[ios] UILabel with text of two different colors

I want to display a string like this in a UILabel:

There are 5 results.

Where the number 5 is red in color and the rest of the string is black.

How can I do this in code?

The way to do it is to use NSAttributedString like this:

NSMutableAttributedString *text = 
 [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] 
   initWithAttributedString: label.attributedText];

[text addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName 
             value:[UIColor redColor] 
             range:NSMakeRange(10, 1)];
[label setAttributedText: text];

I created a UILabel extension to do it.

Having a UIWebView or more than one UILabel could be considered overkill for this situation.

My suggestion would be to use TTTAttributedLabel which is a drop-in replacement for UILabel that supports NSAttributedString. This means you can very easily apply differents styles to different ranges in a string.

Swift 4 and above: Inspired by anoop4real's solution, here's a String extension that can be used to generate text with 2 different colors.

extension String {

    func attributedStringForPartiallyColoredText(_ textToFind: String, with color: UIColor) -> NSMutableAttributedString {
        let mutableAttributedstring = NSMutableAttributedString(string: self)
        let range = mutableAttributedstring.mutableString.range(of: textToFind, options: .caseInsensitive)
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            mutableAttributedstring.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor, value: color, range: range)
        }
        return mutableAttributedstring
    }
}

Following example changes color of asterisk to red while retaining original label color for remaining text.

label.attributedText = "Enter username *".attributedStringForPartiallyColoredText("*", with: #colorLiteral(red: 1, green: 0, blue: 0, alpha: 1))

//NSString *myString = @"I have to replace text 'Dr Andrew Murphy, John Smith' ";
NSString *myString = @"Not a member?signin";

//Create mutable string from original one
NSMutableAttributedString *attString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:myString];

//Fing range of the string you want to change colour
//If you need to change colour in more that one place just repeat it
NSRange range = [myString rangeOfString:@"signin"];
[attString addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor colorWithRed:(63/255.0) green:(163/255.0) blue:(158/255.0) alpha:1.0] range:range];

//Add it to the label - notice its not text property but it's attributeText
_label.attributedText = attString;

NSAttributedString is the way to go. The following question has a great answer that shows you how to do it How do you use NSAttributedString

I have done this by creating a category for NSMutableAttributedString

-(void)setColorForText:(NSString*) textToFind withColor:(UIColor*) color
{
    NSRange range = [self.mutableString rangeOfString:textToFind options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];

    if (range.location != NSNotFound) {
        [self addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:color range:range];
    }
}

Use it like

- (void) setColoredLabel
{
    NSMutableAttributedString *string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Here is a red blue and green text"];
    [string setColorForText:@"red" withColor:[UIColor redColor]];
    [string setColorForText:@"blue" withColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
    [string setColorForText:@"green" withColor:[UIColor greenColor]];
    mylabel.attributedText = string;
}

SWIFT 3

extension NSMutableAttributedString{
    func setColorForText(_ textToFind: String, with color: UIColor) {
        let range = self.mutableString.range(of: textToFind, options: .caseInsensitive)
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: range)
        }
    }
}

USAGE

func setColoredLabel() {
    let string = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Here is a red blue and green text")
    string.setColorForText("red", with: #colorLiteral(red: 0.9254902005, green: 0.2352941185, blue: 0.1019607857, alpha: 1))
    string.setColorForText("blue", with: #colorLiteral(red: 0.2392156869, green: 0.6745098233, blue: 0.9686274529, alpha: 1))
    string.setColorForText("green", with: #colorLiteral(red: 0.3411764801, green: 0.6235294342, blue: 0.1686274558, alpha: 1))
    mylabel.attributedText = string
}

SWIFT 4 @kj13 Thanks for notifying

// If no text is send, then the style will be applied to full text
func setColorForText(_ textToFind: String?, with color: UIColor) {

    let range:NSRange?
    if let text = textToFind{
        range = self.mutableString.range(of: text, options: .caseInsensitive)
    }else{
        range = NSMakeRange(0, self.length)
    }
    if range!.location != NSNotFound {
        addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor, value: color, range: range!)
    }
}

I have did more experiments with attributes and below are the results, here is the SOURCECODE

Here is the result

JTAttributedLabel (by mystcolor) lets you use the attributed string support in UILabel under iOS 6 and at the same time its JTAttributedLabel class under iOS 5 through its JTAutoLabel.

