The function that does the scrolling could be much simpler:

- (void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
    UITableViewCell *cell;

    if (floor(NSFoundationVersionNumber) <= NSFoundationVersionNumber_iOS_6_1) {
    // Load resources for iOS 6.1 or earlier
        cell = (UITableViewCell *) textField.superview.superview;

    } else {
        // Load resources for iOS 7 or later
        cell = (UITableViewCell *) textField.superview.superview.superview; 
       // TextField -> UITableVieCellContentView -> (in iOS 7!)ScrollView -> Cell!
    }
    [tView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:[tView indexPathForCell:cell] atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop animated:YES];
}

That's it. No calculations at all.

I think I've come up with the solution to match the behaviour of Apple's apps.

First, in your viewWillAppear: subscribe to the keyboard notifications, so you know when the keyboard will show and hide, and the system will tell you the size of the keyboard, but dont' forget to unregister in your viewWillDisappear:.

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    addObserver:self
       selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:)
           name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
         object:nil];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
    addObserver:self
       selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:)
           name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
         object:nil];

Implement the methods similar to the below so that you adjust the size of your tableView to match the visible area once the keyboard shows. Here I'm tracking the state of the keyboard separately so I can choose when to set the tableView back to full height myself, since you get these notifications on every field change. Don't forget to implement keyboardWillHide: and choose somewhere appropriate to fix your tableView size.

-(void) keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)note
{
    CGRect keyboardBounds;
    [[note.userInfo valueForKey:UIKeyboardBoundsUserInfoKey] getValue: &keyboardBounds];
    keyboardHeight = keyboardBounds.size.height;
    if (keyboardIsShowing == NO)
    {
        keyboardIsShowing = YES;
        CGRect frame = self.view.frame;
        frame.size.height -= keyboardHeight;

        [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
        [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
        [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3f];
        self.view.frame = frame;
        [UIView commitAnimations];
    }
}

Now here's the scrolling bit, we work out a few sizes first, then we see where we are in the visible area, and set the rect we want to scroll to to be either the half view above or below the middle of the text field based on where it is in the view. In this case, we have an array of UITextFields and an enum that keeps track of them, so multiplying the rowHeight by the row number gives us the actual offset of the frame within this outer view.

- (void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    CGRect frame = textField.frame;
    CGFloat rowHeight = self.tableView.rowHeight;
    if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_ONE])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_ONE;
    }
    else if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_TWO])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_TWO;
    }
    else if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_THREE])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_THREE;
    }
    else if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_FOUR])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_FOUR;
    }
    CGFloat viewHeight = self.tableView.frame.size.height;
    CGFloat halfHeight = viewHeight / 2;
    CGFloat midpoint = frame.origin.y + (textField.frame.size.height / 2);
    if (midpoint < halfHeight)
    {
        frame.origin.y = 0;
        frame.size.height = midpoint;
    }
    else
    {
        frame.origin.y = midpoint;
        frame.size.height = midpoint;
    }
    [self.tableView scrollRectToVisible:frame animated:YES];
}

This seems to work quite nicely.

If you can use UITableViewController, you get the functionality for free. Sometimes, however, this is not an option, specifically if you need multiple views not just the UITableView.

Some of the solutions presented here don't work on iOS ≥4, some don't work on iPad or in landscape mode, some don't work for Bluetooth keyboards (where we don't want any scrolling), some don't work when switching between multiple text fields. So if you choose any solution, make sure to test these cases. This is the solution we use used in InAppSettingsKit:

- (void)_keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification*)notification {
    if (self.navigationController.topViewController == self) {
        NSDictionary* userInfo = [notification userInfo];

        // we don't use SDK constants here to be universally compatible with all SDKs ≥ 3.0
        NSValue* keyboardFrameValue = [userInfo objectForKey:@"UIKeyboardBoundsUserInfoKey"];
        if (!keyboardFrameValue) {
            keyboardFrameValue = [userInfo objectForKey:@"UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey"];
        }

