Detect Start and Stop Editing UITextView

Question

How can I call some code upon entering a UITextView (user taps to edit it) and leaving the view (user taps to leave it)?

Appreciate any help.

Answer 1

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UITextViewDelegate_Protocol/Reference/UITextViewDelegate.html#//apple_ref/occ/intf/UITextViewDelegate

Here you can find several useful methods to investigate:

• textViewDidBeginEditing:
• textViewDidEndEditing:

Moreover to leave UITextView you often should implement action that calls [yourTextView resignFirstResponder];

Objective-C example

//you may specify UITextViewDelegate protocol in .h file interface, but it's better not to expose it if not necessary @interface ExampleViewController()<UITextViewDelegate>   @end  @implementation ExampleViewController  - (void)viewDidLoad {     [super viewDidLoad];      //assuming _textView is already instantiated and added to its superview     _textView.delegate = self; }   //it's nice to separate delegate methods with pragmas but it's up to your local code style policy #pragma mark UITextViewDelegate  - (void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView {     //handle user taps text view to type text }  - (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView {     //handle text editing finished     }  @end 

Swift Example

class TextViewEventsViewController: UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate {          @IBOutlet weak var exampleTextView: UITextView!      override func viewDidLoad() {         super.viewDidLoad()                  self.exampleTextView.delegate = self     }          func textViewDidBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {         print("exampleTextView: BEGIN EDIT")     }          func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {         print("exampleTextView: END EDIT")     } } 

Answer 2

You could also implement the UITextViewDidChange delegate methods. I use the code below in my app for taking quick notes. Whenever the user has entered a character, the observer catches this from the notification center and calls the saveText method.

Here's how:

Add this line to the viewDidLoad method:

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

and these lines at the appropriate place in your code (like in the section that handles the text view delegate methods. TIP: Use pragma marks for this (#pragma mark - TextView Delegate Methods):

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView{      NSLog(@"textViewShouldEndEditing"); // Detect in log output if the method gets called     [self saveText:nil]; // Call any method you like  }