RTL shows numbers at the end of lines

Question

Hi.

Trying to display a hebrew string that starts with a number, always displays the number at the end of the string like so: 1. יום שישי בבוקר

but I need the number to be displayed at the right side of the text-

any solution to that?

It happens with UILabel & UITextField & UITextView

and trying to write the number at the left side also produce the same resault.

Playing with combinations of UITextAlignment will doesn't help.

Answer 1

Hi,

not sure if there's fancier way to do this but you might want to try something like this:

NSString *test = @"12. just a teststring";
NSString *number = [test substringToIndex: [test rangeOfString: @" "].location];
NSString *text = [test substringFromIndex: [test rangeOfString: @" "].location];
test = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@ %@", text, number];
// test == "just a teststring 12."

Answer 2

You don't need to change any setting on UILabel, just put the character with unicode 0x200F before your string. This is the reason:

In Unicode many characters have a specific directionality, which lets the system know it has to be written, say LTR, like سلام. The paragraph usually uses the direction of its first character. That's why your string without the number is typed from right to left automatically.

Now some characters, like numbers, have "weak" directionality, so they basically take that of their surrounding. When you type "1. בבוקר", the system first sees 1, so takes the usual LTR direction. Changing the alignment won't help, as it just shifts the whole text to right, or center.

To solve this issue, Unicode has two marker characters (LTR: 0x200E, RTL:200F). These are invisible, but dictate the directionality. So while "1. בבוקר" is...

1. בבוקר

if you type "#x200F" + "1. בבוקר" it will display like this:

‏1. בבוקר