I want my text strike through extend on whitespace

Question

I use NSAttributeString to set strike through on my text, I want it extend on whitespace.

I already set the correct range, but the strike through only cover the text characters. The strike through is ignore the whitespace unless I add some non-empty text before and after it.

How can I make the strike through extend on whitespace without extra text?

Answer 1

I haven't found any solution but with your last option means adding first and last character as . with space you can try one thing. Either set the NSForegroundColorAttributeName of that first and last character to your background color of label or set the NSFontAttributeName with UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 0.1). So it will be goes like this. You haven't specify your answer language so i'm posting answer in latest Swift 3.

let attributedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: self.lbl.text!)
attributedText.addAttributes([NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName: 2], range: NSMakeRange(0, self.lbl.text!.characters.count))
self.lbl.attributedText = attributedText

Before using NSForegroundColorAttributeName & NSFontAttributeName

Now you can use either NSForegroundColorAttributeName or NSFontAttributeName to hide first and last dot(.) character.

let attributedText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: self.lbl.text!)
attributedText.addAttributes([NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName: 2], range: NSMakeRange(0, self.lbl.text!.characters.count))
attributedText.addAttributes([NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white], range: NSMakeRange(0, 1))
attributedText.addAttributes([NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.white], range: NSMakeRange(self.lbl.text!.characters.count - 1, 1))
//Or either Set NSFontAttributeName instead of NSForegroundColorAttributeName
//attributedText.addAttributes([NSFontAttributeName: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 0.1)], range: NSMakeRange(0, 1))
//attributedText.addAttributes([NSFontAttributeName: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 0.1)], range: NSMakeRange(self.lbl.text!.characters.count - 1, 1))
self.lbl.attributedText = attributedText

After using NSForegroundColorAttributeName or NSFontAttributeName

Answer 2

For people coming to this question who only want a horizontal line through whitespace, this is the way to do it (Swift 4):

let line = String(repeating: "\u{23AF}", count: 10)

Answer 3

I have come across the same problem today, and neither existing answers gave me a solution I felt was as straightforward as it should be. After some research, I found a more concise solution using Unicode characters.

Padding each side of your text with one or more non-breaking Unicode space characters (U+00A0) extends the line as desired:

let attributedText = NSAttributedString(
    string: "\u{00A0}\(someText)\u{00A0}",
    attributes: [.strikethroughStyle: NSUnderlineStyle.single.rawValue]
)