Insert String at Cursor Position of Uitextfield

Insert string at cursor position of UITextField

I've finally found a solution for this problem! You can put the text you need inserted into the system pasteboard and then paste it at the current cursor position:

[myTextField paste:self]

I found the solution on this person's blog:

http://dev.ragfield.com/2009/09/insert-text-at-current-cursor-location.html

The paste functionality is OS V3.0 specific, but I've tested it and it works fine for me with a custom keyboard.

Update: As per Jasarien's comment below, it is good practice to save off the pasteboard contents first and restore them afterward. For convenience, here is my code:

  // Get a reference to the system pasteboard
  UIPasteboard* lPasteBoard = [UIPasteboard generalPasteboard];

  // Save the current pasteboard contents so we can restore them later
  NSArray* lPasteBoardItems = [lPasteBoard.items copy];

  // Update the system pasteboard with my string
  lPasteBoard.string = @"-";

  // Paste the pasteboard contents at current cursor location
  [myUIField paste:self];

  // Restore original pasteboard contents
  lPasteBoard.items = lPasteBoardItems;

  [lPasteBoardItems release];

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)
}

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.

How to programmatically enter text in UITextView at the current cursor position

Try this... Inside your button's IBAction use this (please do not use forced optional unwrapping) or else if the textView has no selection or cursor, the app might crash:

let txt = "whatever you want"
if let range = handleToYourTextView.selectedTextRange {
   // From your question I assume that you do not want to replace a selection, only insert some text where the cursor is.
   if range.start == range.end {
      handleToYourTextView.replaceRange(range, withText: txt)
   }
}

How to insert text into UITextField?

You can replace the text as you have done previously and restore the position of your caret. Note that this can only be done with UITextView rather than UITextField (that would require a lot more unjustified work, unless you absolutely have to use UITextField):

NSRange selectionRange = myTextView.selectedRange;
myTextView.text = myNewText;
myTextView.selectedRange = selectionRange;

You have to note that it's a good idea to check the validity of selectionRange variable for new text - make sure that cursor position isn't greater than the new text length.

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)];
    }
}

Insert text into UITextField at caret Position

The solution was simpler than I thought:

[self insertText:string];
UIAccessibilityPostNotification(UIAccessibilityAnnouncementNotification, string);

This will work properly with selection, caret position et. al.

It will however not use the proper tone when announcing the entered string. VoiceOver uses a deeper voice when announcing inserted text, I put up a separate question on how to control the tone of VoiceOver.

iOS: insert attributed string at cursor for UITextView?

Insert into a mutable copy of the text view’s attributed text by calling https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsmutableattributedstring/1414947-insert.

Insert String at Cursor Position of Uitextfield