Format UILabel with bullet points?

Is it possible to format the text in a UILabel to show a bullet point?

If so, How can I do it?

Perhaps use the Unicode code point for the bullet character in your string?

Objective-c

myLabel.text = @"\u2022 This is a list item!";

Swift 4

myLabel.text = "\u{2022} This is a list item!"

just add " • "

Even i was looking for something like this for my textView. What i did, just append above string with my string and pass it to my textView, same can be done for labels also.

I answered this for future Viewer.

Here is nice solution with Swift

let label = UILabel()
label.frame = CGRect(x: 40, y: 100, width: 280, height: 600)
label.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
label.numberOfLines = 0

let arrayString = [    "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.",    "Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.",    "Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.",    "Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."]

label.attributedText = add(stringList: arrayString, font: label.font, bullet: "")

self.view.addSubview(label)

Add bullet attributes

func add(stringList: [String],
         font: UIFont,
         bullet: String = "\u{2022}",
         indentation: CGFloat = 20,
         lineSpacing: CGFloat = 2,
         paragraphSpacing: CGFloat = 12,
         textColor: UIColor = .gray,
         bulletColor: UIColor = .red) -> NSAttributedString {
    
    let textAttributes: [NSAttributedStringKey: Any] = [NSAttributedStringKey.font: font, NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: textColor]
    let bulletAttributes: [NSAttributedStringKey: Any] = [NSAttributedStringKey.font: font, NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor: bulletColor]
    
    let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
    let nonOptions = [NSTextTab.OptionKey: Any]()
    paragraphStyle.tabStops = [
        NSTextTab(textAlignment: .left, location: indentation, options: nonOptions)]
    paragraphStyle.defaultTabInterval = indentation
    //paragraphStyle.firstLineHeadIndent = 0
    //paragraphStyle.headIndent = 20
    //paragraphStyle.tailIndent = 1
    paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = lineSpacing
    paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = paragraphSpacing
    paragraphStyle.headIndent = indentation
    
    let bulletList = NSMutableAttributedString()
    for string in stringList {
        let formattedString = "\(bullet)\t\(string)\n"
        let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: formattedString)
        
        attributedString.addAttributes(
            [NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle : paragraphStyle],
            range: NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))
        
        attributedString.addAttributes(
            textAttributes,
            range: NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length))
        
        let string:NSString = NSString(string: formattedString)
        let rangeForBullet:NSRange = string.range(of: bullet)
        attributedString.addAttributes(bulletAttributes, range: rangeForBullet)
        bulletList.append(attributedString)
    }
    
    return bulletList
}

Here is result:

In Swift 4 i have used " • " with new Line

 @IBOutlet weak var bulletLabel: UILabel!
 let arrayOfLines = ["Eat egg for protein","You should Eat Ghee","Wheat is with high fiber","Avoid to eat Fish "]
 for value in arrayOfLines {
     bulletLabel.text = bulletLabel.text!  + " • " + value + "\n"
  }

Output:

In swift 3.1

lblItemName.text = "\u{2022} This is a list item!"

If you want to align the text indenting for the bullet points as well, you can use the following method that builds a NSAttributedString with the proper indentation and spacing properties:

- (NSAttributedString *)attributedStringForBulletTexts:(NSArray *)stringList
                                              withFont:(UIFont *)font
                                          bulletString:(NSString *)bullet
                                           indentation:(CGFloat)indentation
                                           lineSpacing:(CGFloat)lineSpacing
                                      paragraphSpacing:(CGFloat)paragraphSpacing
                                             textColor:(UIColor *)textColor
                                           bulletColor:(UIColor *)bulletColor {

    NSDictionary *textAttributes = @{NSFontAttributeName: font,
                                 NSForegroundColorAttributeName: textColor};
    NSDictionary *bulletAttributes = @{NSFontAttributeName: font, NSForegroundColorAttributeName: bulletColor};

    NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraphStyle = [NSMutableParagraphStyle new];
    paragraphStyle.tabStops = @[[[NSTextTab alloc] initWithTextAlignment: NSTextAlignmentLeft location:indentation options:@{}]];
    paragraphStyle.defaultTabInterval = indentation;
    paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = lineSpacing;
    paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = paragraphSpacing;
    paragraphStyle.headIndent = indentation;

    NSMutableAttributedString *bulletList = [NSMutableAttributedString new];

    for (NSString *string in stringList) {
        NSString *formattedString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@\t%@\n", bullet, string];
        NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:formattedString];
        if (string == stringList.lastObject) {
            paragraphStyle = [paragraphStyle mutableCopy];
            paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = 0;
        }
        [attributedString addAttributes:@{NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: paragraphStyle} range:NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length)];
        [attributedString addAttributes:textAttributes range:NSMakeRange(0, attributedString.length)];

