How to add bar items to a navigation view

Paul Hudson @twostraws March 11th 2021

Updated for Xcode 12.5

The toolbar() modifier lets us add single or multiple bar button items to the leading and trailing edge of a navigation view, as well as other parts of our view if needed. These might be tappable buttons, but there are no restrictions – you can add any sort of view.

For example, this adds a single Help button the to trailing edge of a navigation view:

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            Text("SwiftUI")
                .navigationTitle("Welcome")
                .toolbar {
                    Button("Help") {
                        print("Help tapped!")
                    }
                }
        }
    }
}

We haven’t specified where the button should be displayed, but that’s okay – SwiftUI knows the trailing edge is the best place for left to right languages, and will automatically flip that to the other side for right to left languages.

If you want to control the exact position of your button, you can do so by wrapping it in a ToolbarItem and specifying the placement you want. For example, this will create a button and force it be on the leading edge of the navigation bar:

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            Text("SwiftUI")
                .navigationTitle("Welcome")
                .toolbar {
                    ToolbarItem(placement: .navigationBarLeading) {
                        Button("Help") {
                            print("Help tapped!")
                        }
                    }
                }
        }
    }
}

If you want to place multiple bar buttons in different locations, you can just repeat ToolbarItem as many times as you need and specify a different placement each time.

To put multiple bar buttons in the same locations, you should wrap them in a ToolbarItemGroup, like this:

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            Text("SwiftUI")
                .navigationTitle("Welcome")
                .toolbar {
                    ToolbarItemGroup(placement: .navigationBarTrailing) {
                        Button("About") {
                            print("About tapped!")
                        }

                        Button("Help") {
                            print("Help tapped!")
                        }
                    }
                }
        }
    }
}

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How to add bar items to a navigation view

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