Create a custom left back button on UINavigationBar WITH the standard arrow on the left

Question

When I create a custom back button, I use the following code:

    UIBarButtonItem *leftButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]initWithTitle:@"Yeah" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(backButtonPressed:)];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = leftButton;

This works fine, and I obtain this result:

I would have the same result, but with an arrow on the left, like this (when it's a standard back button, not a custom one):

How can I simply add this arrow ?

Solution 1

Finally, here's the snippet I use to define the back button's title with the standard left arrow in the current view, not in the parent view :

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [self setTitle:@"Current View"];

    // Get the previous view controller
    UIViewController *previousVC = [self.navigationController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:self.navigationController.viewControllers.count - 2];

    // Create a UIBarButtonItem
    UIBarButtonItem *barButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"FooBar" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(yourSelector)];

    // Associate the barButtonItem to the previous view
    [previousVC.navigationItem setBackBarButtonItem:barButtonItem];
}

---

Here's the result :

Note : However, since it's not possible to add an action on a backBarButtonItem, you can refer to this great post if you want it to.

Updated for Swift

// Prev - no chevron...
//navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Back !", style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(backPressed))

// adds the chevron
let vc = navigationController?.viewControllers.first
let button = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Go Back", style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(backPressed))
vc?.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = button

Solution 2

The easiest thing to do would be to set the title, in the parent controller (i.e. the one you want to nav back to). If you don't want this to be the same as the actual title displayed in that VC's view, you can change the title in viewWillDisappear to what you want on the next VC's back button, and then change it back to what you want in the parent in viewWillAppear.

If you are using storyboards, you can also set the back title directly in IB.

Finally, in order to create a custom back button, you can do something like:

self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]initWithTitle:@"Details" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:nil action:nil];

...just be sure to do this in the presenting (or parent) view controller, not the view controller being loaded (the presented controller).

Solution 3

UIButton * backButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[backButton addTarget:self action:@selector(popViewController) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[backButton setFrame:FRAME_DEFINE
[backButton setContentHorizontalAlignment:UIControlContentHorizontalAlignmentLeft];
[backButton setExclusiveTouch:YES];
[backButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:BACK_BUTTON_DEFAULT_ICON] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[backButton setTitle:@"BACK" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[backButton setTitleColor:[UIColor blackColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
UIBarButtonItem *backMenuBarButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:backButton];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = backMenuBarButton;