Control Cursor Position in Uitextfield

Getting and Setting Cursor Position of UITextField and UITextView in Swift

The following content applies to both UITextField and UITextView.

Useful information

The very beginning of the text field text:

let startPosition: UITextPosition = textField.beginningOfDocument

The very end of the text field text:

let endPosition: UITextPosition = textField.endOfDocument

The currently selected range:

let selectedRange: UITextRange? = textField.selectedTextRange

Get cursor position

if let selectedRange = textField.selectedTextRange {

    let cursorPosition = textField.offset(from: textField.beginningOfDocument, to: selectedRange.start)

    print("\(cursorPosition)")
}

Set cursor position

In order to set the position, all of these methods are actually setting a range with the same start and end values.

To the beginning

let newPosition = textField.beginningOfDocument
textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: newPosition, to: newPosition)

To the end

let newPosition = textField.endOfDocument
textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: newPosition, to: newPosition)

To one position to the left of the current cursor position

// only if there is a currently selected range
if let selectedRange = textField.selectedTextRange {

    // and only if the new position is valid
    if let newPosition = textField.position(from: selectedRange.start, offset: -1) {

        // set the new position
        textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: newPosition, to: newPosition)
    }
}

To an arbitrary position

Start at the beginning and move 5 characters to the right.

let arbitraryValue: Int = 5
if let newPosition = textField.position(from: textField.beginningOfDocument, offset: arbitraryValue) {

    textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: newPosition, to: newPosition)
}

Related

Select all text

textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: textField.beginningOfDocument, to: textField.endOfDocument)

Select a range of text

// Range: 3 to 7
let startPosition = textField.position(from: textField.beginningOfDocument, offset: 3)
let endPosition = textField.position(from: textField.beginningOfDocument, offset: 7)

if startPosition != nil && endPosition != nil {
    textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: startPosition!, to: endPosition!)
}

Insert text at the current cursor position

textField.insertText("Hello")

Notes

• Use textField.becomeFirstResponder() to give focus to the text field and make the keyboard appear.

• See this answer for how to get the text at some range.

See also

• How to Create a Range in Swift

Getting the cursor position of UITextField in ios

UITextField conforms to the UITextInput protocol which has methods for getting the current selection. But the methods are complicated. You need something like this:

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string {
    if (textField.tag == 201) {
        UITextRange *selRange = textField.selectedTextRange;
        UITextPosition *selStartPos = selRange.start;
        NSInteger idx = [textField offsetFromPosition:textField.beginningOfDocument toPosition:selStartPos];

        [myclass selectTextForInput:textField atRange:NSMakeRange(idx, 0)];
    }
}

UITextField starting cursor position is wrong

You need to always update your UI from the main thread:

DispatchQueue.main.async {
    textField.selectedTextRange = textField.textRange(from: textField.endOfDocument, to: textField.endOfDocument)
}

How to set cursor position for UITextView on user input?

So I ended up adding a UILabel over the UITextView which acts as a placeholder for the textView. Tapping on the UILabel would send the action down to the textView and becomeFirstResponder. Once you start typing, make the label hidden.

How to set custom cursor position of UITextField?

Instead of moving the cursor you can add padding to the left of the UITextFiled like this for design to look better

UIView *paddingView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 10, 20)];
textField.leftView = paddingView;
textField.leftViewMode = UITextFieldViewModeAlways;

UITextField set cursor to start text position

Set your view controller (or some other appropriate object) as the text field's delegate and implement the textFieldDidBeginEditing: method like this:

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    UITextPosition *beginning = [textField beginningOfDocument];
    [textField setSelectedTextRange:[textField textRangeFromPosition:beginning
                                                          toPosition:beginning]];
}

Note that setSelectedTextRange: is a protocol method of UITextInput (which UITextField implements), so you won't find it directly in the UITextField documentation.

set cursor in centre position of textfield

just Make textfield text alignment center. if you want to change the cursor position write the code in textfieldDidBeginEditing.

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