Placeholder in UITextView

Question

My application uses an UITextView. Now I want the UITextView to have a placeholder similar to the one you can set for an UITextField.

How to do this?

user_221325 · Answer

You can set the label on the UITextView by

[UITextView addSubView:lblPlaceHoldaer];

and hide it on TextViewdidChange method.

This is the simple & easy way.

user_962565 · Answer

Simple way to use this within some line of code:

Take one label up to UITextView in .nib connecting this label to your code , After it.

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text{

    if (range.location>0 || text.length!=0) {
        placeholderLabel1.hidden = YES;
    }else{
        placeholderLabel1.hidden = NO;
    }
    return YES;
}

user_2272431 · Answer

Based on some of the great suggestions here already, I was able to put together the following lightweight, Interface-Builder-compatible subclass of UITextView, which:

Includes configurable placeholder text, styled just like that of UITextField.
Doesn't require any additional subviews or constraints.
Doesn't require any delegation or other behaviour from the ViewController.
Doesn't require any notifications.
Keeps that text fully separated from any outside classes looking at the field's text property.

Improvement suggestions are welcome.

Edit 1: Updated to reset placeholder formatting if actual text is set programmatically.

Edit 2: The placeholder text color can now be retrieved programmatically.

Swift v5:

import UIKit
@IBDesignable class TextViewWithPlaceholder: UITextView {
    
    override var text: String! { // Ensures that the placeholder text is never returned as the field's text
        get {
            if showingPlaceholder {
                return "" // When showing the placeholder, there's no real text to return
            } else { return super.text }
        }
        set {
            if showingPlaceholder {
                removePlaceholderFormatting() // If the placeholder text is what's being changed, it's no longer the placeholder
            }
            super.text = newValue
        }
    }
    @IBInspectable var placeholderText: String = ""
    @IBInspectable var placeholderTextColor: UIColor = .placeholderText
    private var showingPlaceholder: Bool = true // Keeps track of whether the field is currently showing a placeholder
    
    override func didMoveToWindow() {
        super.didMoveToWindow()
        if text.isEmpty {
            showPlaceholderText() // Load up the placeholder text when first appearing, but not if coming back to a view where text was already entered
        }
    }
    
    override public func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool {
        
        // If the current text is the placeholder, remove it
        if showingPlaceholder {
            text = nil
            removePlaceholderFormatting()
        }
        return super.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
    
    override public func resignFirstResponder() -> Bool {
        
        // If there's no text, put the placeholder back
        if text.isEmpty {
            showPlaceholderText()
        }
        return super.resignFirstResponder()
    }
    
    private func showPlaceholderText() {
        
        text = placeholderText
        showingPlaceholder = true
        textColor = placeholderTextColor
    }
    
    private func removePlaceholderFormatting() {
        
        showingPlaceholder = false
        textColor = nil // Put the text back to the default, unmodified color
    }
}

user_1648572 · Answer

Take a look at UTPlaceholderTextView.

This is a convenient subclass of UITextView that supports placeholder similiar to that of UITextField. Main peculiarities:

Does not use subviews
Does not override drawRect:
Placeholder could be of arbitrary length, and rendered just the same way as usual text

user_6097194 · Answer

I have created a swift 3 version of highest ranked answer

You just need to do subclassing of UITextView.

import UIKit

 class UIPlaceHolderTextView: UITextView {


//MARK: - Properties
@IBInspectable var placeholder: String?
@IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor?
var placeholderLabel: UILabel?


//MARK: - Initializers
override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()


}

required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)

    // Use Interface Builder User Defined Runtime Attributes to set
    // placeholder and placeholderColor in Interface Builder.
    if self.placeholder == nil {
        self.placeholder = ""
    }

    if self.placeholderColor == nil {
        self.placeholderColor = UIColor.black
    }

    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(textChanged(_:)), name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange, object: nil)

}

func textChanged(_ notification: Notification) -> Void {
    if self.placeholder?.count == 0 {
        return
    }

    UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.25) {
        if self.text.count == 0 {
            self.viewWithTag(999)?.alpha = 1
        }
        else {
            self.viewWithTag(999)?.alpha = 0
        }
    }
}

