[ios] How to create a multiline UITextfield?

I am developing an application where user has to write some information. For this purpose I need a UITextField which is multi-line (in general UITextField is a single line).

As I'm Googling I find a answer of using UITextView instead of UITextfield for this purpose.

use UITextView instead of UITextField

Ok I did it with some trick ;) First build a UITextField and increased it's size like this :

CGRect frameRect = textField.frame;
        frameRect.size.height = 53;
        textField.frame = frameRect;

Then build a UITextView exactly in the same area that u made my UITextField, and deleted its background color. Now it looks like that u have a multiple lines TextField !

If you must have a UITextField with 2 lines of text, one option is to add a UILabel as a subview of the UITextField for the second line of text. I have a UITextField in my app that users often do not realize is editable by tapping, and I wanted to add some small subtitle text that says "Tap to Edit" to the UITextField.

CGFloat tapLlblHeight = 10;
UILabel *tapEditLbl = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(20, textField.frame.size.height - tapLlblHeight - 2, 70, tapLlblHeight)];
tapEditLbl.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
tapEditLbl.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
tapEditLbl.text = @"Tap to Edit";

[textField addSubview:tapEditLbl];

This code block is enough. Please don't forget to set delegate in viewDidLoad or by storyboard just before to use the following extension:

extension YOUR_VIEW_CONTROLLER: UITextViewDelegate {

func textViewDidBeginEditing (_ textView: UITextView) {
    if YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.text.isEmpty || YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.text == "YOUR DEFAULT PLACEHOLDER TEXT HERE" {
        YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.text = nil
        YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.textColor = .red // YOUR PREFERED COLOR HERE
    }
}
func textViewDidEndEditing (_ textView: UITextView) {
    if YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.text.isEmpty {
        YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.textColor = UIColor.gray // YOUR PREFERED PLACEHOLDER COLOR HERE
        YOUR_TEXT_VIEW.text =  "YOUR DEFAULT PLACEHOLDER TEXT HERE"
    }
}

}

A supplement to h4xxr's answer in the above, an easier way to adjust the height of the UITextField is to select square border style in the attribute inspectors->Text Field. (By default, the border style of a UITextfield is ellipse.)

Reference: Answered Brian in here : How to set UITextField height?

There is another option that worked for me:

Subclass UITextField and overwrite:

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)rect

In this method you can for example:

    NSDictionary *attributes = @{ NSFontAttributeName : self.font,
                                  NSForegroundColorAttributeName : self.textColor };

    [self.text drawInRect:verticalAlignedRect withAttributes:attributes];

This code will render the text using as many lines as required if the rect has enough space. You could specify any other attribute depending on your needs.

Do not use:

self.defaultTextAttributes

which will force one line text rendering

You can fake a UITextField using UITextView. The problem you'll have is that you lose the place holder functionality.

If you choose to use a UITextView and need the placeholder, do this:

In your viewDidLoad set the color and text to placeholders:

myTxtView.textColor = .lightGray
myTxtView.text = "Type your thoughts here..."

Then make the placeholder disappear when your UITextView is selected:

func textViewDidBeginEditing (textView: UITextView) {
    if myTxtView.textColor.textColor == ph_TextColor && myTxtView.isFirstResponder() {
        myTxtView.text = nil
        myTxtView.textColor = .white
    }
}

When the user finishes editing, ensure there's a value. If there isn't, add the placeholder again:

func textViewDidEndEditing (textView: UITextView) {
    if myTxtView.text.isEmpty || myTxtView.text == "" {
        myTxtView.textColor = .lightGray
        myTxtView.text = "Type your thoughts here..."
    }
}

Other features you might need to fake:

UITextField's often capitalize every letter, you can add that feature to UITableView:

myTxtView.autocapitalizationType = .words

UITextField's don't usually scroll:

myTxtView.scrollEnabled = false

Yes, a UITextView is what you're looking for. You'll have to deal with some things differently (like the return key) but you can add text to it, and it will allow you to scroll up and down if there's too much text inside.

This link has info about making a screen to enter data:

create a data entry screen

Use textView instead then conform with its delegate, call the textViewDidChange method inside of that method call tableView.beginUpdates() and tableView.endUpdates() and don't forget to set rowHeight and estimatedRowHeight to UITableView.automaticDimension.

Besides from the multiple line behaviour, the main difference between UITextView and UITextField is that the UITextView does not propose a placeholder. To bypass this limitation, you can use a UITextView with a "fake placeholder."

See this SO question for details: Placeholder in UITextView.