popToViewController

The popToViewController method is a fundamental part of managing navigation stacks in iOS development, primarily within the UIKit framework. It is a method of the UINavigationController class, which is responsible for managing a hierarchy of view controllers. When a user navigates through a series of screens in an iOS app, these screens are often represented by view controllers pushed onto a navigation stack. The popToViewController method allows a developer to programmatically remove one or more view controllers from this stack and return to a specific, previously presented view controller.

The method takes a single argument: the target view controller to which the navigation should return. When popToViewController:animated: is called, the UINavigationController will pop all view controllers from the top of the stack until the specified target view controller is at the top. The target view controller itself is not removed from the stack. The animated parameter, a boolean value, determines whether the transition back to the target view controller should be accompanied by a visual animation, typically a slide-out effect. This provides a smooth user experience by visually reflecting the removal of intermediate screens. This method is crucial for implementing features like navigating back to a specific section of an app rather than just the immediately preceding screen.