// Only override draw() if you perform custom drawing.
// An empty implementation adversely affects performance during animation.
override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
    super.draw(rect)

    if (self.placeholder?.count ?? 0) > 0 {
        if placeholderLabel == nil {
            placeholderLabel = UILabel.init()
            placeholderLabel?.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
            placeholderLabel?.numberOfLines = 0
            placeholderLabel?.font = self.font
            placeholderLabel?.backgroundColor = self.backgroundColor
            placeholderLabel?.textColor = self.placeholderColor
            placeholderLabel?.alpha = 0
            placeholderLabel?.tag = 999
            self.addSubview(placeholderLabel!)

            placeholderLabel?.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            placeholderLabel?.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.topAnchor, constant: 7).isActive = true
            placeholderLabel?.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.leftAnchor, constant: 4).isActive = true
            placeholderLabel?.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.bottomAnchor).isActive = true
            placeholderLabel?.rightAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.rightAnchor).isActive = true
        }

        placeholderLabel?.text = self.placeholder
        placeholderLabel?.sizeToFit()
        self.sendSubview(toBack: self.placeholderLabel!)
    }

    if self.text.count == 0 && (self.placeholder?.count ?? 0) > 0 {
        self.viewWithTag(999)?.alpha = 1
    }
 }
}

user_4384775 · Answer

One more simple answer for this, using CATextLayer.

Add CATextLayer to UITextView's layer. With UITextViewDelegate methods, simply change colour of CATextLayer.

func txtViewPlaceholder() {
    let textlayer = CATextLayer()

    textlayer.frame = CGRect(x: 5, y: 5, width: 200, height: 18)
    textlayer.contentsScale = UIScreen.main.scale
    textlayer.fontSize = 12
    textlayer.alignmentMode = kCAAlignmentLeft
    textlayer.string = "Enter here"
    textlayer.isWrapped = true
    textlayer.name = "placeholder"
    textlayer.backgroundColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
    textlayer.foregroundColor = UIColor.black.cgColor

    yourTxtVw.layer.insertSublayer(textlayer, at: 0)
}

func removeAddPlaceholder(remove: Bool, textView: UITextView) {
    for layers in textView.layer.sublayers! where layers.name == "placeholder" {
        
        if remove {
            (layers as! CATextLayer).foregroundColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
        } else {
            (layers as! CATextLayer).foregroundColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
        }
        
    }
}


extension YourViewController : UITextViewDelegate {

    func textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
    
        removeAddPlaceholder(remove: true, textView: textView)
    
        return true
    }

    func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
    
        if textView.text.count <= 0 {
            removeAddPlaceholder(remove: false, textView: textView)
        }
    }

}

user_2012219 · Answer

Another solution

import UIKit

protocol PlaceholderTextViewDelegate: class {

    func placeholderTextViewDidChangeText(_ text: String)
    func placeholderTextViewDidEndEditing(_ text: String)
}

final class PlaceholderTextView: UITextView {

    weak var notifier: PlaceholderTextViewDelegate?
    var ignoreEnterAction: Bool = true

    var placeholder: String? {
        didSet {
            text = placeholder
            selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        }
    }

    var placeholderColor = UIColor.lightGray {
        didSet {
            if text == placeholder {
                textColor = placeholderColor
            }
        }
    }
    var normalTextColor = UIColor.lightGray

    var placeholderFont = UIFont.sfProRegular(28)

    fileprivate var placeholderLabel: UILabel?

    // MARK: - LifeCycle

    override var text: String? {
        didSet {
            if text == placeholder {
                textColor = placeholderColor
            } else {
                textColor = normalTextColor
            }
        }
    }

    init() {
        super.init(frame: CGRect.zero, textContainer: nil)
        awakeFromNib()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    }

    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()

        self.delegate = self
    }
}

extension PlaceholderTextView: UITextViewDelegate {

    // MARK: - UITextViewDelegate
    func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {

        if text == "" && textView.text == placeholder {
            return false
        }

        if let placeholder = placeholder,
            textView.text == placeholder,
            range.location <= placeholder.count {
            textView.text = ""
        }

        if ignoreEnterAction && text == "
" {
            textView.resignFirstResponder()
            return false
        }
        return true
    }

    func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = placeholder {
            textView.text = textView.text.replacingOccurrences(of: placeholder, with: "")
        }

        if let placeholder = placeholder,
            text?.isEmpty == true {
            text = placeholder
            textColor = placeholderColor

            selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        } else {
            textColor = normalTextColor
        }

        notifier?.placeholderTextViewDidChangeText(textView.text)
    }

    func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = placeholder,
            text == placeholder {
            selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        }
    }

    func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
        notifier?.placeholderTextViewDidEndEditing(textView.text)

        if let placeholder = placeholder,
            text?.isEmpty == true {
            text = placeholder
            textColor = placeholderColor
            selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        } else {
            textColor = normalTextColor
        }
    }
}

result:

user_10131874 · Answer

TextView PlaceHolder In swift

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
open class KMPlaceholderTextView: UITextView {

    private struct Constants {
        static let defaultiOSPlaceholderColor = UIColor(red: 0.0, green: 0.0, blue: 0.0980392, alpha: 0.22)
    }

    public let placeholderLabel: UILabel = UILabel()

    private var placeholderLabelConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint]()