        // Reduce the tableView height by the part of the keyboard that actually covers the tableView
        CGRect windowRect = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow].bounds;
        if (UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft == self.interfaceOrientation ||UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight == self.interfaceOrientation ) {
            windowRect = IASKCGRectSwap(windowRect);
        }
        CGRect viewRectAbsolute = [_tableView convertRect:_tableView.bounds toView:[[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow]];
        if (UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft == self.interfaceOrientation ||UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight == self.interfaceOrientation ) {
            viewRectAbsolute = IASKCGRectSwap(viewRectAbsolute);
        }
        CGRect frame = _tableView.frame;
        frame.size.height -= [keyboardFrameValue CGRectValue].size.height - CGRectGetMaxY(windowRect) + CGRectGetMaxY(viewRectAbsolute);

        [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
        [UIView setAnimationDuration:[[userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] doubleValue]];
        [UIView setAnimationCurve:[[userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] intValue]];
        _tableView.frame = frame;
        [UIView commitAnimations];

        UITableViewCell *textFieldCell = (id)((UITextField *)self.currentFirstResponder).superview.superview;
        NSIndexPath *textFieldIndexPath = [_tableView indexPathForCell:textFieldCell];

        // iOS 3 sends hide and show notifications right after each other
        // when switching between textFields, so cancel -scrollToOldPosition requests
        [NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self];

        [_tableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:textFieldIndexPath atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionMiddle animated:YES];
    }
}

- (void) scrollToOldPosition {
  [_tableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:_topmostRowBeforeKeyboardWasShown atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop animated:YES];
}

- (void)_keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification*)notification {
    if (self.navigationController.topViewController == self) {
        NSDictionary* userInfo = [notification userInfo];

        [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
        [UIView setAnimationDuration:[[userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] doubleValue]];
        [UIView setAnimationCurve:[[userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] intValue]];
        _tableView.frame = self.view.bounds;
        [UIView commitAnimations];

        [self performSelector:@selector(scrollToOldPosition) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.1];
    }
}   

Here's the full code of the class in InAppSettingsKit. To test it, use the "Complete List" child pane where you can test the scenarios mentioned above.

If you use a uitableview to place your textfields (from Jeff Lamarche), you can just scroll the tableview using the delegate method like so.

(Note: my text fields are stored in an array with the same index as there row in the tableview)

- (void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
    {

        int index;
        for(UITextField *aField in textFields){

            if (textField == aField){
                index = [textFields indexOfObject:aField]-1;
            }
        }

         if(index >= 0) 
            [self.tableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:index inSection:0] atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop animated:YES];

        [super textFieldDidBeginEditing:textField];
    }

Keyboard notifications work, but Apple's sample code for that assumes that the scroll view is the root view of the window. This is usually not the case. You have to compensate for tab bars, etc., to get the right offset.

It is easier than it sounds. Here is the code I use in a UITableViewController. It has two instance variables, hiddenRect and keyboardShown.

// Called when the UIKeyboardDidShowNotification is sent.
- (void)keyboardWasShown:(NSNotification*)aNotification {
    if (keyboardShown)
        return;

    NSDictionary* info = [aNotification userInfo];

    // Get the frame of the keyboard.
    NSValue *centerValue = [info objectForKey:UIKeyboardCenterEndUserInfoKey];
    NSValue *boundsValue = [info objectForKey:UIKeyboardBoundsUserInfoKey];
    CGPoint keyboardCenter = [centerValue CGPointValue];
    CGRect keyboardBounds = [boundsValue CGRectValue];
    CGPoint keyboardOrigin = CGPointMake(keyboardCenter.x - keyboardBounds.size.width / 2.0,
                                         keyboardCenter.y - keyboardBounds.size.height / 2.0);
    CGRect keyboardScreenFrame = { keyboardOrigin, keyboardBounds.size };


    // Resize the scroll view.
    UIScrollView *scrollView = (UIScrollView *) self.tableView;
    CGRect viewFrame = scrollView.frame;
    CGRect keyboardFrame = [scrollView.superview convertRect:keyboardScreenFrame fromView:nil];
    hiddenRect = CGRectIntersection(viewFrame, keyboardFrame);

    CGRect remainder, slice;
    CGRectDivide(viewFrame, &slice, &remainder, CGRectGetHeight(hiddenRect), CGRectMaxYEdge);
    scrollView.frame = remainder;

