How to dismiss keyboard for UITextView with return key?

Question

In IB's library, the introduction tells us that when the return key is pressed, the keyboard for UITextView will disappear. But actually the return key can only act as '\n'.

I can add a button and use [txtView resignFirstResponder] to hide the keyboard.

But is there a way to add the action for the return key in keyboard so that I needn't add UIButton?

Answer 1

Figured I would post the snippet right here instead:

Make sure you declare support for the UITextViewDelegate protocol.

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

    if([text isEqualToString:@"\n"]) {
        [textView resignFirstResponder];
        return NO;
    }

    return YES;
}

Swift 4.0 update:

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
    if text == "\n" {
        textView.resignFirstResponder()
        return false
    }
    return true
}

Answer 2

UITextView does not have any methods which will be called when the user hits the return key. If you want the user to be able to add only one line of text, use a UITextField. Hitting the return and hiding the keyboard for a UITextView does not follow the interface guidelines.

Even then if you want to do this, implement the textView:shouldChangeTextInRange:replacementText: method of UITextViewDelegate and in that check if the replacement text is \n, hide the keyboard.

There might be other ways but I am not aware of any.

Answer 3

I know this has been answered already but I don't really like using the string literal for the newline so here is what I did.

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)txtView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text {
    if( [text rangeOfCharacterFromSet:[NSCharacterSet newlineCharacterSet]].location == NSNotFound ) {
        return YES;
    }

    [txtView resignFirstResponder];
    return NO;
}

Swift 4.0 update:

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
if (text as NSString).rangeOfCharacter(from: CharacterSet.newlines).location == NSNotFound {
    return true
}
txtView.resignFirstResponder()
return false
}

Answer 4

I know this has been answered a lot of times, but here are my two cents to the issue.

I found the answers by samvermette and ribeto really useful, and also the comment by maxpower in the ribeto's answer. But there is a problem with those approaches. The problem that matt mentions in the samvermette's answer and it's that if the user wants to paste something with a line break inside it, the keyboard would hide without pasting anything.

So my approach is a mixture of the three above mentioned solutions and only checking if the string entered is a new line when the length of the string is 1 so we make sure the user is typing instead of pasting.

Here is what I have done:

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text {
    NSRange resultRange = [text rangeOfCharacterFromSet:[NSCharacterSet newlineCharacterSet] options:NSBackwardsSearch];
    if ([text length] == 1 && resultRange.location != NSNotFound) {
        [textView resignFirstResponder];
        return NO;
    }

    return YES;
}

Answer 5

A more elegant way is to dismiss the keyboard when the user taps somewhere outside of the keyboard's frame.

First, set your ViewController's view to the class "UIControl" in the identity inspector in UIBuilder. Control-drag the view into the ViewController's header file and link it as an action with the event as Touch Up Inside, such as:

ViewController.h

-(IBAction)dismissKeyboardOnTap:(id)sender;

In the main ViewController file, ViewController.m:

-(IBAction)dismissKeyboardOnTap:(id)sender
    {
         [[self view] endEditing:YES];
    }

You can require a double tap or long touch using similar techniques. You may need to set your ViewController to be a UITextViewDelegate and connect the TextView to the ViewController. This method works for both UITextView and UITextField.

Source: Big Nerd Ranch

EDIT: I'd also like to add that if you are using a UIScrollView, the above technique may not work as easily through the Interface Builder. In that case, you could use a UIGestureRecognizer and call the [[self view] endEditing:YES] method within it instead. An example would be:

-(void)ViewDidLoad{
    ....
    UITapGestureRecognizer *tapRec = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] 
        initWithTarget:self action:@selector(tap:)];
    [self.view addGestureRecognizer: tapRec];
    ....
}

-(void)tap:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)tapRec{
    [[self view] endEditing: YES];
}

When the user taps outside of the keyboard and does not tap an entry space, the keyboard will dismiss.

Answer 6

Add this method in your view controller.

