Swift - Programmatically create and display UIPickerView when BarButtonItem is pressed

Question

Initially I wanted to add a hidden UIPickerView onto the Main.storyboard alongside my existing UISearchBar and when a BarButtonItem is clicked, the UIPickerView should be displayed; but it appears I cannot have them both at once in a given space.

So instead, my best alternative was to create it programmatically. I've followed existing tutorials (http://sourcefreeze.com/ios-uipickerview-example-using-swift/) and similar questions (Programmatically Create and Show UIPickerView) and seems like I do (?) have a UIPickerView as the description of it is being printed and I get the following:

<UIPickerView: 0x7f86425b1fb0; frame = (100 100; 100 162); layer = <CALayer: 0x7f8642543a20>>

Here is part of my current code which may be of help:

AnimalTableViewController.swift

import UIKit

class AnimalTableViewController: UITableViewController, UINavigationControllerDelegate, UISearchBarDelegate, UISearchDisplayDelegate, UISearchResultsUpdating, UIPickerViewDelegate, UIPickerViewDataSource {

    @IBOutlet var segmentedSortOption: UISegmentedControl!
    var array : NSArray = Animal.animalStruct.jsonResult["animal"] as NSArray
    var filteredArray = [[String:AnyObject]]()
    var timer = NSTimer()
    var counter:Int = 1
    var typePickerView: UIPickerView = UIPickerView()

    @IBOutlet var typeBarButton: UIBarButtonItem!
    var resultSearchController = UISearchController()

    var indexArray:String!

    @IBAction func refresh(sender: AnyObject) {

        self.tableView.reloadData()
        println("refreshed")
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        self.typePickerView.hidden = true
        self.typePickerView.dataSource = self
        self.typePickerView.delegate = self
        self.typePickerView.frame = CGRectMake(100, 100, 100, 162)
        self.typePickerView.backgroundColor = UIColor.blackColor()
        self.typePickerView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.whiteColor().CGColor
        self.typePickerView.layer.borderWidth = 1        
        timer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(0.2, target: self, selector: Selector("result"), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)

        self.resultSearchController = ({
            let controller = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)
            controller.searchResultsUpdater = self
            controller.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
            controller.searchBar.sizeToFit()

            self.tableView.tableHeaderView = controller.searchBar

            return controller
        })()
    }

    func numberOfComponentsInPickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView) -> Int {
        return 1
    }

    func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, numberOfRowsInComponent component: Int) -> Int {
        return array.count
    }

    func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, titleForRow row: Int, forComponent component: Int) -> String! {
        return array[row]["type1"] as String
    }

    func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, didSelectRow row: Int, inComponent component: Int) {
        typeBarButton.title = array[row]["type1"] as? String
        typePickerView.hidden = false
    }

    func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, widthForComponent component: Int) -> CGFloat {
        return 36.0
    }

    func pickerView(pickerView: UIPickerView, rowHeightForComponent component: Int) -> CGFloat {
        return 36.0
    }

    @IBAction func typePickerViewSelected(sender: AnyObject) {
        typePickerView.hidden = false
        println(typePickerView.description)
    }

}

Please could you help me display the programmatically created UIPickerView when the BarButtonItem is pressed? If you have any more questions, please do ask.

Many thanks.

Solution

You never add the pickerView as a subview of the ViewController, which you can do in viewDidLoad() since you're hiding it. Then when you unhide it your view should be there.

EDIT: Added Code

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.typePickerView.hidden = true
    //other pickerView code like dataSource and delegate
    self.view.addSubview(pickerView) //will add the subview to the view hierarchy
}

With the above code, now when you unhide it on button press the view will show up.

Comments

[Javz]

Could you please show me an example? As I am not entirely sure what you mean by that. Would you want me to add it into the ViewController? Though it's being declared on the TableViewController. Thanks

[Faizan Mubasher]

Still not working and I am unable to find reason. I am trying to open it on UIView Tap.