How can I change the dots to another character on password field in iOS Swift

Question

I have a Text Field and I would like to replace the default dot character to something else when the password is hidden. Is there any way to do this easily?

Answer 1

Swift 5 ready to use, updated version of crifan answer:

import UIKit

class PasswordTextField: UITextField, UITextFieldDelegate {
    var realText: String {
        didSet {
            updateMaskStr()
        }
    }
    let maskChar: Character
    
    init(
        frame: CGRect = .zero,
        maskChar: Character = "*"
    ) {
        realText = ""
        self.maskChar = maskChar
        super.init(frame: frame)
        setupActions()
        setupDelegates()
    }
    
    private func setupActions() {
        addTarget(self, action: #selector(textFiledEditingChanged(textField:)), for: .editingChanged)
    }
    
    private func setupDelegates() {
        delegate = self
    }
    
    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }
    
    private func updateMaskStr(){
        //change real text to mask char
        var maskStr = ""
        
        for _ in realText {
            maskStr += String(self.maskChar)
        }
        
        text = maskStr
    }
    
    @objc
    private func textFiledEditingChanged(textField: UITextField) { updateMaskStr() }
    
    func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
        let curText = realText
        let updatedStr:String = (curText as NSString).replacingCharacters(in: range, with: string)
        realText = updatedStr
        return false
    }
}