CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosswifttext-files
Sami Smadi
Sami Smadi

Reputation: 101

Passing text from text file to UITextView in "Swift 3"

I'm a beginner in iOS development and I am trying to make a simple app which Passing text from text file to UITextView in "Swift 3". I have looked up many tutorials on YouTube, stack and other websites, but all of them seem to either give me a lot of errors or are too hard for me too understand (as I am too unexperienced).

Screenshot of Storyboard

There are three buttons, and three text files, and one text view. When user clicks on the first button, file1 will be loaded into the text field.

Some of my attempts, it's give me error on txt_view.text = txt1.txt

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var txt_view: UITextView!

    @IBAction func btn_txt1(_ sender: Any) {

        txt_view.text = txt1.txt
    }

    @IBAction func btn_txt2(_ sender: Any) {

        txt_view.text = txt2.txt
    }

    @IBAction func btn_txt3(_ sender: Any) {

        txt_view.text = txt3.txt
    }

    override func viewDidLoad(){
        super.viewDidLoad()
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning(){
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
    }
}

Upvotes: 8

Views: 3949

Answers (5)

yo2bh
yo2bh

Reputation: 1436

Following is the way to load the text file in the text view.

Swift 4.x

func loadFileContent(_ fileName: String) {
if let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: fileName,
                               ofType: "txt") {
  do {
    let text = try String(contentsOfFile: path, encoding: .ascii)
    openSourceTextView.text = text
  } catch let error {
    debugPrint(" Error - \(error.localizedDescription)")
  }
}

NOTE:

If skip the encoding or using the encoding: .utf8 you will get the following errors -

The file “fileName.txt” couldn’t be opened because the text encoding of its contents can’t be determined.

OR

The file “fileName.txt” couldn’t be opened using text encoding Unicode (UTF-8).

so used encoding: .ascii while loading content of the text file.

Upvotes: 1

Jerland2
Jerland2

Reputation: 1127

if you want to simplify the syntax a bit the following is a function that would accomplish the goal as well:

private func loadTextWithFileName(_ filename: String) -> String? {
    guard let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: filename, ofType: "txt"),
         let contents = try? String(contentsOfFile: path) else { return nil }
    return contents
}

Upvotes: 0

Tristan Beaton
Tristan Beaton

Reputation: 1762

This is probably the simplest way of doing it.

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {


    @IBOutlet weak var textView: UITextView!

    @IBAction func readFile1(_ sender: Any) {

        self.textView.text = load(file: "file1")
    }

    @IBAction func readFile2(_ sender: Any) {

        self.textView.text = load(file: "file2")
    }

    @IBAction func readFile3(_ sender: Any) {

        self.textView.text = load(file: "file3")
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.

        self.textView.text = load(file: "file1")
    }

    func load(file name:String) -> String {

        if let path = Bundle.main.path(forResource: name, ofType: "txt") {

            if let contents = try? String(contentsOfFile: path) {

                return contents

            } else {

                print("Error! - This file doesn't contain any text.")
            }

        } else {

            print("Error! - This file doesn't exist.")
        }

        return ""
    }
}

Upvotes: 9

Danyl Semmache
Danyl Semmache

Reputation: 2052

You can't read data from text file by this way.

To do it, you have can do something like this :

let file = "txt1.txt" //this is the file. we will write to and read from it

if let dir = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first {

    let path = dir.appendingPathComponent(file)

    catch {/* error handling here */}

    //reading
    do {
        let text_view.txt = try String(contentsOf: path, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8)
    }
    catch {/* error handling here */}
}

Upvotes: 0

Brian Endo
Brian Endo

Reputation: 46

Use this helper function:

func updateTextView(with fileName: String) {

    if let dir = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first {

        let path = dir.appendingPathComponent(fileName)

        do {
            txt_view.text = try String(contentsOf: path, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8)
        }
        catch {/* error handling here */}
    }
}

You can apply it to actions like so:

@IBAction func btn_txt1(_ sender: Any) {

    updateTextView(with: txt1.txt)

}

Upvotes: 0

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