React Native - Setting TextInput cursor position

Question

In my React Native app, I am trying to set the cursor position of a TextInput to a particular position (eg. to the 5th character) but am have trouble doing so as the documentation is lacking a little. I suspect it has something to do with the 'setSelection' property of TextInput but I cannot seem to find out what to do.

Has anyone successfully done so?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As @this.lau_ says there is a controlled property called selection which accepts an object with keys start and end.

Example:

class ControlledSelectionInput extends Component {     state = {         selection: {             start: 0,             end: 0         }     }      // selection is an object: { start:number, end:number }     handleSelectionChange = ({ nativeEvent: { selection } }) => this.setState({ selection })      render() {         const { selection } = this.state;          return <TextInput selection={selection} onSelectionChange={this.handleSelectionChange} />     } } 

You can also programmatically set the selection by getting a ref to the component and using setNativeProps like this:

this.inputRef.setNativeProps({ selection:{ start:1, end:1 } }) 

Example:

class SetNativePropsSelectionInput extends Component {     inputRef = null      render() {         const { selection } = this.state;          return (             <View>                 <TextInput ref={this.refInput} />                 <Button title="Move selection to start" onPress={this.handleMoveSelectionPress} />             </View>     }      refInput = el => this.inputRef = el      handleMoveSelectionPress = () => this.input.setNativeProps({         selection: {             start: 0,             end: 0         }     }) }