title = "Title"

Answer 5

and also if you will try to create Navigation Bar manually this code will help you

func setNavBarToTheView() {
    let navBar: UINavigationBar = UINavigationBar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.frame.size.width, height: 64.0))
    self.view.addSubview(navBar);
    let navItem = UINavigationItem(title: "Camera");
    let doneItem = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: UIBarButtonSystemItem.cancel, target: self, action: #selector(CameraViewController.onClickBack));
    navItem.leftBarButtonItem = doneItem;
    navBar.setItems([navItem], animated: true);
}

Answer 6

Normally, the best-practice is to set the title on the UIViewController. By doing this, the UINavigationItem is also set. Generally, this is better than programmatically allocating and initializing a UINavigationBar that's not linked to anything.

You miss out on some of the benefits and functionality that the UINavigationBar was designed for. Here is a link to the documentation that may help you. It discusses the different properties you can set on the actual bar and on a UINavigationItem.

Just keep in mind:

1. You lose back button functionality (unless you wire it yourself)
2. The built-in "drag from the left-hand side to swipe back" gesture is forfeited

UINavigationController's are your friends.

Answer 7

Swift 3

I created an outlet for the navigation title bar item that comes with the navigation bar (from the Object Browser) in the storyboard. Then I sued the line below:

navigationBarTitleItem.title = "Hello Bar"

Answer 8

The correct answer for people using swift4 would be

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.navigationItem.title = "Your Text"
}

Answer 9

If you have a NavigationController embedded inside of a TabBarController see below:

super.tabBarController?.title = "foobar"

You can debug issues like this with debugger scripts. Try Chisel's pvc command to print every visible / hidden view on the hierarchy.

Answer 10

I prefer using self.navigationItem.title = "Your Title Here" over self.title = "Your Title Here" to provide title in the navigation bar since tab bar also uses self.title to alter its title. You should try the following code once.

Note: calling the super view lifecycle is necessary before you do any stuffs.

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        setupNavBar()
    }
}

private func setupNavBar() {
    self.navigationItem.title = "Your Title Here"
}

Answer 11

If you wanted to change the title from a child view controller of a Page View Controller that's embedded in a navigation controller, it would look like this:

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    self.parent?.title = "some title"
}

Answer 12

In Swift 4:

Swift 4

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    self.title = "Your title"
}

I hope it helps, regards!