Finding the direction of scrolling in a UIScrollVi

Question

I have a UIScrollView with only horizontal scrolling allowed, and I would like to know which direction (left, right) the user scrolls. What I did was to subclass the UIScrollView and override the touchesMoved method:

- (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    [super touchesMoved:touches withEvent:event];

    UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
    float now = [touch locationInView:self].x;
    float before = [touch previousLocationInView:self].x;
    NSLog(@"%f %f", before, now);
    if (now > before){
        right = NO;
        NSLog(@"LEFT");
    }
    else{
        right = YES;
        NSLog(@"RIGHT");

    }

}

But this method sometimes doesn't get called at all when I move. What do you think?

Answer 1

In swift:

    func scrollViewWillBeginDragging(_ scrollView: UIScrollView) {
    if scrollView.panGestureRecognizer.translation(in: scrollView).y < 0 {
        print("down")
    } else {
        print("up")
    }
}

You can do it also in scrollViewDidScroll.

Answer 2

Codes explains itself I guess. CGFloat difference1 and difference2 declared in same class private interface. Good if contentSize stays same.

- (void)scrollViewDidScroll:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
        {

        CGFloat contentOffSet = scrollView.contentOffset.y;
        CGFloat contentHeight = scrollView.contentSize.height;

        difference1 = contentHeight - contentOffSet;

        if (difference1 > difference2) {
            NSLog(@"Up");
        }else{
            NSLog(@"Down");
        }

        difference2 = contentHeight - contentOffSet;

       }

Answer 3

Alternatively, it is possible to observe key path "contentOffset". This is useful when it's not possible for you to set/change the delegate of the scroll view.

[yourScrollView addObserver:self forKeyPath:@"contentOffset" options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew | NSKeyValueObservingOptionOld context:nil];

After adding the observer, you could now:

- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context{
    CGFloat newOffset = [[change objectForKey:@"new"] CGPointValue].y;
    CGFloat oldOffset = [[change objectForKey:@"old"] CGPointValue].y;
    CGFloat diff = newOffset - oldOffset;
    if (diff < 0 ) { //scrolling down
        // do something
    }
}

Do remember to remove the observer when needed. e.g. you could add the observer in viewWillAppear and remove it in viewWillDisappear

Answer 4

...I would like to know which direction (left, right) the user scrolls.

In that case, on iOS 5 and above, use the UIScrollViewDelegate to determine the direction of the user's pan gesture:

- (void)scrollViewWillBeginDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
{ 
    if ([scrollView.panGestureRecognizer translationInView:scrollView.superview].x > 0) {
        // handle dragging to the right
    } else {
        // handle dragging to the left
    }
}

Answer 5

- (void)scrollViewWillEndDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView withVelocity:(CGPoint)velocity targetContentOffset:(inout CGPoint *)targetContentOffset {
NSLog(@"px %f py %f",velocity.x,velocity.y);}

Use this delegate method of scrollview.

If y co-ordinate of velocity is +ve scroll view scrolls downwards and if it is -ve scrollview scrolls upwards. Similarly left and right scroll can be detected using x co-ordinate.

Answer 6

Using scrollViewDidScroll: is a good way to find the current direction.

If you want to know the direction after the user has finished scrolling, use the following:

@property (nonatomic) CGFloat lastContentOffset;

- (void)scrollViewWillBeginDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {

    self.lastContentOffset = scrollView.contentOffset.x;
}

- (void)scrollViewDidEndDecelerating:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {

    if (self.lastContentOffset < scrollView.contentOffset.x) {
        // moved right
    } else if (self.lastContentOffset > scrollView.contentOffset.x) {
        // moved left
    } else {
        // didn't move
    }
}