Clear button on UITextView

Question

How can I add a clear button (cross inside a circle) for UITextView like UITextField has?

Solution 1

just make a uibutton and put it on uitextview and set its action for clear text view;

uitextview.frame = (0,0,320,416);

uibutton.frame = (310,0,10,10);
[uibutton setimage:@"cross.png" forcontrolstate:uicontrolstatenoraml];
[uibutton addTarget:self action:@selector(clearButtonSelected:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

-(void)clearButtonSelected{
    uitextview=@"";
}

hope you want to clear the text view text when you click on cross button above is help if not understand then i can send you proper program for that

Solution 2

Based on the answer from GhostRider a more accurate and up to date implementation:

int kClearButtonWidth = 15;
int kClearButtonHeight = kClearButtonWidth;

//add the clear button
self.clearButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[self.clearButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"UITextFieldClearButton.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self.clearButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"UITextFieldClearButtonPressed.png"] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];

self.clearButton.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, kClearButtonWidth, kClearButtonHeight);
self.clearButton.center = CGPointMake(self.textView.frame.size.width - kClearButtonWidth , kClearButtonHeight);

[self.clearButton addTarget:self action:@selector(clearTextView:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

[self.textView addSubview:self.clearButton];

And the method

- (void)clearTextView:(id)sender{
    self.textView.text = @"";
}

You can use this images for the two states of the button:

Solution 3

From product perspective, if you're going to have a clear button, you probably want to use a UITextField instead of a UITextView and UITextField supports a clear button natively - set the clearButtonMode property as such:

UITextField *textfield = ...;
textfield.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeAlways;

See screenshot:

You could use UITextFieldViewModeWhileEditing to only present the clear button while the user is actively updating the content.

Solution 4

There's nothing built in like there is for the UITextField. You'd have to add the view yourself (probably a UIButton) and place it correctly and also somehow get the text to wrap around it correctly. (And I don't think the latter is really possible.)

Maybe instead you should display a toolbar above the keyboard (or an inputAccessoryView if you're targeting 3.2 and later) that provides a clear button.

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Comments

[tom]

run into the same need, where to get this cross.png?

[ninjudd]

Thanks! Exactly what I needed.

[Mike Gledhill]

(Sigh.) The question was how to add a Clear button to a UITextView (not a UITextField)... and that DOESN'T have a ClearButtonMode member function...!!

[Zorayr]

@Mike Gledhill, just updated the answer to address your comment, I think for something like clearing a UITextView you are better off with a clear button (i.e. UIButton). I just don't see how an X clear button would work with multi-line text views.

[Mike Gledhill]

A perfect answer, but with XCode 6's insistance on using AutoLayout, I had to give up on creating the button programmatically, as you must add Constraints to ensure it does appear in the right place. In the end, I added a UIButton directly on the Storyboard, and added constraints there instead. (Sigh...)