Adding the "Clear" Button to an iPhone UITextField

Ios Problem Overview

How do you add that little "X" button on the right side of a UITextField that clears the text? I can't find an attribute for adding this sub-control in Interface Builder in the iPhone OS 2.2 SDK.

Note: In Xcode 4.x and later (iPhone 3.0 SDK and later), you can do this in Interface Builder.

Ios Solutions

Solution 1 - Ios

This button is a built-in overlay that is provided by the UITextField class, but as of the iOS 2.2 SDK, there isn't any way to set it via Interface Builder. You have to enable it programmatically.

Add this line of code somewhere (viewDidLoad, for example):

Objective-C

myUITextField.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeWhileEditing;

Swift 5.0

myUITextField.clearButtonMode = .whileEditing

Solution 2 - Ios

You can also set this directly from Interface Builder under the Attributes Inspector.

enter image description here

Taken from XCode 5.1

Solution 3 - Ios

Swift 4+:

textField.clearButtonMode = UITextField.ViewMode.whileEditing

or even shorter:

textField.clearButtonMode = .whileEditing

Solution 4 - Ios

you can add custom clear button and control the size and every thing using this:

UIButton *clearButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[clearButton setImage:img forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[clearButton setFrame:frame];
[clearButton addTarget:self action:@selector(clearTextField:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

textField.rightViewMode = UITextFieldViewModeAlways; //can be changed to UITextFieldViewModeNever,    UITextFieldViewModeWhileEditing,   UITextFieldViewModeUnlessEditing
[textField setRightView:clearButton];

Solution 5 - Ios

Objective C :

self.txtUserNameTextfield.myUITextField.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeWhileEditing;

Swift :

txtUserNameTextfield.clearButtonMode = UITextField.ViewMode.WhileEditing;

Solution 6 - Ios

Swift 4 (adapted from Kristopher Johnson's answer)

textfield.clearButtonMode = .always

textfield.clearButtonMode = .whileEditing

textfield.clearButtonMode = .unlessEditing

textfield.clearButtonMode = .never

Solution 7 - Ios

this don't work, do like me:

> swift:

customTextField.clearButtonMode = UITextField.ViewMode.Always

customTextField.clearsOnBeginEditing = true;

func textFieldShouldClear(textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    return true
}

Solution 8 - Ios

On Xcode 8 (8A218a):

Swift:

textField.clearButtonMode = UITextField.ViewMode.whileEditing;

The "W" went from capital to non-cap "w".

Solution 9 - Ios

  func clear_btn(box_is : UITextField){
    box_is.clearButtonMode = .always
    if let clearButton = box_is.value(forKey: "_clearButton") as? UIButton {
        let templateImage =  clearButton.imageView?.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
        
        clearButton.setImage(templateImage, for: .normal)
        clearButton.setImage(templateImage, for: .highlighted)
        
        clearButton.tintColor = .white

     }
}

Solution 10 - Ios

Use below lines of code. If rightView is there clear button is not showing.

self.txtField.rightView = nil
self.txtField.rightViewMode = .never
self.txtField.clearButtonMode = UITextField.ViewMode.always

Solution 11 - Ios

On Xcode Version 8.1 (8B62) it can be done directly in Attributes Inspector. Select the textField and then choose the appropriate option from Clear Button drop down box, which is located in Attributes Inspector.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Kristopher Johnson	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Ios	Kristopher Johnson	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Ios	Nicholas Harlen	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Ios	Esqarrouth	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Ios	Hossam Ghareeb	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Ios	PT Vyas	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Ios	Edouard Barbier	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Ios	Tritmm	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Ios	Aidan.C	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Ios	Pardeep Kumar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Ios	Payal Maniyar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - Ios	carlson	View Answer on Stackoverflow