Swift:

func textView(textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextInRange range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
    if text == "\n" {
        textView.resignFirstResponder()
        return false
    }
    return true
}

This method also can be helpful for you:

/**
Dismiss keyboard when tapped outside the keyboard or textView

:param: touches the touches
:param: event   the related event
*/
override func touchesBegan(touches: NSSet, withEvent event: UIEvent) {
    if let touch = touches.anyObject() as? UITouch {
        if touch.phase == UITouchPhase.Began {
            textField?.resignFirstResponder()
        }
    }
}

Answer 7

-(BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text {
    if([text isEqualToString:@"\n"])
        [textView resignFirstResponder];
    return YES;
}

yourtextView.delegate=self;

Also add UITextViewDelegate

Don't forget to confirm protocol

IF you didn't add if([text isEqualToString:@"\n"]) you can't edit

Answer 8

I found the answer by josebama to be the most complete and clean answer available in this thread.

Below is the Swift 4 syntax for it:

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn _: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
    let resultRange = text.rangeOfCharacter(from: CharacterSet.newlines, options: .backwards)
    if text.count == 1 && resultRange != nil {
        textView.resignFirstResponder()
        // Do any additional stuff here
        return false
    }
    return true
}

Answer 9

Simular to other answers using the UITextViewDelegate but a newer swift interface isNewline would be:

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
    if let character = text.first, character.isNewline {
        textView.resignFirstResponder()
        return false
    }
    return true
}

Answer 10

There is another solution while using with uitextview, You can add toolbar as InputAccessoryView in "textViewShouldBeginEditing", and from this toolbar's done button you can dismiss keyboard, the code for this is following:

In viewDidLoad

toolBar = [[UIToolbar alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 44)]; //toolbar is uitoolbar object
toolBar.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlackOpaque;
UIBarButtonItem *btnDone = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self action:@selector(btnClickedDone:)];
[toolBar setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObject:btnDone]];

In textviewdelegate method

- (BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
     [textView setInputAccessoryView:toolBar];
     return YES;
}

In action of Button Done which is in toolbar is following:

-(IBAction)btnClickedDone:(id)sender
{
    [self.view endEditing:YES];
}

Answer 11

Add an observer in viewDidLoad

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver: self selector: @selector(textViewKeyPressed:) name: UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object: nil];

and then use the selector to check for "\n"

-(void) textViewKeyPressed: (NSNotification*) notification {

  if ([[[notification object] text] hasSuffix:@"\n"])
  {
    [[notification object] resignFirstResponder];
  }
}

It does use "\n" and not specifically check for a return key, but I think this is OK.

UPDATE

See ribto's answer below which uses [NSCharacterSet newlineCharacterSet] in place of \n

Answer 12

swift

func textView(textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextInRange range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
    if text == "\n" {
        textView.resignFirstResponder()
    }
    return true
}

Answer 13

Using navigation controller to host a bar to dismiss the keyboard:

in the .h file:

UIBarButtonItem* dismissKeyboardButton;

in the .m file:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    dismissKeyboardButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self action:@selector(dismissKeyboard)];
}

-(void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView {
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = dismissKeyboardButton;
}

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = dismissKeyboardButton;
}

-(void)dismissKeyboard {
    [self.textField resignFirstResponder];
    [self.textView resignFirstResponder];
    //or replace this with your regular right button
    self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = nil;
}

Answer 14

Just like matt comment to samvermette, I don't like the idea of detecting "\n" either. The "return" key is there for a reason in UITextView, that is to go to next line of course.

The best solution in my opinion is to mimic iPhone message app - which is to add toolbar (and button) on the keyboard.

I got code from following blog post:

http://www.iosdevnotes.com/2011/02/iphone-keyboard-toolbar/

Steps:

-Add toolbar to your XIB file - set the height to 460

-Add toolbar button item (if not already added). If you need to right-align it, also add flexible bar button item to XIB, and move the toolbar button item

-Create action that link your button item to resignFirstResponder as follow:

- (IBAction)hideKeyboard:(id)sender {
    [yourUITextView resignFirstResponder];
}

-Then:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

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

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil];
}

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)notification {
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3];

    CGRect frame = self.keyboardToolbar.frame;
    frame.origin.y = self.view.frame.size.height - 260.0;
    self.keyboardToolbar.frame = frame;

    [UIView commitAnimations];
}

- (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)notification {
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3];

    CGRect frame = self.keyboardToolbar.frame;
    frame.origin.y = self.view.frame.size.height;
    self.keyboardToolbar.frame = frame;

    [UIView commitAnimations];
}

Answer 15

Just solved this problem a different way.