    @IBInspectable open var placeholder: String = "" {
        didSet {
            placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
        }
    }

    @IBInspectable open var placeholderColor: UIColor = KMPlaceholderTextView.Constants.defaultiOSPlaceholderColor {
        didSet {
            placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
        }
    }

    override open var font: UIFont! {
        didSet {
            if placeholderFont == nil {
                placeholderLabel.font = font
            }
        }
    }

    open var placeholderFont: UIFont? {
        didSet {
            let font = (placeholderFont != nil) ? placeholderFont : self.font
            placeholderLabel.font = font
        }
    }

    override open var textAlignment: NSTextAlignment {
        didSet {
            placeholderLabel.textAlignment = textAlignment
        }
    }

    override open var text: String! {
        didSet {
            textDidChange()
        }
    }

    override open var attributedText: NSAttributedString! {
        didSet {
            textDidChange()
        }
    }

    override open var textContainerInset: UIEdgeInsets {
        didSet {
            updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel()
        }
    }

    override public init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
        commonInit()
    }

    required public init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        commonInit()
    }

    private func commonInit() {
        #if swift(>=4.2)
        let notificationName = UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #else
        let notificationName = NSNotification.Name.UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #endif

        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self,
                                               selector: #selector(textDidChange),
                                               name: notificationName,
                                               object: nil)

        placeholderLabel.font = font
        placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
        placeholderLabel.textAlignment = textAlignment
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
        placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
        placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
        placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        addSubview(placeholderLabel)
        updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel()
    }

    private func updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel() {
        var newConstraints = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "H:|-(\(textContainerInset.left + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding))-[placeholder]",
            options: [],
            metrics: nil,
            views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
        newConstraints += NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: "V:|-(\(textContainerInset.top))-[placeholder]",
            options: [],
            metrics: nil,
            views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
        newConstraints.append(NSLayoutConstraint(
            item: placeholderLabel,
            attribute: .width,
            relatedBy: .equal,
            toItem: self,
            attribute: .width,
            multiplier: 1.0,
            constant: -(textContainerInset.left + textContainerInset.right + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2.0)
        ))
        removeConstraints(placeholderLabelConstraints)
        addConstraints(newConstraints)
        placeholderLabelConstraints = newConstraints
    }

    @objc private func textDidChange() {
        placeholderLabel.isHidden = !text.isEmpty
        self.layoutIfNeeded()
    }

    open override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        placeholderLabel.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = textContainer.size.width - textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2.0
    }

    deinit {
        #if swift(>=4.2)
        let notificationName = UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #else
        let notificationName = NSNotification.Name.UITextView.textDidChangeNotification
        #endif

        NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self,
                                                  name: notificationName,
                                                  object: nil)
    }

}

Usage

user_4833705 · Answer

I followed the code from this link. There are only 7 easy steps. It adds a UILabel to the textView and hides/shows the label when text is entered or removed from the textView via the textView's textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) delegate method. I put the steps in the comments above the code.

// 1. make sure to include the UITextViewDelegate
class YourClass: UITextViewDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var textView : UITextView!

    // 2. create placeholder textLabel
    let placeHolderTextLabel: UILabel = {
        let placeholderLabel = UILabel()
        placeholderLabel.text = "Placeholder text..."
        placeholderLabel.sizeToFit()
        placeholderLabel.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
        return placeholderLabel
    }()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // 3. set textView delegate
        textView.delegate = self

        configurePlaceholderTextLabel()
    }


    func configurePlaceholderTextLabel() {

        // 4. add placeholder label to textView, set it's frame and font
        textView.addSubview(placeHolderTextLabel)
        placeHolderTextLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: 5, y: (textView.font?.pointSize)! / 2)
        placeHolderTextLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: (textView.font?.pointSize)!)

