How to Hide an Element and Its Space in Swift

Question

I want to hide an element (data picker in my case) and also hide its space. So I tried this with an animation:

@IBAction func showQnt(sender: AnyObject) {
    if (self.pickerQnt.alpha == 0.0) {
        UIView.animateWithDuration(0.2, delay: 0.0, options: UIViewAnimationOptions.ShowHideTransitionViews, animations: {
            self.pickerQnt.alpha = 1.0
            
            
            }, completion: {
                (finished: Bool) -> Void in
                //var constH = NSLayoutConstraint(item: self.pickerQnt, attribute: NSLayoutAttribute.Height, relatedBy: NSLayoutRelation.Equal, toItem: nil, attribute: NSLayoutAttribute.NotAnAttribute, multiplier: 1, constant: 162)
                //self.pickerQnt.addConstraint(constH)
        })
    } else {
        UIView.animateWithDuration(0.2, delay: 0.0, options: UIViewAnimationOptions.ShowHideTransitionViews, animations: {
            self.pickerQnt.alpha = 0.0
            
            
            }, completion: {
            (finished: Bool) -> Void in
                // CHECK: ?!? constrain to set view height to 0 run time
                //var constH = NSLayoutConstraint(item: self.pickerQnt, attribute: NSLayoutAttribute.Height, relatedBy: NSLayoutRelation.Equal, toItem: nil, attribute: NSLayoutAttribute.NotAnAttribute, multiplier: 1, constant: 0)
                //self.pickerQnt.addConstraint(constH)
        })
    }
}

I've also tried something like

self.pickerQnt.hidden = true

but it wont work.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Using the "hidden" property on views in Objective-C/Swift does as a matter of fact not "collapse" the space the view is taking (as opposed to "View.GONE" in Android).

Instead you should use Autolayout and a Height constraint.

Create a Height constraint in your Xib/Storyboard file. Giving it the wished height. Make an IBOutlet to that constraint (ctrl-drag from the Constraint in the Constraints list to your source file), and then you can write this method

Swift solution

var pickerHeightVisible: CGFloat!
...
...
func togglePickerViewVisibility(animated: Bool = true) {
    if pickerHeightConstraint.constant != 0 {
        pickerHeightVisible = pickerHeightConstraint.constant
        pickerHeightConstraint.constant = 0
    } else {
        pickerHeightConstraint.constant = pickerHeightVisible
    }
    if animated {
         UIView.animateWithDuration(0.2, animations: {
              () -> Void in
               self.view.layoutIfNeeded()
         }, completion: nil)
    } else {
         view.layoutIfNeeded()
    }
}

Objective-C solution:

@property (nonatomic, strong) CGFloat pickerHeightVisible;
...
...
- (void)togglePickerViewVisibility:(BOOL)animated {
    if(pickerHeightConstraint.constant != 0) {
        pickerHeightVisible = pickerHeightConstraint.constant;
        pickerHeightConstraint.constant = 0;
    } else {
        pickerHeightConstraint.constant = pickerHeightVisible;
    }
    if(animated) {
         [UIView animateWithDuration:0.2
             animations:(void (^)(void))animations:^(void) {
                  [self.view layoutIfNeeded];
             }];
    } else {
          [self.view layoutIfNeeded];
    }
}

DISCLAIMER: I have not tested nor compiled the code above, but it will give you an idea of how to achieve it.

IMPORTANT: The code above assumes that you give the height constraint of the picker view a value greater than 0 in the storyboard/nib.