There is a Swift 3.0 solution

extension UILabel{


    func setSubTextColor(pSubString : String, pColor : UIColor){
        let attributedString: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: self.text!);
        let range = attributedString.mutableString.range(of: pSubString, options:NSString.CompareOptions.caseInsensitive)
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: pColor, range: range);
        }
        self.attributedText = attributedString

    }
}

And there is an example of call :

let colorString = " (string in red)"
self.mLabel.text = "classic color" + colorString
self.mLabel.setSubTextColor(pSubString: colorString, pColor: UIColor.red)

By using below code you can set multiple colors based on word.

NSMutableArray * array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"1 ball",@"2 ball",@"3 ball",@"4 ball", nil];    
NSMutableAttributedString *attStr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] init];
for (NSString * str in array)
 {
    NSMutableAttributedString * textstr = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ ,",str] attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName :[self getRandomColor]}];
     [attStr appendAttributedString:textstr];
  }
UILabel *lab = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 300, 300, 30)];
lab.attributedText = attStr;
[self.view addSubview:lab];

-(UIColor *) getRandomColor
{
   CGFloat redcolor = arc4random() % 255 / 255.0;
   CGFloat greencolor = arc4random() % 255 / 255.0;
   CGFloat bluencolor = arc4random() % 255 / 255.0;
   return  [UIColor colorWithRed:redcolor green:greencolor blue:bluencolor alpha:1.0];
}

In my case I'm using Xcode 10.1. There is a option of switching between plain text and Attributed text in Label text in Interface Builder

Hope this may help someone else..!

My own solution was created a method like the next one:

-(void)setColorForText:(NSString*) textToFind originalText:(NSString *)originalString withColor:(UIColor*)color andLabel:(UILabel *)label{

NSMutableAttributedString *attString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:originalString];
NSRange range = [originalString rangeOfString:textToFind];

[attString addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:color range:range];

label.attributedText = attString;

if (range.location != NSNotFound) {
    [attString addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:color range:range];
}
label.attributedText = attString; }

It worked with just one different color in the same text but you can adapt it easily to more colores in the same sentence.

SwiftRichString works perfect! You can use + to concatenate two attributed string

My answer has also the option to color all the occurrence of a text not only one occurrence of it : "wa ba wa ba dubdub" , you can color all the occurrence of wa not only the first occurrence like the accepted answer.

extension NSMutableAttributedString{
    func setColorForText(_ textToFind: String, with color: UIColor) {
        let range = self.mutableString.range(of: textToFind, options: .caseInsensitive)
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: range)
        }
    }

    func setColorForAllOccuranceOfText(_ textToFind: String, with color: UIColor) {
        let inputLength = self.string.count
        let searchLength = textToFind.count
        var range = NSRange(location: 0, length: self.length)

        while (range.location != NSNotFound) {
            range = (self.string as NSString).range(of: textToFind, options: [], range: range)
            if (range.location != NSNotFound) {
                self.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: NSRange(location: range.location, length: searchLength))
                range = NSRange(location: range.location + range.length, length: inputLength - (range.location + range.length))
            }
        }
    }
}

Now you can do this :

let message = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "wa ba wa ba dubdub")
message.setColorForText(subtitle, with: UIColor.red) 
// or the below one if you want all the occurrence to be colored 
message.setColorForAllOccuranceOfText("wa", with: UIColor.red) 
// then you set this attributed string to your label :
lblMessage.attributedText = message

For Xamarin users I have a static C# method where I pass in an array of strings, an array of UIColours and array of UIFonts (they will need to match in length). The attributed string is then passed back.