        NSRange rangeForBullet = [formattedString rangeOfString:bullet];
        [attributedString addAttributes:bulletAttributes range:rangeForBullet];
        [bulletList appendAttributedString:attributedString];
    }

    return bulletList;
}

And you can use that method as follows, by passing an NSArray with the texts and providing you already have a UILabel:

NSArray *stringArray = @[@"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.",
                         @"Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.",
                         @"Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.",
                         @"Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."
                         ];

label.attributedText = [self attributedStringForBulletTexts:stringArray
                                                   withFont:label.font
                                               bulletString:@"•"
                                                indentation:15
                                                lineSpacing:2
                                           paragraphSpacing:10
                                                  textColor:UIColor.blackColor
                                                bulletColor:UIColor.grayColor];

Check out this link, I made a Custom view to format text with bullet points/ other symbols/ image(using attributeText property of UILabel) as list item symbol (Swift 3.0) https://github.com/akshaykumarboth/SymbolTextLabel-iOS-Swift

 import UIKit
    
    class ViewController: UIViewController {
    
    @IBOutlet var symbolView: SymbolTextLabel!
    
    var testString = "Understanding the concept of sales"
    
    var bulletSymbol = "\u{2022}" 
    var fontsize: CGFloat= 18
    override func viewDidLoad() {
    
        super.viewDidLoad()
         //First way // Dynamically creating SymbolTextLabel object
    
        let symbolTextLabel = SymbolTextLabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 0, height: 0))
    
        symbolTextLabel.setText(text: testString, symbolCode: bulletSymbol) //setting text and symbol of text item
    
        symbolTextLabel.setFontSize(textSize: fontsize) // setting font size
    
        //symbolTextLabel.setSpacing(spacing: 5) // setting space between symbol and text
    
        self.view.addSubview(symbolTextLabel) 
//second way // from storyboard or interface builder
    
     symbolView.setText(text: testString, symbolCode: bulletSymbol)
 //setting text and symbol of text item 
    
    symbolView.setFontSize(textSize: fontsize) // setting font size
    
        //symbolView.setSpacing(spacing: 5) // setting space between symbol and text
    
         } 
    }

Yes. Copy and paste the following bullet: • Swift's compiler can interpret and display the bullet as desired within Xcode, nothing else needed.

Reuse

extension String {
    static var bullet: String {
        return "• "
    }
}


print(String.bullet + "Buy apples")
let secondPoint: String = .bullet + "Buy oranges"
print(secondPoint)

output

• Buy apples
• Buy oranges

Reusable array

extension Array where Element == String {

    var bulletList: String {
        var po = ""
        for (index, item) in self.enumerated() {
            if index != 0 {
                po += "\n"
            }
            po += .bullet + item
        }
        return po
    }
}


print(["get apples", "get oranges", "get a bannana"].bulletList)

output

• get apples
• get oranges
• get a bannana

If anyone looking for textview text with bullet points like me, below is the answer. By the way it works only for static text.

•   Better experience - Refer a friend and How to Play \n• Tournaments performance improvement\n• UI/UX Improvements\n• Critical bug fixes

I have assigned above text to textview. It worked as intended for me.

Here's the solution from @krunal refactored into Swift 5 NSAttributedString extension:

import UIKit

public extension NSAttributedString {
    static func makeBulletList(from strings: [String],
                               bulletCharacter: String = "\u{2022}",
                               bulletAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [:],
                               textAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [:],
                               indentation: CGFloat = 20,
                               lineSpacing: CGFloat = 1,
                               paragraphSpacing: CGFloat = 10) -> NSAttributedString
    {
        let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
        paragraphStyle.defaultTabInterval = indentation
        paragraphStyle.tabStops = [
            NSTextTab(textAlignment: .left, location: indentation)
        ]
        paragraphStyle.lineSpacing = lineSpacing
        paragraphStyle.paragraphSpacing = paragraphSpacing
        paragraphStyle.headIndent = indentation

        let bulletList = NSMutableAttributedString()

        for string in strings {
            let bulletItem = "\(bulletCharacter)\t\(string)\n"

            var attributes = textAttributes
            attributes[.paragraphStyle] = paragraphStyle

            let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(
                string: bulletItem, attributes: attributes
            )

            if !bulletAttributes.isEmpty {
                let bulletRange = (bulletItem as NSString).range(of: bulletCharacter)
                attributedString.addAttributes(bulletAttributes, range: bulletRange)
            }

            bulletList.append(attributedString)
        }

        if bulletList.string.hasSuffix("\n") {
            bulletList.deleteCharacters(
                in: NSRange(location: bulletList.length - 1, length: 1)
            )
        }

        return bulletList
    }
}