UISearchBar change placeholder color

Question

Has anyone any idea or code sample on how can I change the text color of the placeholder text of a UISearchBar?

Answer 1

Swift 5 - ios 13:

Those who are stuck let me tell you it is going to work only in viewDidLayoutSubviews not in viewDidLoad

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {

    setupSearchBar(searchBar: YourSearchBar)

}

    func setupSearchBar(searchBar : UISearchBar) {

    searchBar.setPlaceholderTextColorTo(color: UIColor.white)        

   }

extension UISearchBar
{
    func setPlaceholderTextColorTo(color: UIColor)
    {
        let textFieldInsideSearchBar = self.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
        textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = color
        let textFieldInsideSearchBarLabel = textFieldInsideSearchBar!.value(forKey: "placeholderLabel") as? UILabel
        textFieldInsideSearchBarLabel?.textColor = color
    }
}

Happy coding :)

Answer 2

iOS 13

Previous solutions may not work on iOS 13 because new searchTextField has been added, and you can set attributed string on it.

I wrapped that into category:

@interface UISearchBar (AttributtedSetter)
- (void)setThemedPlaceholder:(NSString*)localizationKey;
@end

@implementation UISearchBar (AttributtedSetter)

- (void)setThemedPlaceholder:(NSString*)localizationKey {
    ThemeObject *currentTheme = [[ThemeManager standardThemeManager] currentTheme];
    self.searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:NSLocalizedString(localizationKey, @"") attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName : currentTheme.colorSearchBarText}];
}

@end

Answer 3

Try this and see: (I tested below code with Swift 4.1 - Xcode 9.3-beta4)

@IBOutlet weak var sbSearchBar: UISearchBar!

if let textfield = sbSearchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField {

    textfield.backgroundColor = UIColor.yellow
    textfield.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: textfield.placeholder ?? "", attributes: [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor : UIColor.red])

    textfield.textColor = UIColor.green

    if let leftView = textfield.leftView as? UIImageView {
        leftView.image = leftView.image?.withRenderingMode(.alwaysTemplate)
        leftView.tintColor = UIColor.red
    }
}

Here is result:

Answer 4

It looks like Apple does not want us to play with the placeholder colors when it comes to UISearchBar class. So, let's create our own placeholder label!

• No subclassing.
• Works with iOS 13 SDK.
• Just one innocent workaround.

let searchBar = searchController.searchBar
// ...
// Configure `searchBar` if needed
// ...

let searchTextField: UITextField
if #available(iOS 13, *) {
    searchTextField = searchBar.searchTextField
} else {
    searchTextField = (searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField) ?? UITextField()
}

// Since iOS 13 SDK, there is no accessor to get the placeholder label.
// This is the only workaround that might cause issued during the review.
if let systemPlaceholderLabel = searchTextField.value(forKey: "placeholderLabel") as? UILabel {
    // Empty or `nil` strings cause placeholder label to be hidden by the search bar
    searchBar.placeholder = " "

    // Create our own placeholder label
    let placeholderLabel = UILabel(frame: .zero)

    placeholderLabel.text = "Search"
    placeholderLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 17.0, weight: .regular)
    placeholderLabel.textColor = UIColor.blue.withAlphaComponent(0.5)

    systemPlaceholderLabel.addSubview(placeholderLabel)

    // Layout label to be a "new" placeholder
    placeholderLabel.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: systemPlaceholderLabel.leadingAnchor).isActive = true
    placeholderLabel.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: systemPlaceholderLabel.topAnchor).isActive = true
    placeholderLabel.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: systemPlaceholderLabel.bottomAnchor).isActive = true
    placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    placeholderLabel.setContentCompressionResistancePriority(.defaultHigh, for: .horizontal)
} else {
    searchBar.placeholder = ""
}

Answer 5

Try this:

  UITextField *searchField = [searchbar valueForKey:@"_searchField"];
  field.textColor = [UIColor redColor]; //You can put any color here.

Answer 6

Swift 3

UILabel.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).textColor = UIColor.white