How to add placeholder text to TextEditor in SwiftUI?

Question

When using SwiftUI\'s new TextEditor, you can modify its content directly using a @State. However, I haven\'t see a way to add a placeholder text to it. Is it doable right now?<

Answer 1

I built a custom view that can be used like this (until TextEditor officially supports it - maybe next year)

TextArea("This is my placeholder", text: $text)

Full solution below:

struct TextArea: View {
    private let placeholder: String
    @Binding var text: String
    
    init(_ placeholder: String, text: Binding<String>) {
        self.placeholder = placeholder
        self._text = text
    }
    
    var body: some View {
        TextEditor(text: $text)
            .background(
                HStack(alignment: .top) {
                    text.isBlank ? Text(placeholder) : Text("")
                    Spacer()
                }
                .foregroundColor(Color.primary.opacity(0.25))
                .padding(EdgeInsets(top: 0, leading: 4, bottom: 7, trailing: 0))
            )
    }
}

extension String {
    var isBlank: Bool {
        return allSatisfy({ $0.isWhitespace })
    }
}

I'm using the default padding of the TextEditor here, but feel free to adjust to your preference.

Answer 2

There are some good answers here, but I wanted to bring up a special case. When a TextEditor is placed in a Form, there are a few issues, primarily with spacing.

1. TextEditor does not horizontally align with other form elements (e.g. TextField)
2. The placeholder text does not horizontally align with the TextEditor cursor.
3. When there is whitespace or carriage return/newline are added, the placeholder re-positions to the vertical-middle (optional).
4. Adding leading spaces causes the placeholder to disappear (optional).

One way to fix these issues:

Form {
    TextField("Text Field", text: $text)

    ZStack(alignment: .topLeading) {
        if comments.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines).isEmpty {
            Text("Long Text Field").foregroundColor(Color(UIColor.placeholderText)).padding(.top, 8)
        }
        TextEditor(text: $comments).padding(.leading, -3)
    }
}

Answer 3

With an overlay, you won't be able to allow touch on the placeholder text for the user to write in the textEditor. You better work on the background, which is a view.

So, create it, while deactivating the default background:

struct PlaceholderBg: View {

let text: String?

init(text:String? = nil) {
        UITextView.appearance().backgroundColor = .clear // necessary to remove the default bg
    
    self.text = text
 }

var body: some View {
    VStack {
    HStack{
    
    Text(text!)
          
    Spacer()
    }
    Spacer()
    }
}
    
}

then, in your textEditor:

 TextEditor(text: $yourVariable)
                        
                        .frame(width: x, y)
                        .background(yourVariable.isEmpty ? PlaceholderBg(texte: "my placeholder text") : PlaceholderBG(texte:""))

Answer 4

It is not possible out of the box but you can achieve this effect with ZStack or the .overlay property.

What you should do is check the property holding your state. If it is empty display your placeholder text. If it's not then display the inputted text instead.

And here is a code example:

ZStack(alignment: .leading) {
    if email.isEmpty {
        Text(Translation.email)
            .font(.custom("Helvetica", size: 24))
            .padding(.all)
    }
    
    TextEditor(text: $email)
        .font(.custom("Helvetica", size: 24))
        .padding(.all)
}

Note: I have purposely left the .font and .padding styling for you to see that it should match on both the TextEditor and the Text.

EDIT: Having in mind the two problems mentioned in Legolas Wang's comment here is how the alignment and opacity issues could be handled:

• In order to make the Text start at the left of the view simply wrap it in HStack and append Spacer immediately after it like this:

HStack {
   Text("Some placeholder text")
   Spacer()
}

• In order to solve the opaque problem you could play with conditional opacity - the simplest way would be using the ternary operator like this:

TextEditor(text: stringProperty)        
        .opacity(stringProperty.isEmpty ? 0.25 : 1)

Of course this solution is just a silly workaround until support gets added for TextEditors.

Answer 5

SwiftUI TextEditor does not yet have support for a placeholder. As a result, we have to "fake" it.

Other solutions had problems like bad alignment or color issues. This is the closest I got to simulating a real placeholder. This solution "overlays" a TextField over the TextEditor. The TextField contains the placeholder. The TextField gets hidden as soon as a character is inputted into the TextEditor.

import SwiftUI

struct Testing: View {
  @State private var textEditorText = ""
  @State private var textFieldText = ""

  var body: some View {
    VStack {
      Text("Testing Placeholder Example")
      ZStack(alignment: Alignment(horizontal: .center, vertical: .top)) {
        TextEditor(text: $textEditorText)
          .padding(EdgeInsets(top: -7, leading: -4, bottom: -7, trailing: -4)) // fix padding not aligning with TextField
        if textEditorText.isEmpty {
          TextField("Placeholder text here", text: $textFieldText)
            .disabled(true) // don't allow for it to be tapped
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

struct Testing_Previews: PreviewProvider {
  static var previews: some View {
    Testing()
  }
}

Answer 6

As I know, this is the best way to add a placeholder text to TextEditor in SwiftUI

struct ContentView: View {
    @State var text = "Type here"
    
    var body: some View {

        TextEditor(text: self.$text)
            // make the color of the placeholder gray
            .foregroundColor(self.text == "Type here" ? .gray : .primary)
            
            .onAppear {

                // remove the placeholder text when keyboard appears
                NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: UIResponder.keyboardWillShowNotification, object: nil, queue: .main) { (noti) in
                    withAnimation {
                        if self.text == "Type here" {
                            self.text = ""
                        }
                    }
                }
                
                // put back the placeholder text if the user dismisses the keyboard without adding any text
                NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: UIResponder.keyboardWillHideNotification, object: nil, queue: .main) { (noti) in
                    withAnimation {
                        if self.text == "" {
                            self.text = "Type here"
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
    }
}