How to create segmented control in SwiftUI

⋅ 2 min read ⋅ SwiftUI Picker Segmented Control

Table of Contents

A segmented control is a horizontal control that consists of multiple segments, each segment functioning as a mutually exclusive button.

Segmented Control.
Segmented Control.

In UIKit, we have UISegmentedControl, but in SwiftUI, we don't have a dedicated view for this kind of control. Apple treats segmented control as one variation of a Picker, which makes sense because they both share the same functionality. The following is the definition of a Picker.

A Picker is a SwiftUI equivalent of UIKit's UIPickerView. It is a control that allows you to select a value from a list of mutually exclusive values.

As you can see, both picker and segmented control is a control that lets users choose the value out of mutually exclusive options.

Creation

Since segmented control is just another variation of a picker, SwiftUI treats it as such. To create a segmented control, we create a picker view and apply a SegmentedPickerStyle() to it via the pickerStyle modifier.

struct ContentView: View {
@State private var selectedColorIndex = 0

var body: some View {
VStack {
Picker("Favorite Color", selection: $selectedColorIndex, content: {
Text("Red").tag(0)
Text("Green").tag(1)
Text("Blue").tag(2)
})
.pickerStyle(SegmentedPickerStyle()) // <1>
Text("Selected color: \(selectedColorIndex)")
}
}
}

<1> Apply segmented picker style with .pickerStyle modifier.

Segmented Control.
Segmented Control.

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Conclusion

Even though segmented control and picker share the same functionality, they serve a different purpose. Segmented controls are often used to display different views. In Maps, for example, a segmented control lets you switch between Map, Transit, and Satellite views. On the other hand, a picker view aims to offer an easy way for people to enter information by choosing from a medium-to-long list of items. I suggest you consult Human Interface Guidelines for detailed information.


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