Setting an image for a UIButton in code

Question

How do you set the image for a UIButton in code?

I have this:

UIButton *btnTwo = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect]; 
btnTwo.frame = CGRectMake(40, 140, 240, 30);
[btnTwo setTitle:@"vc2:v1" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[btnTwo addTarget:self action:@selector(goToOne) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:btnTwo];

but don't see what will set the image for it.

Solution 1

Objective-C

UIImage *btnImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"image.png"];
[btnTwo setImage:btnImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Swift 5.1

let btnImage = UIImage(named: "image")
btnTwo.setImage(btnImage , for: .normal)

Solution 2

Mike's solution will just show the image, but any title set on the button will not be visible, because you can either set the title or the image.

If you want to set both (your image and title) use the following code:

btnImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"image.png"];
[btnTwo setBackgroundImage:btnImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[btnTwo setTitle:@"Title" forState:UIControlStateNormal];

Solution 3

Before this would work for me I had to resize the button frame explicitly based on the image frame size.

UIImage *listImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"list_icon.png"];
UIButton *listButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];

// get the image size and apply it to the button frame
CGRect listButtonFrame = listButton.frame;
listButtonFrame.size = listImage.size;
listButton.frame = listButtonFrame;

[listButton setImage:listImage forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[listButton addTarget:self.navigationController.parentViewController 
               action:@selector(revealToggle:) 
     forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
UIBarButtonItem *jobsButton = 
  [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithCustomView:listButton];

self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = jobsButton;

Solution 4

In case of Swift User

// case of normal image
let image1 = UIImage(named: "your_image_file_name_without_extension")!
button1.setImage(image1, forState: UIControlState.Normal) 

// in case you don't want image to change when "clicked", you can leave code below
// case of when button is clicked
let image2 = UIImage(named: "image_clicked")!
button1.setImage(image2, forState: UIControlState.Highlight) 

Solution 5

You can do it like this

[btnTwo setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"image.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];

View more solutions

Comments

[leviathan]

As a sidenote: this will show the image, but the button title text will be hidden.

[Mike Martin]

This part of the code has got me confused. <code> btnImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"image.png"]; </code> What is btnImage? That wasn't in the original code. Is that a new button?

[Ajay Sharma]

you can directly set the image of the button instead of taking another image object like this: [btnTwo setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"image.png"]];

[user755278]

This is code is fully working but i'm getting image with parsing so how can i done this as this code is worked for me in UIImage case:- largePick.image = aNewsInfo.smallImageData; how can i done this with UIButton... Can you help me...

[Praveen-K]

you have to have buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect to UIButtonTypeCustom other wise button will not display as per as your image.

[Kirk Woll]

@slcott, where does the documentation state that? I don't see it suggest anywhere that setImage is deprecated. (It appears to me you are confusing UIButton.setImage with UITableViewCell.image, which is a property deprecated as you stated.)

[onmyway133]

what is the difference between setImage and setBackgroundImage ?

[Ernest]

setBackgroundImage will stretch the image over the width of the button over your title text while setImage will make the button an image ignoring title text without stretching the image.

[Apfelsaft]

Attention: If you use anything else than UIButtonTypeCustom, the image will be blue in iOS7 and 8.

[bk138]

@jrasmusson just wanted to add that the 3 lines of fiddling with the frame can also be written in [listButton sizeToFit]

[Micah Montoya]

For Swift 3: btnTwo.setImage(btnImage, for: UIControlState.normal)

[Mike Irving]

or even simpler, the second line in Swift btnTwo.setImage(btnImage, for: .normal)