Max length UITextField

Question

With Swift 5 and iOS 12, try the following implementation of textField(_:shouldChangeCharactersIn:replacementString:) method that is part of the UITextFieldDelegate protocol:

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
    guard let textFieldText = textField.text,
        let rangeOfTextToReplace = Range(range, in: textFieldText) else {
            return false
    }
    let substringToReplace = textFieldText[rangeOfTextToReplace]
    let count = textFieldText.count - substringToReplace.count + string.count
    return count <= 10
}

• The most important part of this code is the conversion from range (NSRange) to rangeOfTextToReplace (Range<String.Index>). See this video tutorial to understand why this conversion is important.
• To make this code work properly, you should also set the textField's smartInsertDeleteType value to UITextSmartInsertDeleteType.no. This will prevent the possible insertion of an (unwanted) extra space when performing a paste operation.

---

The complete sample code below shows how to implement textField(_:shouldChangeCharactersIn:replacementString:) in a UIViewController:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate {

    @IBOutlet var textField: UITextField! // Link this to a UITextField in Storyboard

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        textField.smartInsertDeleteType = UITextSmartInsertDeleteType.no
        textField.delegate = self
    }

    func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
        guard let textFieldText = textField.text,
            let rangeOfTextToReplace = Range(range, in: textFieldText) else {
                return false
        }
        let substringToReplace = textFieldText[rangeOfTextToReplace]
        let count = textFieldText.count - substringToReplace.count + string.count
        return count <= 10
    }

}

I do it like this:

func checkMaxLength(textField: UITextField!, maxLength: Int) {
    if (countElements(textField.text!) > maxLength) {
        textField.deleteBackward()
    }
}

The code works for me. But I work with storyboard. In Storyboard I add an action for the text field in the view controller on editing changed.

Update for Swift 4

 func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
     guard let text = textField.text else { return true }
     let newLength = text.count + string.count - range.length
     return newLength <= 10
}

you can extend UITextField and add an @IBInspectable object for handle it:

SWIFT 5

import UIKit
private var __maxLengths = [UITextField: Int]()
extension UITextField {
    @IBInspectable var maxLength: Int {
        get {
            guard let l = __maxLengths[self] else {
                return 150 // (global default-limit. or just, Int.max)
            }
            return l
        }
        set {
            __maxLengths[self] = newValue
            addTarget(self, action: #selector(fix), for: .editingChanged)
        }
    }
    @objc func fix(textField: UITextField) {
        if let t = textField.text {
            textField.text = String(t.prefix(maxLength))
        }
    }
}

and after that define it on attribute inspector

See Swift 4 original Answer

Add More detail from @Martin answer

// linked your button here
@IBAction func mobileTFChanged(sender: AnyObject) {
    checkMaxLength(sender as! UITextField, maxLength: 10)
}

// linked your button here
@IBAction func citizenTFChanged(sender: AnyObject) {
    checkMaxLength(sender as! UITextField, maxLength: 13)
}

func checkMaxLength(textField: UITextField!, maxLength: Int) {
    // swift 1.0
    //if (count(textField.text!) > maxLength) {
    //    textField.deleteBackward()
    //}
    // swift 2.0
    if (textField.text!.characters.count > maxLength) {
        textField.deleteBackward()
    }
}