How to insert placeholder in UITextView?

Is there any way to insert a placeholder in a UITextView similar to the UITextField? If yes, then please send me any link or any idea to implement this functionality.

It is not possible to create placeholder in UITextView but you can generate effect like place holder by this.

- (void)viewDidLoad {  	
    commentTxtView.text = @"Comment";
    commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    commentTxtView.delegate = self;
    
}
- (BOOL) textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView {
    commentTxtView.text = @"";
    commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    return YES;
}
    
-(void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    
    if(commentTxtView.text.length == 0) {
        commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
        commentTxtView.text = @"Comment";
    	[commentTxtView resignFirstResponder];
    }
}

-(void) textViewShouldEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView {
    
    if(commentTxtView.text.length == 0) {
        commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    	commentTxtView.text = @"Comment";
    	[commentTxtView resignFirstResponder];
    }
}

OR you can add label in textview just like

lbl = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.0, 0.0,textView.frame.size.width - 10.0, 34.0)];
 
[lbl setText:kDescriptionPlaceholder];
[lbl setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[lbl setTextColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor]];
textView.delegate = self;

[textView addSubview:lbl];

and set

- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *) textView {
    if (![textView hasText]) {
        lbl.hidden = NO;
    }
}

- (void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView {
    if(![textView hasText]) {
        lbl.hidden = NO;
    }
    else {
        lbl.hidden = YES;
    }  
}

Another easy solution is to just add a UILabel to your UITextView subview.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
  [super viewDidLoad];
  
  // you might have to play around a little with numbers in CGRectMake method
  // they work fine with my settings
  placeholderLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.0, 0.0, textView.frame.size.width - 20.0, 34.0)];
  [placeholderLabel setText:kDescriptionPlaceholder];
  // placeholderLabel is instance variable retained by view controller
  [placeholderLabel setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
  [placeholderLabel setFont:[challengeDescription font]];
  [placeholderLabel setTextColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor]];

  // textView is UITextView object you want add placeholder text to
  [textView addSubview:placeholderLabel];
}

- (void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)theTextView
{
  if(![textView hasText]) {
    [textView addSubview:placeholderLabel];
  } else if ([[textView subviews] containsObject:placeholderLabel]) {
    [placeholderLabel removeFromSuperview];
  }
}

- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)theTextView
{
  if (![textView hasText]) {
    [textView addSubview:placeholderLabel];
  }
}

You can even add little animations to fade in/out the UILabel if that's your thing.

- (void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)theTextView
{
  if(![textView hasText]) {
    [textView addSubview:placeholderLabel];
    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.15 animations:^{
      placeholderLabel.alpha = 1.0;
    }];
  } else if ([[textView subviews] containsObject:placeholderLabel]) {

    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.15 animations:^{
      placeholderLabel.alpha = 0.0;
    } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
      [placeholderLabel removeFromSuperview];
    }];
  }
}


- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)theTextView
{
  if (![textView hasText]) {
    [textView addSubview:placeholderLabel];
    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.15 animations:^{
      placeholderLabel.alpha = 1.0;
    }];
}

Another easy solution is set YES/NO for hidden properties of placeholderLabel

- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)theTextView
{
    if (![textView hasText]) {
        placeholderLabel.hidden = NO;
    }
}

- (void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if(![textView hasText]) {
        placeholderLabel.hidden = NO;
    }
    else{
        placeholderLabel.hidden = YES;
    }
}

-(BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text
{
  // NSLog(@"REPlace %@ %d",text,range.location);
  if(range.location==0 && ![text isEqualToString:@""])
  {
    placeholderlbl.hidden = YES;
  }
  else if(range.location==0)
  {
    placeholderlbl.hidden = NO;
  }

  return YES;
}

You can use as below function for making placeholder, Using thi you can set place holder on it..

[self addTextViewPlaceholder:self.txtvComment withPlaceholder:@"COMMENT"];

-(void) addTextViewPlaceholder:(UITextView*) tView withPlaceholder:(NSString*) placeholder
{
	UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(9,8,tView.bounds.size.width - 16,0)];
	label.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
	label.numberOfLines = 0;
    label.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:13.0];
	label.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
	label.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.7 green:0.7 blue:0.7 alpha:1.0];

    label.text = placeholder;
	label.alpha = 1;
	label.tag = 999;
	[tView addSubview:label];
	[label sizeToFit];
    if(![tView.text isEqualToString:@""])
        [label setAlpha:0];
	[label release];
}

You can manage placeholder text using this..

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    [self textChange:textView];
}

- (void)textChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
	if([textView.text length]>0)
		[[textView viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:0];
	else
		[[textView viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:1];
}

Another solution is to put a placeholder UITextView right on top of the actual UITextView. Give it the same frame. Set placeholderTextView.enabled = NO for the placeholder TextView.

Then, set the delegate for the normal textView only and define this UITextViewDelegate method:

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    NSLog(@"textViewDidChange");

    if(self.textView.text.length == 0)
    {
        self.placeholderTextView.hidden = NO;
    }
    else
    {
        self.placeholderTextView.hidden = YES;
    }
}