Last Updated: December 26, 2018

iOS - get current location information

Here the steps how to get current location information in iOS dev.

First, you need to add CoreLocation library to your project.

Next, import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h> and use CLLocationManagerDelegate

Define 3 variables below :

CLLocationManager *locationManager;
CLGeocoder *geocoder;
int locationFetchCounter;

instantiate those variables in viewDidLoad :

- (void)viewDidLoad {
 [super viewDidLoad];
 locationManager = [[CLLocationManager alloc] init];
 locationManager.delegate = self;
 locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyBest;
 geocoder = [[CLGeocoder alloc] init];
}

// execute this method to start fetching location
- (IBAction)doFetchCurrentLocation:(id)sender {
 locationFetchCounter = 0;

 // fetching current location start from here
 [locationManager startUpdatingLocation];
}

implements locationManager:didUpdateLocations and locationManager:didFailWithError for handling [locationManager startUpdatingLocation]'s result.

- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didUpdateLocations:(NSArray *)locations {
 // this delegate method is constantly invoked every some miliseconds.
 // we only need to receive the first response, so we skip the others.
 if (locationFetchCounter > 0) return;
 locationFetchCounter++; 

 // after we have current coordinates, we use this method to fetch the information data of fetched coordinate
 [geocoder reverseGeocodeLocation:[locations lastObject] completionHandler:^(NSArray *placemarks, NSError *error) {
 CLPlacemark *placemark = [placemarks lastObject];

 NSString *street = placemark.thoroughfare;
 NSString *city = placemark.locality;
 NSString *posCode = placemark.postalCode;
 NSString *country = placemark.country;

 NSLog("we live in %@", country);

 // stopping locationManager from fetching again
 [locationManager stopUpdatingLocation];
 }];
}

- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didFailWithError:(NSError *)error {
 NSLog(@"failed to fetch current location : %@", error);
}

if you run your app through iphone simulator in XCODE, you need to set your desired location (coz simulator can't detect current location).

#objective-c

#ios