    // Scroll the active text field into view.
    CGRect textFieldRect = [/* selected cell */ frame];
    [scrollView scrollRectToVisible:textFieldRect animated:YES];

    keyboardShown = YES;
}


// Called when the UIKeyboardDidHideNotification is sent
- (void)keyboardWasHidden:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
    // Reset the height of the scroll view to its original value
    UIScrollView *scrollView = (UIScrollView *) self.tableView;
    CGRect viewFrame = [scrollView frame];
    scrollView.frame = CGRectUnion(viewFrame, hiddenRect);

    keyboardShown = NO;
}

Swift 4.2 complete solution

I've created GIST with set of protocols that simplifies work with adding extra space when keyboard is shown, hidden or changed.

Features:

• Correctly works with keyboard frame changes (e.g. keyboard height changes like emojii → normal keyboard).
• TabBar & ToolBar support for UITableView example (at other examples you receive incorrect insets).
• Dynamic animation duration (not hard-coded).
• Protocol-oriented approach that could be easily modified for you purposes.

Usage

Basic usage example in view controller that contains some scroll view (table view is supported also of course).

class SomeViewController: UIViewController {
  @IBOutlet weak var scrollView: UIScrollView!

  override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    addKeyboardFrameChangesObserver()
  }

  override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
    removeKeyboardFrameChangesObserver()
  }
}

extension SomeViewController: ModifableInsetsOnKeyboardFrameChanges {
  var scrollViewToModify: UIScrollView { return scrollView }
}

Core: frame changes observer

Protocol KeyboardChangeFrameObserver will fire event each time keyboard frame was changed (including showing, hiding, frame changing).

1. Call addKeyboardFrameChangesObserver() at viewWillAppear() or similar method.
2. Call removeKeyboardFrameChangesObserver() at viewWillDisappear() or similar method.

Implementation: scrolling view

ModifableInsetsOnKeyboardFrameChanges protocol adds UIScrollView support to core protocol. It changes scroll view's insets when keyboard frame is changed.

Your class needs to set scroll view, one's insets will be increased / decreased on keyboard frame changes.

var scrollViewToModify: UIScrollView { get }

A more stream-lined solution. It slips into the UITextField delegate methods, so it doesn't require messing w/ UIKeyboard notifications.

Implementation notes:

kSettingsRowHeight -- the height of a UITableViewCell.

offsetTarget and offsetThreshold are baed off of kSettingsRowHeight. If you use a different row height, set those values to point's y property. [alt: calculate the row offset in a different manner.]

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
CGFloat offsetTarget    = 113.0f; // 3rd row
CGFloat offsetThreshold = 248.0f; // 6th row (i.e. 2nd-to-last row)

CGPoint point = [self.tableView convertPoint:CGPointZero fromView:textField];

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:0.2];
[UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseOut];

CGRect frame = self.tableView.frame;
if (point.y > offsetThreshold) {
    self.tableView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0f,
                      offsetTarget - point.y + kSettingsRowHeight,
                      frame.size.width,
                      frame.size.height);
} else if (point.y > offsetTarget) {
    self.tableView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0f,
                      offsetTarget - point.y,
                      frame.size.width,
                      frame.size.height);
} else {
    self.tableView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0f,
                      0.0f,
                      frame.size.width,
                      frame.size.height);
}

[UIView commitAnimations];

return YES;

}

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField {
[textField resignFirstResponder];

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:0.2];
[UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseOut];

CGRect frame = self.tableView.frame;
self.tableView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0f,
                  0.0f,
                  frame.size.width,
                  frame.size.height);

[UIView commitAnimations];

return YES;

}

Since you have textfields in a table, the best way really is to resize the table - you need to set the tableView.frame to be smaller in height by the size of the keyboard (I think around 165 pixels) and then expand it again when the keyboard is dismissed.

You can optionally also disable user interaction for the tableView at that time as well, if you do not want the user scrolling.

Small variation with Swift 4.2...