        // 5. decide wether the placeHolderTextLabel is hidden or not depending on if there is or isn't text inside the textView
        placeHolderTextLabel.isHidden = !textView.text.isEmpty

    }

    // 6. implement textView delegate method to update the placeHolderTextLabel when the text is changed
    func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {

        // 7. decide wether the placeHolderTextLabel is hidden or not depending on if there is or isn't text inside the textView when text in textView is changed
        placeHolderTextLabel.isHidden = !textView.text.isEmpty
    }

}

user_2224988 · Answer

Jason's answer will looks a little bit off in iOS7, fix it by adjust the offset of _placeHolderLabel:

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    if( [[self placeholder] length] > 0 )
    {
        if (_placeHolderLabel == nil )
        {
            if ([[UIDevice currentDevice].systemVersion floatValue] >= 7)
                _placeHolderLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(4,8,self.bounds.size.width - 8,0)];
            else
                _placeHolderLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(8,8,self.bounds.size.width - 16,0)];
            _placeHolderLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
            _placeHolderLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
            _placeHolderLabel.font = self.font;
            _placeHolderLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
            _placeHolderLabel.textColor = self.placeholderColor;
            _placeHolderLabel.alpha = 0;
            _placeHolderLabel.tag = 999;
            [self addSubview:_placeHolderLabel];
        }

        _placeHolderLabel.text = self.placeholder;
        [_placeHolderLabel sizeToFit];
        [self sendSubviewToBack:_placeHolderLabel];
    }

    if( [[self text] length] == 0 && [[self placeholder] length] > 0 )
    {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:1];
    }

    [super drawRect:rect];
}

user_3936065 · Answer

After looking through (and trying out) most of the proposed solutions to this seemingly obvious - but missing - feature of UITextView, the 'best' closest I found was that from BobDickinson. But I didnt like having to resort to a whole new subclass [I prefer drop-in categories for such simple functional additions], nor that it intercepted UITextViewDelegate methods, which is probably going to mess up your existing UITextView handling code. So here's my take on a drop-in category that'll work on any existing UITextView instance...

#import 

// Private subclass needed to override placeholderRectForBounds: to correctly position placeholder
@interface _TextField : UITextField
@property UIEdgeInsets insets;
@end
@implementation _TextField
- (CGRect)placeholderRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds
{
    CGRect rect = [super placeholderRectForBounds:bounds];
    return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, _insets);
}
@end

@implementation UITextView (Placeholder)

static const void *KEY;

- (void)setPlaceholder:(NSString *)placeholder
{
    _TextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    if (!textField) {
        textField = [_TextField.alloc initWithFrame:self.bounds];
        textField.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
        textField.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
        textField.font = self.font;

        textField.contentVerticalAlignment = UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentTop;
        textField.insets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(self.textContainerInset.top,
                                            self.textContainerInset.left + self.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding,
                                            self.textContainerInset.bottom,
                                            self.textContainerInset.right);
        [self addSubview:textField];
        [self sendSubviewToBack:textField];

        objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &KEY, textField, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN);

        [NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter addObserver:self selector:@selector(updatePlaceholder:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];
    }
    textField.placeholder = placeholder;
}

- (NSString*)placeholder
{
    UITextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    return textField.placeholder;
}

- (void)updatePlaceholder:(NSNotification *)notification
{
    UITextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    textField.font = self.font;
    [textField setAlpha:self.text.length? 0 : 1];
}

@end

Its simple to use, just the obvious

UITextView *myTextView = UITextView.new;
...
myTextView.placeholder = @"enter text here";

It works by adding a UITextField - in the right location - behind your UITextView, and exploiting it's placeholder instead (hence you dont have to worry about getting the color right, etc), then listening for notifications whenever your UITextView is changed to show/hide this UITextField (and hence it doesnt interfere with your existing UITextViewDelegate calls). And there's no magic numbers involved... :-)

The objc_setAssociatedObject()/objc_getAssociatedObject() is to avoid having to subclass UITextView. [Unfortunately, to position the UITextField correctly, it was necessary to introduce a 'private' subclass, to override placeholderRectForBounds:]

Adapted from BobDickinson's Swift answer.

user_467588 · Answer

This is my version of UITextView with placeholder support. Swift 4.2 https://gist.github.com/hlung/c5dda3a0c2087e5ae6c1fce8822c4713

A UITextView subclass with placeholder text support. It uses another UILabel to show the placeholder, shown when text is empty.

user_9315298 · Answer

In swift 5. Works fine.

class BaseTextView: UITextView {

    // MARK: - Views
    private var placeholderLabel: UIlabel!

