Enter fractions in a uitextfield from 3 UIPickers? - objective-c

Question

So what I'm intending to do is instead of typing in decimals, I want to be able to enter whole numbers and fractions in a textfield. Or select them from a UIPicker.
Example: Feet, Inches, fractions.(2 - 4 1/2).
What's the best way to accomplish this? Please be detailed in your answer. Thank you in advance!
Update: Ok maybe a little more detail is needed.
I'm going to use the picker, and want to display 5 rows like this:
<Ft> <In>
0 0 S 0 0 S 1/16
1 1 P 1 1 P 1/8
2 2 A 2 2 A 3/16
3 3 C 3 3 C 1/4
4 4 E 4 4 E 5/16
ect...all the way to 9, and to 15/16 for the fractions. (Note the space between Ft and Inches and title for row).
Ok, So I was able to get 3 pickers to display on screen just how I wanted, my biggest issue is getting it to display in the textfield properly. So just how the example is above, ft has it's own picker, inches has it's own, and fractions has it's own, How would you get all three to display as "00ft 00 0/0in" in one text field?
UPDATE: the code below is correct, make sure you create an IBOutlet for your UIView that contains the pickers, and hook it up in IB.
.m file
feetArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for(int feet = 0; feet <= 9; feet ++){
NSString *feetString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d%", feet];
[feetArray addObject:feetString]; // Add the string.
}
inchArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for(int inch = 0; inch <= 12; inch ++){
NSString *inchString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d%", inch];
[inchArray addObject:inchString]; // Add the string.
}
fractionArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for(int frac = 0; frac <= 15; frac ++){
NSString *fractionString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d/16", frac];
[fractionArray addObject:fractionString]; // Add the string.
}
}
//How many rows in each Picker.
- (NSInteger)numberOfComponentsInPickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView {
if (pickerView.tag == 1) {
return 2;
}
if (pickerView.tag == 2) {
return 2;
}
return 1;
}
//Selects array for each picker.
- (NSInteger)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView numberOfRowsInComponent:(NSInteger)component {
if (pickerView.tag == 1) {
return [feetArray count];
}
if (pickerView.tag == 2) {
return [inchArray count];
}
return [fractionArray count];
}
- (NSString *)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView titleForRow:(NSInteger)row forComponent:(NSInteger)component {
if (pickerView.tag == 1) {
return [feetArray objectAtIndex:row];
}
if (pickerView.tag == 2) {
return [inchArray objectAtIndex:row];
}
return [fractionArray objectAtIndex:row];
}
//Formats the textfield based on the pickers.
- (void)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView didSelectRow:(NSInteger)row inComponent:(NSInteger)component {
NSString *result = [feetArray objectAtIndex:[feetPicker selectedRowInComponent:0]];
result = [result stringByAppendingFormat:#"%#ft", [feetArray objectAtIndex:[feetPicker selectedRowInComponent:1]]];
result = [result stringByAppendingFormat:#" %#", [inchArray objectAtIndex:[inchesPicker selectedRowInComponent:0]]];
result = [result stringByAppendingFormat:#"%#", [inchArray objectAtIndex:[inchesPicker selectedRowInComponent:1]]];
result = [result stringByAppendingFormat:#" %#in", [fractionArray objectAtIndex:[fractionPicker selectedRowInComponent:0]]];
RiseTextField.text = result;
}

Answer 1

By setting up UIPickerView object as the inputView, you won't need to worry about text input. Tapping on the text field would bring up the picker and make the input constrained just as you want it. You can either subclass or set them directly in your controller. I set it up as a subclass here. Its a rough implementation of what you need as I understand it. You can take a look and see if it helps.

Answer 2

I would advice to use a picker, it's way easier then typing fractions and will prevent the input of incorrect fractions.
There are two ways to get the fractions into your UIPicker, use the pickerView:titleForRow:forComponent: method of your UIPicker delegate to give the fraction as a string. You can use UTF8 fraction characters like ¼ with this function.
If is not giving enough flexibility. You could make images of the fractions and put the images into the picker by using the pickerView:viewForRow:forComponent:reusingView: method of your delegate.
The documentation will give you lots of information! Good luck!

Answer 3

It sounds like you want something like the date picker with multiple wheels to choose each part of the distance. Unfortunately there isn't a way to do this. You have 2 options though. The simple option is to use several pickers next to each other. It wont look quite the same but it's simple. The more complicated option is to build one with UIScrollViews and style it to look the way you want it too.