Making a UITableView scroll when text field is selected

Question

If you use UITableViewController instead of UIViewController, it will automatically do so.

The function that does the scrolling could be much simpler:

- (void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
    UITableViewCell *cell;

    if (floor(NSFoundationVersionNumber) <= NSFoundationVersionNumber_iOS_6_1) {
    // Load resources for iOS 6.1 or earlier
        cell = (UITableViewCell *) textField.superview.superview;

    } else {
        // Load resources for iOS 7 or later
        cell = (UITableViewCell *) textField.superview.superview.superview; 
       // TextField -> UITableVieCellContentView -> (in iOS 7!)ScrollView -> Cell!
    }
    [tView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:[tView indexPathForCell:cell] atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop animated:YES];
}

That's it. No calculations at all.

I'm doing something very similar it's generic, no need to compute something specific for your code. Just check the remarks on the code:

In MyUIViewController.h

@interface MyUIViewController: UIViewController <UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource>
{
     UITableView *myTableView;
     UITextField *actifText;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UITableView *myTableView;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UITextField *actifText;

- (IBAction)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField;
- (IBAction)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField;

-(void) keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)note;
-(void) keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)note;

@end

In MyUIViewController.m

@implementation MyUIViewController

@synthesize myTableView;
@synthesize actifText;

- (void)viewDidLoad 
{
    // Register notification when the keyboard will be show
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                          selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:)
                                          name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                          object:nil];

    // Register notification when the keyboard will be hide
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                          selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:)
                                          name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
                                          object:nil];
}

// To be link with your TextField event "Editing Did Begin"
//  memoryze the current TextField
- (IBAction)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    self.actifText = textField;
}

// To be link with your TextField event "Editing Did End"
//  release current TextField
- (IBAction)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    self.actifText = nil;
}

-(void) keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)note
{
    // Get the keyboard size
    CGRect keyboardBounds;
    [[note.userInfo valueForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] getValue: &keyboardBounds];

    // Detect orientation
    UIInterfaceOrientation orientation = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation];
    CGRect frame = self.myTableView.frame;

    // Start animation
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3f];

    // Reduce size of the Table view 
    if (orientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait || orientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown)
        frame.size.height -= keyboardBounds.size.height;
    else 
        frame.size.height -= keyboardBounds.size.width;

    // Apply new size of table view
    self.myTableView.frame = frame;

    // Scroll the table view to see the TextField just above the keyboard
    if (self.actifText)
      {
        CGRect textFieldRect = [self.myTableView convertRect:self.actifText.bounds fromView:self.actifText];
        [self.myTableView scrollRectToVisible:textFieldRect animated:NO];
      }

    [UIView commitAnimations];
}

-(void) keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)note
{
    // Get the keyboard size
    CGRect keyboardBounds;
    [[note.userInfo valueForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] getValue: &keyboardBounds];

    // Detect orientation
    UIInterfaceOrientation orientation = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation];
    CGRect frame = self.myTableView.frame;

    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3f];

    // Increase size of the Table view 
    if (orientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait || orientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown)
        frame.size.height += keyboardBounds.size.height;
    else 
        frame.size.height += keyboardBounds.size.width;

    // Apply new size of table view
    self.myTableView.frame = frame;

    [UIView commitAnimations];
}

@end

---

Swift 1.2+ version:

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate {
    @IBOutlet weak var activeText: UITextField!
    @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
            selector: Selector("keyboardWillShow:"),
            name: UIKeyboardWillShowNotification,
            object: nil)
        NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
            selector: Selector("keyboardWillHide:"),
            name: UIKeyboardWillHideNotification,
            object: nil)
    }

    func textFieldDidBeginEditing(textField: UITextField) {
        activeText = textField
    }

    func textFieldDidEndEditing(textField: UITextField) {
        activeText = nil
    }

    func keyboardWillShow(note: NSNotification) {
        if let keyboardSize = (note.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.CGRectValue() {
            var frame = tableView.frame
            UIView.beginAnimations(nil, context: nil)
            UIView.setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState(true)
            UIView.setAnimationDuration(0.3)
            frame.size.height -= keyboardSize.height
            tableView.frame = frame
            if activeText != nil {
                let rect = tableView.convertRect(activeText.bounds, fromView: activeText)
                tableView.scrollRectToVisible(rect, animated: false)
            }
            UIView.commitAnimations()
        }
    }

    func keyboardWillHide(note: NSNotification) {
        if let keyboardSize = (note.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.CGRectValue() {
            var frame = tableView.frame
            UIView.beginAnimations(nil, context: nil)
            UIView.setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState(true)
            UIView.setAnimationDuration(0.3)
            frame.size.height += keyboardSize.height
            tableView.frame = frame
            UIView.commitAnimations()
        }
    }
}