• Create a button that will be placed in the background
• From the Attribute Inspector, change the button type to custom, and the makes the button transparent.
• Expand the button to cover the whole view, and make sure the button is behind all the other object. Easy way to do this is to drag the button to the top of list view in the View

• Control drag the button to the viewController.h file and create an action (Sent Event: Touch Up Inside) like :

  (IBAction)ExitKeyboard:(id)sender;
  

• In ViewController.m should look like :

  (IBAction)ExitKeyboard:(id)sender {
      [self.view endEditing:TRUE];
  }
  

• Run app, and when you click away from the TextView, the keyboard disappears

Answer 16

Swift Code

Implement UITextViewDelegate in your class / View like so:

class MyClass: UITextViewDelegate  { ...

set the textView delegate to self

myTextView.delegate = self

And then implement the following:

  func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
    if textView.text.characters.count >= 1 {

        if let lastChar = textView.text.characters.last {

            if(lastChar == "\n"){

              textView.text = textView.text.substring(to: textView.text.index(before: textView.text.endIndex))
              textView.resignFirstResponder()
            }
        }
    }
}

EDIT I updated the code because it is never a good idea to change the user input in a textfield to for a workarround and not resetting the state after the hack code completed.

Answer 17

Try this :

 - (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text{
    if ([text isEqualToString:@"\n"]) {
        [self.view endEditing:YES];
    }

    return YES;

}

Answer 18

//You can use this ...

Step 1. The first step is to make sure that you declare support for the UITextViewDelegate protocol. This is done in your header file, as example here is the header called

EditorController.h:

@interface EditorController : UIViewController  {
  UITextView *messageTextView;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) UITextView *messageTextView;

@end

Step 2. Next you will need to register the controller as the UITextView’s delegate. Continuing from the example above, here is how I have initialize the UITextView with EditorController as the delegate …

- (id) init {
    if (self = [super init]) {
        // define the area and location for the UITextView
        CGRect tfFrame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 300, 100);
        messageTextView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:tfFrame];
        // make sure that it is editable
        messageTextView.editable = YES;

        // add the controller as the delegate
        messageTextView.delegate = self;
    }

Step 3. And now the final piece of the puzzle is to take action in response to the shouldCahngeTextInRange message as follows:

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range 
  replacementText:(NSString *)text
{
    // Any new character added is passed in as the "text" parameter
    if ([text isEqualToString:@"\n"]) {
        // Be sure to test for equality using the "isEqualToString" message
        [textView resignFirstResponder];

        // Return FALSE so that the final '\n' character doesn't get added
        return FALSE;
    }
    // For any other character return TRUE so that the text gets added to the view
    return TRUE;
}

Answer 19

You can also hide keyboard when touch in view screen:

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
     UITouch * touch = [touches anyObject];
     if(touch.phase == UITouchPhaseBegan) {
        [txtDetail resignFirstResponder];
      }
 }

Answer 20

Swift answer:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    let tapGestureReconizer = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "tap:")
    view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGestureReconizer)
}

func tap(sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
    view.endEditing(true)
}

Answer 21

I used this code to change responder.

 - (BOOL)textView:(UITextView*) textView shouldChangeTextInRange: (NSRange) range replacementText: (NSString*) text
    {
        if ([text isEqualToString:@"\n"]) {
            //[textView resignFirstResponder];
            //return YES;
            NSInteger nextTag = textView.tag + 1;
            // Try to find next responder
            UIResponder* nextResponder = [self.view viewWithTag:nextTag];
            if (nextResponder) {
                // Found next responder, so set it.
                [nextResponder becomeFirstResponder];
            } else {
                // Not found, so remove keyboard.
                [textView resignFirstResponder];
            }
            return NO; 


            return NO;
        }
        return YES;

    }

Answer 22

The question asks how to do it with the return key but I think this could help someone with the intent to just make keyboard disappear when using UITextView:

private func addToolBarForTextView() {
    let textViewToolbar: UIToolbar = UIToolbar()
    textViewToolbar.barStyle = .default
    textViewToolbar.items = [
        UIBarButtonItem(title: "Cancel", style: .done,
                  target: self, action: #selector(cancelInput)),
        UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .flexibleSpace,
                  target: self, action: nil),
        UIBarButtonItem(title: "Post Reply", style: .done,
                  target: self, action: #selector(doneInput))
    ]
    textViewToolbar.sizeToFit()
    yourTextView.inputAccessoryView = textViewToolbar
}

@objc func cancelInput() { print("cancel") }
@objc func doneInput() { print("done") }

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    addToolBarForTextView()
}

Call addToolBarForTextView() in the viewDidLoad or some other life cycle method.

