iOS Interview Guide: layoutIfNeeded and setNeedsLayout

Photo by Maranda Vandergriff on Unsplash

Level: Intermediate, Priority: High

Describe the differences between the layoutIfNeeded() and setNeedsLayout() methods.

Both layoutIfNeeded() and setNeedsLayout() are used to manage the layout of views, but they serve different purposes depending on the timing requirements of your code.

Here are some differences between these two methods:

setNeedsLayout():

• When you call it on a view, you are essentially flagging it as needing a layout update.
• This method informs the iOS that the view’s layout needs to be recalculated before the next drawing cycle, but it doesn’t force an immediate layout update.
• The actual layout update occurs during the next update cycle of the run loop, which happens automatically by the system.
• Multiple calls to setNeedsLayout() before the layout update will result in only one layout update.

layoutIfNeeded():

• When you call it on a view, you are explicitly requesting an immediate layout update for that view.
• This method triggers the layout update for the view and its subviews if needed, immediately.