The simplest solution for Swift 3, based on Bartłomiej Semańczyk solution:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(CreateEditRitualViewController.keyboardWillShow(notification:)), name: NSNotification.Name.UIKeyboardDidShow, object: nil)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(CreateEditRitualViewController.keyboardWillHide(notification:)), name: NSNotification.Name.UIKeyboardDidHide, object: nil)
}

deinit {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
}

// MARK: Keyboard Notifications

@objc func keyboardWillShow(notification: NSNotification) {
    if let keyboardHeight = (notification.userInfo?[UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.cgRectValue.height {
        tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, keyboardHeight, 0)
    }
}

@objc func keyboardWillHide(notification: NSNotification) {
    UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.2, animations: {
        // For some reason adding inset in keyboardWillShow is animated by itself but removing is not, that's why we have to use animateWithDuration here
        self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 0)
    })
}

I had the same problem but noticed that it appears only in one view. So I began to look for the differences in the controllers.

I found out that the scrolling behavior is set in - (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated of the super instance.

So be sure to implement like this:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    // your code
}

And it doesn't matter if you use UIViewController or UITableViewController; checked it by putting a UITableView as a subview of self.view in the UIViewController. It was the same behavior. The view didn't allow to scroll if the call [super viewWillAppear:animated]; was missing.

i may have missed this, as i didn't read the whole post here, but what i came up with seems deceptively simple. i haven't put this through the wringer, testing in all situations, but it seems like it should work just fine.

simply adjust the contentInset of the tableview by the height of the keyboard, and then scroll the cell to the bottom:

- (void)keyboardWasShown:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
    NSDictionary* info = [aNotification userInfo];
    CGSize kbSize = [[info objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] CGRectValue].size;

    UIEdgeInsets contentInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.0, 0.0, kbSize.height, 0.0);
    self.myTableView.contentInset = contentInsets;
    self.myTableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = contentInsets;

    [self.myTableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:self.currentField.indexPath atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionBottom animated:YES];
}

and of course

- (void)keyboardWasHidden:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
    [UIView animateWithDuration:.3 animations:^(void) 
    {
        self.myTableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
        self.myTableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
    }];
}

is this too simple? am i missing something? so far it is working for me fine, but as i said, i haven't put it through the wringer...

I think I've come up with the solution to match the behaviour of Apple's apps.

First, in your viewWillAppear: subscribe to the keyboard notifications, so you know when the keyboard will show and hide, and the system will tell you the size of the keyboard, but dont' forget to unregister in your viewWillDisappear:.

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

Implement the methods similar to the below so that you adjust the size of your tableView to match the visible area once the keyboard shows. Here I'm tracking the state of the keyboard separately so I can choose when to set the tableView back to full height myself, since you get these notifications on every field change. Don't forget to implement keyboardWillHide: and choose somewhere appropriate to fix your tableView size.

-(void) keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)note
{
    CGRect keyboardBounds;
    [[note.userInfo valueForKey:UIKeyboardBoundsUserInfoKey] getValue: &keyboardBounds];
    keyboardHeight = keyboardBounds.size.height;
    if (keyboardIsShowing == NO)
    {
        keyboardIsShowing = YES;
        CGRect frame = self.view.frame;
        frame.size.height -= keyboardHeight;

        [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
        [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
        [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3f];
        self.view.frame = frame;
        [UIView commitAnimations];
    }
}

Now here's the scrolling bit, we work out a few sizes first, then we see where we are in the visible area, and set the rect we want to scroll to to be either the half view above or below the middle of the text field based on where it is in the view. In this case, we have an array of UITextFields and an enum that keeps track of them, so multiplying the rowHeight by the row number gives us the actual offset of the frame within this outer view.

- (void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    CGRect frame = textField.frame;
    CGFloat rowHeight = self.tableView.rowHeight;
    if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_ONE])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_ONE;
    }
    else if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_TWO])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_TWO;
    }
    else if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_THREE])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_THREE;
    }
    else if (textField == textFields[CELL_FIELD_FOUR])
    {
        frame.origin.y += rowHeight * CELL_FIELD_FOUR;
    }
    CGFloat viewHeight = self.tableView.frame.size.height;
    CGFloat halfHeight = viewHeight / 2;
    CGFloat midpoint = frame.origin.y + (textField.frame.size.height / 2);
    if (midpoint < halfHeight)
    {
        frame.origin.y = 0;
        frame.size.height = midpoint;
    }
    else
    {
        frame.origin.y = midpoint;
        frame.size.height = midpoint;
    }
    [self.tableView scrollRectToVisible:frame animated:YES];
}

This seems to work quite nicely.