UIButton titleLabel not displaying - iphone

Question

I have seen a bunch of similar questions, but noone got the answer I am looking for. When I use this code to make a UIButton and set it's titleLabel, the UIButton appear, but the titleLabel won't appear.
UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 50, 50)];
[button setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"button.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
button.titleLabel.text = #"Title";
button.titleLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:#"System-Bold" size:25.0f];
[self.view addSubview:button];
This code displays the button, but not the titleView, it's title. Why can that be? I am developing for iOS 6 and higher.
NOTE 1: I am not looking for an option like this:
[button setTitle:#"Title" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
Because I have to use the titleLabel to set it's font and fontSize.
NOTE 2: I can't create a UILabel and add it as a subView of the button. Since the button is later animating.

Answer 1

You always need to specify ControlState when updating button's title!
There are four possible values for UIButtons:
UIControlStateNormal
UIControlStateHighlighted
UIControlStateDisabled
UIControlStateSelected
so for example:
[button setTitle:#"Title" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
and then you can set custom settings for titleLabel:
[button.titleLabel setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:#"Zapfino" size:20.0]];
[button.titleLabel setTextColor:[UIColor blueColor]];

Answer 2

[button setTitle:#"Title" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
Is the correct way to set the title string.
titleLabel is used to set the font and color.

Answer 3

Try using...
[button setNeedsLayout];
[button layoutIfNeeded];
It will force button to update the layout.

Answer 4

If in the storyboard with a custom button image from assets like me
Check-in Attribute inspector
Check-in Attribute inspector set asset image as a background

Answer 5

Although this property is read-only, its own properties are read/write. Use these properties primarily to configure the text of the button. For example:
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType: UIButtonTypeSystem];
button.titleLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize: 12];
button.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByTruncatingTail;
Do not use the label object to set the text color or the shadow color. Instead, use the setTitleColor(:for:) and setTitleShadowColor(:for:) methods of this class to make those changes. To set the actual text of the label, use setTitle(_:for:) (button.titleLabel.text does not let you set the text).
The titleLabel property returns a value even if the button has not been displayed yet. The value of the property is nil for system buttons.
in swift :
button.setTitle("your text", for: .normal)
button.setTitleColor(.white, for: .normal)

Answer 6

TLDR - try this saveButton.titleLabel?.layer.zPosition = 10
This was a frustrating one for me. I created a UIButton programmatically, added constraints, and added a gradient background (this is what caused my problem...I think). Then I needed to update the font:
saveButton.titleLabel?.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 20, weight: .semibold)
saveButton.setTitle("Save", for: .normal)
Notice I'm setting the title in the correct way. But still, no title showing. The craziest part - when I clicked "Debug View Hierarchy" I could see the title right there! If I didn't change the font, the title showed as well. Confusing. Then I added this (literally flinging spaghetti and seeing what stuck):
saveButton.titleLabel?.layer.zPosition = 10
It worked. It seems like some combination of gradient background, setting the font, etc was putting the button's internal title label at the bottom of its layers.