How to dismiss number pad keyboard by tapping anywhere

Question

I\'d like to know the simplest code to dismiss the number pad keyboard when tapping anywhere outside the number pad. It\'s a simple application to input a number inside a te

Answer 1

I tried implementing some of the solutions here and found that there were some issues with them. Notably, My UIView contains a UIScrollView, which appears to intercept touches.

When that failed, I considered that "tapping anywhere" is a little bit of an unspecified behavior, requiring the user to guess how to dismiss the keyboard instead of giving them clear guidance.

Also, I have a "Return" or "Done" button on every other keyboard I show in the app, so I was determined to give the user an easy, intuitive, clearly-specified way to dismiss the keyboard with a Number Pad that was in line with the other keyboard dismissal mechanisms in use.

I realize that this isn't what the OP is specifically requesting, but I believe it to be a better solution than the "tap anywhere" request (and it's easy to implement!).

The following code is called as part of -viewDidLoad in my UIViewController.

// My app is restricted to portrait-only, so the following works
UIToolbar *numberPadAccessoryInputView      = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width, 44.0f)];

// My app-wide tint color is a gold-ish color, so darkGray contrasts nicely
numberPadAccessoryInputView.barTintColor    = [UIColor darkGrayColor];

// A basic "Done" button, that calls [self.textField resignFirstResponder]
UIBarButtonItem *numberPadDoneButton        = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self.textField action:@selector(resignFirstResponder)];

// It's the only item in the UIToolbar's items array
numberPadAccessoryInputView.items           = @[numberPadDoneButton];

// In case the background of the view is similar to [UIColor darkGrayColor], this
// is put as a contrasting edge line at the top of the UIToolbar
UIView *topBorderView                       = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, numberPadAccessoryInputView.frame.size.width, 1.0f)];
topBorderView.backgroundColor               = [UIColor whiteColor];
[numberPadAccessoryInputView addSubview:topBorderView];

// Make it so that this UITextField shows the UIToolbar
self.textField.inputAccessoryView           = numberPadAccessoryInputView;

With that, there's a nice, pretty, intuitive control added to the top of the keyboard that clearly indicates how the user should proceed when they are finished with their text entry.

I still believe Apple should provide a "Done" button for this keyboard (like the link posted by Janak Nirmal), but this is the most elegant non-Apple solution to me.