It seems that was the perfect solution for me.

Cheers,

Murat

Answer 23

Ok. Everyone has given answers with tricks but i think the right way to achieve this is by

Connecting the following action to the "Did End On Exit" event in Interface Builder. (right-click the TextField and cntrl-drag from 'Did end on exit' to the following method.

-(IBAction)hideTheKeyboard:(id)sender
{
    [self.view endEditing:TRUE];
}

Answer 24

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range  replacementText:(NSString *)text
{
    if (range.length==0) {
        if ([text isEqualToString:@"\n"]) {
            [txtView resignFirstResponder];
            if(textView.returnKeyType== UIReturnKeyGo){

                [self PreviewLatter];
                return NO;
            }
            return NO;
        }
    }   return YES;
}

Answer 25

+ (void)addDoneButtonToControl:(id)txtFieldOrTextView
{
    if([txtFieldOrTextView isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]])
    {
        txtFieldOrTextView = (UITextField *)txtFieldOrTextView;
    }
    else if([txtFieldOrTextView isKindOfClass:[UITextView class]])
    {
        txtFieldOrTextView = (UITextView *)txtFieldOrTextView;
    }

    UIToolbar* numberToolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,
                                                                          0,
                                                                          [Global returnDeviceWidth],
                                                                          50)];
    numberToolbar.barStyle = UIBarStyleDefault;


    UIBarButtonItem *btnDone = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"btn_return"]
                                                                style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered
                                                               target:txtFieldOrTextView
                                                               action:@selector(resignFirstResponder)];

    numberToolbar.items = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:btnDone,nil];
    [numberToolbar sizeToFit];

    if([txtFieldOrTextView isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]])
    {
         ((UITextField *)txtFieldOrTextView).inputAccessoryView = numberToolbar;
    }
    else if([txtFieldOrTextView isKindOfClass:[UITextView class]])
    {
         ((UITextView *)txtFieldOrTextView).inputAccessoryView = numberToolbar;
    }
}

Answer 26

You should add UIToolbar to top UITextView to make easy rather than using shouldChangeTextIn

In Swift 4

let toolbar = UIToolbar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: UIScreen.main.bounds.width, height: 50))
        toolbar.barStyle = .default
        toolbar.items = [
            UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .flexibleSpace, target: nil, action: nil),
            UIBarButtonItem(title: "Done", style: .done, target: self, action: #selector(doneAction))
        ]
        textView.inputAccessoryView = toolbar

@objc func doneAction(){
 self.textView.resignFirstResponder()
}

Answer 27

I know it's not the exact answer to this question, but I found this thread after hunting the internet down for an answer. I assume others share that feeling.

This is my variance of the UITapGestureRecognizer which I find reliable and easy to use - just set the delegate of the TextView to the ViewController.

Instead of ViewDidLoad I add the UITapGestureRecognizer when the TextView becomes active for editing:

-(void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView{
    _tapRec = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc]initWithTarget:self action:@selector(tap:)];

    [self.view addGestureRecognizer: _tapRec];
    NSLog(@"TextView Did begin");
}

When I tap outside the TextView, the view ends editing mode and the UITapGestureRecognizer removes itself so I can continue interacting with other controls in the view.

-(void)tap:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)tapRec{
    [[self view] endEditing: YES];
    [self.view removeGestureRecognizer:tapRec];
    NSLog(@"Tap recognized, tapRec getting removed");
}

I hope this helps. It seems so obvious but I have never seen this solution anywhere on the web - am I doing something wrong?

Answer 28

Don't forget to set the delegate for the textView - otherwise resignfirstresponder won't work.

Answer 29

Try this .

NSInteger lengthOfText = [[textView.text stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]] length];

Answer 30

For Xcode 6.4., Swift 1.2. :

   override func touchesBegan(touches: Set<NSObject>, withEvent event: UIEvent)
    {
        super.touchesBegan(touches, withEvent: event)
        if let touch = touches.first as? UITouch
        {
            self.meaningTextview.resignFirstResponder()
        }
    }