Swift: How do I achieve adding a background color to a tableView textLabel

Question

I'm working with TableView and I was hoping to add a background colour to a selected cell's text. Something like this:

The image represents a cell, the background color is separated. This is what is needed.

I tried doing the following but it adds a background colour to the entire cell or to the text only.

The separation between is the most important, adding a backgroundColor applys a color to the entire cell, which is not wanted.

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {  //Highlighting text - Add saving text
    let cell = tableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath)
    print("You selected cell number: \(indexPath.row)!")
    cell?.textLabel?.textColor = .yellow
    cell?.textLabel?.backgroundColor = .yellow // Is not desired outcome
}

Answer 1

Your image shows a textlabel with yellow background colour and black text colour.

If you are trying to change the background colour, it should be

cell?.textLabel?.backgroundColor = UIColor.yellow

cell?.textLabel?.textColor = UIColor.yellow is used to change the text colour and not the background colour.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCc5MKKpfUA . This will help you)

let searchString = "Lorem Lorem"
 let baseString = "Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum"



let attributed = NSMutableAttributedString(string: baseString)
    do
    {
        let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: searchString,options: .caseInsensitive)
        for match in regex.matches(in: baseString, options: NSRegularExpression.MatchingOptions(), range: NSRange(location: 0, length: baseString.characters.count)) as [NSTextCheckingResult] {
            attributed.addAttribute(NSBackgroundColorAttributeName, value: UIColor.yellow, range: match.range)
        }
        self.txtView.attributedText = attributed
    }

Answer 2

First you have to add a global variable for identify which cell is selected.

var selectedIndex = -1

And update the value according to selected row

override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {  //Highlighting text - Add saving text
    self.selectedIndex = indexPath.row
    tabeview.reoadData()
}

and write the cellForRow as,

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell
    {
        var cell= (tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "cellIdentifier") as! YourCell)

        if self.selectedIndex == indexPath.row
        {
           cell?.textLabel?.backgroundColor = UIColor.yellow
        }
        else
        {
            cell?.textLabel?.backgroundColor = UIColor.yellow
        }

       return cell!
    }

Answer 3

TheTiger user is correct. All you need to learn is setting your label's attributedText. I've worked on tons of Bible applications with same highlighting verse feature.

From what I can remember, the attribute name is: NSBackgroundColorAttributeName. Good luck!

Answer 4

Modify the below code to use as per your requirement

 cell?.textLabel?.attributedText = self.decorateText(myTxtOne: "Use this", myTxtTwo: " Code")


func decorateText(myTxtOne:String, myTxtTwo:String)->NSAttributedString{
    let textAttributeOne = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.white, NSAttributedStringKey.backgroundColor: UIColor.blue, NSAttributedStringKey.font: UIFont(name: "Poppins-Regular", size: 12.0)!] as [NSAttributedStringKey : Any]
let textAttributeTwo = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: UIColor.white, NSAttributedStringKey.backgroundColor: UIColor.yellow, NSAttributedStringKey.font: UIFont(name: "Poppins-Regular", size: 12.0)!] as [NSAttributedStringKey : Any]

    let textPartOne = NSMutableAttributedString(string: myTxtOne, attributes: textAttributeOne)
    let textPartTwo = NSMutableAttributedString(string: myTxtTwo, attributes: textAttributeTwo)

    let textCombination = NSMutableAttributedString()
    textCombination.append(textPartOne)
    textCombination.append(textPartTwo)
    return textCombination
}