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How to create a tappable button

Paul Hudson    @twostraws   

Updated for Xcode 14.2

Updated in iOS 15

SwiftUI’s button is similar to UIButton, except it’s more flexible in terms of what content it shows and it uses a closure for its action rather than the old target/action system.

To create a button with a string title you would start with code like this:

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

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The words “Button title” in blue, indicating they are tappable.

For example, you might make a button that shows or hides some detail text when it’s tapped:

struct ContentView: View {
    @State private var showDetails = false

    var body: some View {
        VStack(alignment: .leading) {
            Button("Show details") {
                showDetails.toggle()
            }

            if showDetails {
                Text("You should follow me on Twitter: @twostraws")
                    .font(.largeTitle)
            }
        }
    }
}

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The title inside the button can be any kind of view, so you can create an image button like this:

struct ContentView: View {
    @State private var showDetails = false

    var body: some View {
        Button {
            print("Image tapped!")
        } label: {
            Image("sunset")
        }
    }
}

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Using a custom label is really helpful for times you want to increase the tappable area of a button, because you can apply padding to the label then use contentShape(Rectangle()) or similar to make the whole area tappable.

For example, this adds 20 points of padding to a button’s label, to ensure it’s tappable in a much larger space than would otherwise be possible:

Button {
    print("Button pressed")
} label: {
    Text("Press Me")
        .padding(20)
}
.contentShape(Rectangle())

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If you’re targeting iOS 15 or later, you can also attach a role to your button that helps SwiftUI know what kind of styling should be attached to the button. For example, if we had a Delete button we might mark it with the .destructive role so SwiftUI can highlight it in red when it makes sense:

Button("Delete", role: .destructive) {
    print("Perform delete")
}

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The word “Delete” in red.

There’s also a .cancel role, and again it gives SwiftUI that extra bit of context to present it appropriately.

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