Given a view, how do I get its viewController?

How to Get a View's ViewController: A Handy Guide! 😎📱

Are you facing a perplexing issue where you have a pointer to a UIView but need to access its UIViewController? Well, fret no more! 🎉 In this blog post, we will explore this common problem and provide you with simple and effective solutions! Let's dive right in! 💪

The Problem: Accessing a View's ViewController 🧐❔

So, you have a UIView, and you need to find its associated UIViewController. The first thought might be to use the [self superview] method, but hold on, that will only give you another UIView, not the desired UIViewController. 😥

Solution 1: Traverse the Responder Chain 🔄👣

To access a UIView's UIViewController, we can traverse the responder chain. 🔄 The responder chain is a hierarchical structure that allows events to be handled by different objects in a predefined order.

Here's how you can traverse the responder chain and find the UIViewController:

UIResponder *nextResponder = [view nextResponder];

while (nextResponder) {
    if ([nextResponder isKindOfClass:[UIViewController class]]) {
        UIViewController *viewController = (UIViewController *)nextResponder;
        // Voila! You've found the viewController associated with your view! 🎉
        break;
    }
    
    nextResponder = [nextResponder nextResponder];
}

By looping through the responder chain and checking if each next responder is of type UIViewController, we can locate the desired UIViewController associated with our view. 🎯

Solution 2: Use the View's View Controller Property 🤝💥

In some cases, a UIView might have a direct reference to its associated UIViewController via its viewController property. This property is automatically set when the view is added to a view hierarchy.

To access the UIViewController, you can simply use the following:

UIViewController *viewController = [view viewController];

By utilising this property, you can obtain the desired UIViewController without traversing the responder chain. How convenient is that? 🙌

Take Action! 🚀💡

Now that you've learned two handy solutions to access a view's UIViewController, it's time to put your newfound knowledge into action! Pick your preferred method and implement it in your project. Don't let this obstacle hold you back any longer! 💪

Have you encountered any other tricky issues related to view controllers? Share your experiences and let us know in the comments below! We love hearing from our awesome readers like you! 🤩💬

So, go ahead, conquer those view controller conundrums, and keep that code flowing! Happy coding! 💻✨