    // MARK: - Init
    override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
        setupUI()
        startupSetup()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        setupUI()
        startupSetup()
    }

    deinit {
        NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
    }    
}

// MARK: - Setup UI
private extension BaseTextView {
    func setupUI() {
        addPlaceholderLabel()

        textColor = .textColor
    }

    func addPlaceholderLabel() {
        placeholderLabel = BaseLabel(frame: .zero)
        placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        insertSubview(placeholderLabel, at: 0)

        placeholderLabel.alpha = 0
        placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
        placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = .clear
        placeholderLabel.textColor = .lightTextColor
        placeholderLabel.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
        placeholderLabel.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
        placeholderLabel.font = UIFont.openSansSemibold.withSize(12)

        placeholderLabel.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor, constant: 8).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leftAnchor, constant: 5).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.rightAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: rightAnchor, constant: -8).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.bottomAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: bottomAnchor, constant: -8).isActive = true
    }
}

// MARK: - Startup
private extension BaseTextView {
    func startupSetup() {
        addObservers()
        textChanged(nil)
        font = UIFont.openSansSemibold.withSize(12)
    }    

    func addObservers() {
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(textChanged(_:)), name: UITextView.textDidChangeNotification, object: nil)
    }
}

// MARK: - Actions
private extension BaseTextView {
    @objc func textChanged(_ sender: Notification?) {
        UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.2) {
            self.placeholderLabel.alpha = self.text.count == 0 ? 1 : 0
        }    
    }
}

// MARK: - Public methods
extension BaseTextView {
    public func setPlaceholder(_ placeholder: String) {
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
    }
}

user_6333515 · Answer

After going through all answers, I realised I need something simple, and at the same time reusable so that I can add the same functionality to all UITextViews in my project. And I ended up with the following code:

extension UITextView {

// MARK: TextView PlaceHolderLabel Setup

func createPlaceHolderLabel(with text: String) {
    let lbl = UILabel()
    self.addSubview(lbl)

// Add your constraints here

    lbl.text = text
    lbl.textColor = .lightGray
}

// My Textview contains only one UILabel, and for my use case the below code works, tweak it according to your use case

// Lastly two methods to toggle between show and hide the placeholder label

func hidePlaceHolderLabel() {
    guard let lbl = self.subviews.first(where: { $0 is UILabel }) else { return }
    lbl.isHidden = true
}

func showPlaceHolderLabel() {
    guard let lbl = self.subviews.first(where: { $0 is UILabel }) else { return }
    lbl.isHidden = false
}

}

When UILabel is added as subView to UITextView, textView cursor position and UILabel position will mismatch, for that reason leave one space before your placeholder text

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate {
    var textView: UITextView!

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    view.addSubview(textView)
    // Also setup textView constraints as per your need
    // Add placeholder to your textView
    // Leave one space before placeholder string
    textView.createPlaceHolderLabel(with: " Address")
    textView.delegate = self
}

Then in textViewdidChange method add the following code

func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
    if textView.text.isEmpty {
        textView.showPlaceHolderLabel()
    } else {
        textView.hidePlaceHolderLabel()
    }
}

It can be reused across all UITextViews.

user_2015855 · Answer

Simple class to support icon attribted placeholders in UITextView PlaceholderTextView

@IBOutlet weak var tvMessage: PlaceholderTextView!
//  TODO: - Create Icon Text Attachment
let icon: NSTextAttachment = NSTextAttachment()
icon.image = UIImage(named: "paper-plane")
let iconString = NSMutableAttributedString(attributedString: NSAttributedString(attachment: icon))

tvMessage.icon = icon

//  TODO: - Attributes
let textColor = UIColor.gray
let lightFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica-Light", size: tvMessage.font!.pointSize)
let italicFont = UIFont(name: "Helvetica-LightOblique", size: tvMessage.font!.pointSize)

//  TODO: - Placeholder Attributed String
let message = NSAttributedString(string: " " + "Personal Message", attributes: [ NSFontAttributeName: lightFont!,   NSForegroundColorAttributeName: textColor])
iconString.append(message)
// TODO: - Italic Placeholder Part
let option = NSAttributedString(string: " " + "Optional", attributes: [ NSFontAttributeName: italicFont!, NSForegroundColorAttributeName: textColor])
iconString.append(option)

tvMessage.attributedPlaceHolder = iconString

tvMessage.layoutSubviews()

Placeholder in UITextView

63 Answers

TextView PlaceHolder In swift

Usage