see:

public static NSMutableAttributedString GetFormattedText(string[] texts, UIColor[] colors, UIFont[] fonts) {

  NSMutableAttributedString attrString = new NSMutableAttributedString(string.Join("", texts));
  int position = 0;

  for (int i = 0; i < texts.Length; i++) {
    attrString.AddAttribute(new NSString("NSForegroundColorAttributeName"), colors[i], new NSRange(position, texts[i].Length));

    var fontAttribute = new UIStringAttributes {
      Font = fonts[I]
    };

    attrString.AddAttributes(fontAttribute, new NSRange(position, texts[i].Length));

    position += texts[i].Length;
  }

  return attrString;

}

Since iOS 6, UIKit supports drawing attributed strings, so no extension or replacement is needed.

From UILabel:

@property(nonatomic, copy) NSAttributedString *attributedText;

You just need to build up your NSAttributedString. There are basically two ways:

1. Append chunks of text with the same attributes - for each part create one NSAttributedString instance and append them to one NSMutableAttributedString

2. Create attributed text from plain string and then add attributed for given ranges – find the range of your number (or whatever) and apply different color attribute on that.

For displaying short, formatted text that doesn't need to be editable, Core Text is the way to go. There are several open-source projects for labels that use NSAttributedString and Core Text for rendering. See CoreTextAttributedLabel or OHAttributedLabel for example.

Anups answer in swift. Can be reused from any class.

In swift file

extension NSMutableAttributedString {

    func setColorForStr(textToFind: String, color: UIColor) {

        let range = self.mutableString.rangeOfString(textToFind, options:NSStringCompareOptions.CaseInsensitiveSearch);
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            self.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: range);
        }

    }
}

In Some view controller

let attributedString: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: self.labelShopInYourNetwork.text!);
attributedString.setColorForStr("YOUR NETWORK", color: UIColor(red: 0.039, green: 0.020, blue: 0.490, alpha: 1.0));
self.labelShopInYourNetwork.attributedText = attributedString;

Here you go

NSMutableAttributedString * string = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:lblTemp.text];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor redColor] range:NSMakeRange(0,5)];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor greenColor] range:NSMakeRange(5,6)];
[string addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor blueColor] range:NSMakeRange(11,5)];
lblTemp.attributedText = string;

Swift 4

// An attributed string extension to achieve colors on text.
extension NSMutableAttributedString {

    func setColor(color: UIColor, forText stringValue: String) {
       let range: NSRange = self.mutableString.range(of: stringValue, options: .caseInsensitive)
       self.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor, value: color, range: range)
    }

}

// Try it with label
let label = UILabel()
label.frame = CGRect(x: 70, y: 100, width: 260, height: 30)
let stringValue = "There are 5 results."
let attributedString: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: stringValue)
attributedString.setColor(color: UIColor.red, forText: "5")
label.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 26)
label.attributedText = attributedString
self.view.addSubview(label)

Result

Swift 3

func setColoredLabel() {
        var string: NSMutableAttributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "redgreenblue")
        string.setColor(color: UIColor.redColor(), forText: "red")
        string.setColor(color: UIColor.greenColor(), forText: "green")
        string.setColor(color: UIColor.blueColor(, forText: "blue")
        mylabel.attributedText = string
    }


func setColor(color: UIColor, forText stringValue: String) {
        var range: NSRange = self.mutableString.rangeOfString(stringValue, options: NSCaseInsensitiveSearch)
        if range != nil {
            self.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: color, range: range)
        }
    }

Result:

extension UILabel{

    func setSubTextColor(pSubString : String, pColor : UIColor){


        let attributedString: NSMutableAttributedString = self.attributedText != nil ? NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: self.attributedText!) : NSMutableAttributedString(string: self.text!);


        let range = attributedString.mutableString.range(of: pSubString, options:NSString.CompareOptions.caseInsensitive)
        if range.location != NSNotFound {
            attributedString.addAttribute(NSForegroundColorAttributeName, value: pColor, range: range);
        }
        self.attributedText = attributedString

    }
}