On my UITableView I had many sections but I had to avoid the floating header effect so I used a "dummyViewHeight" approach as seen somewhere else here on Stack Overflow... So this is my solution for this problem (it works also for keyboard + toolbar + suggestions):

Declare it as class constant:

let dummyViewHeight: CGFloat = 40.0

Then

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    //... some stuff here, not needed for this example

    // Create non floating header
    tableView.tableHeaderView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: tableView.bounds.size.width, height: dummyViewHeight))
    tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: -dummyViewHeight, left: 0, bottom: 0, right: 0)

    addObservers()
}

override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
    removeObservers()
}

And here all the magic...

@objc func keyboardWillShow(notification: NSNotification) {
    if let userInfo = notification.userInfo {
        let keyboardHeight = (userInfo[UIResponder.keyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] as AnyObject).cgRectValue.size.height
        tableView.tableHeaderView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.tableView.bounds.size.width, height: dummyViewHeight))
        tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: -dummyViewHeight, left: 0, bottom: keyboardHeight, right: 0)
    }
}

@objc func keyboardWillHide(notification: NSNotification) {
    UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.25) {
        self.tableView.tableHeaderView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.tableView.bounds.size.width, height: self.dummyViewHeight))
        self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: -self.dummyViewHeight, left: 0, bottom: 0, right: 0)
    }
}

If your UITableView is managed by a subclass of UITableViewController and not UITableView, and the text field delegate is the UITableViewController, it should manage all the scrolling automatically -- all these other comments are very difficult to implement in practice.

For a good example see the apple example code project: TaggedLocations.

You can see that it scrolls automatically, but there doesn't seem to be any code that does this. This project also has custom table view cells, so if you build your application with it as a guide, you should get the desired result.

Solution for Swift 3-4 with animations and keyboard frame changing:

First, create a Bool:

// MARK: - Private Properties
private var isKeyboardShowing = false

Secondly, add Observers to the System Keyboard Notifications:

// MARK: - Overriding ViewController Life Cycle Methods
override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)

    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(keyboardWillShow), name: .UIKeyboardWillShow, object: nil)

    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(keyboardWillHide), name: .UIKeyboardWillHide, object: nil)

    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(keyboardWillChangeFrame), name: .UIKeyboardWillChangeFrame, object: nil)
}

Thirdly, prepare the animation function:

func adjustTableViewInsets(keyboardHeight: CGFloat, duration: NSNumber, curve: NSNumber){
    var extraHeight: CGFloat = 0
    if keyboardHeight > 0 {
        extraHeight = 20
        isKeyboardShowing = true
    } else {
        isKeyboardShowing = false
    }

    let contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 0, bottom: keyboardHeight + extraHeight, right: 0)
    func animateFunc() {
        //refresh constraints
        //self.view.layoutSubviews()
        tableView.contentInset = contentInset
    }

    UIView.animate(withDuration: TimeInterval(duration), delay: 0, options: [UIViewAnimationOptions(rawValue: UInt(curve))], animations: animateFunc, completion: nil)
}

Then add the target/action methods (called by the observers):

// MARK: - Target/Selector Actions
func keyboardWillShow(notification: NSNotification) {
    if !isKeyboardShowing {
        if let keyboardSize = (notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.cgRectValue {
            let keyboardHeight = keyboardSize.height

            let duration = notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] as! NSNumber
            let curve = notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] as! NSNumber

            adjustTableViewInsets(keyboardHeight: keyboardHeight, duration: duration, curve: curve)
        }
    }
}

func keyboardWillHide(notification: NSNotification) {
    let duration = notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] as! NSNumber
    let curve = notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] as! NSNumber
    adjustTableViewInsets(keyboardHeight: 0, duration: duration, curve: curve)
}

func keyboardWillChangeFrame(notification: NSNotification) {
    if isKeyboardShowing {
        let duration = notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] as! NSNumber
        let curve = notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] as! NSNumber

        if let newKeyboardSize = (notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.cgRectValue {
            let keyboardHeight = newKeyboardSize.height
            adjustTableViewInsets(keyboardHeight: keyboardHeight, duration: duration, curve: curve)
        }
    }
}

Lastly, don't forget to remove observers in deinit or in viewWillDisappear:

deinit {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
}

I just discovered another bug when using UITableViewController. It wasn't scrolling automatically when keyboard showed up. I noticed that it was because of contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior = .never on UITableView.