How to do a live UITextField count while typing (Swift)?

Question

I would like to count the character when user keep typing in UITextField with swift.

Image of Field and Label:

Answer 1

For multiple UITextView

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate {

 @IBOutlet weak var ticketSummaryTV: UITextView!
 @IBOutlet weak var ticketDescriptionTV: UITextView!

 @IBOutlet weak var summaryCountLbl: UILabel!
 @IBOutlet weak var descriptionCountLbl: UILabel!

 override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    // Do any additional setup after loading the view.

    ticketSummaryTV.delegate = self
    ticketDescriptionTV.delegate = self

    self.updateCharacterCount()
 }

 func updateCharacterCount() {
    let summaryCount = self.ticketSummaryTV.text.characters.count
    let descriptionCount = self.ticketDescriptionTV.text.characters.count

    self.summaryCountLbl.text = "\((0) + summaryCount)/50"

    self.descriptionCountLbl.text = "\((0) + descriptionCount)/500"
 }

 func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
    self.updateCharacterCount()
 }


 func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool{
    if(textView == ticketSummaryTV){
       return textView.text.characters.count +  (text.characters.count - range.length) <= 50
    }else if(textView == ticketDescriptionTV){
        return textView.text.characters.count +  (text.characters.count - range.length) <= 500
    }
    return false
 }
}

Answer 2

To use the function below you need to implement the UITextFieldDelegate protocol on the text field you want to count. This gets called every time the UITextFields text changes:

Your class declaration should look something like this

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate

You should have an @IBOutlet similar to this

@IBOutlet var txtValue: UITextField

Set the UITextField s delegate to self.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    txtValue.delegate = self                
}

func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
    let newLength = count(textField.text.utf16) + count(string.utf16) - range.length

    mylabel.text =  String(newLength) // Set value of the label
    // myCounter = newLength // Optional: Save this value
    // return newLength <= 25 // Optional: Set limits on input. 
    return true
}

Note that this function is called on all UITextFields so if you have several UITextFields you will need to add a logic to know witch one is calling this function.

Answer 3

This will only allow your textfield input 14 char

class ViewController: UIViewController,UITextFieldDelegate {

@IBOutlet weak var textfield: UITextField!
@IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!
override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.label.text = "14"
    self.textfield.delegate = self
}
func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
    let newLength = count(textField.text.utf16) + count(string.utf16) - range.length
    if(newLength <= 14){
        self.label.text = "\(14 - newLength)"
        return true
    }else{
        return false
    }
}
}

And Screenshot

Answer 4

Here's how you could do it in Swift 3/4.

First, make sure you've got your textField's delegate set in viewDidLoad.

yourTextField.delegate = self

Then, implement shouldChangeCharactersIn:

extension YourViewController: UITextFieldDelegate {
    func textField(_ textFieldToChange: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
      // limit to 4 characters
      let characterCountLimit = 4

      // We need to figure out how many characters would be in the string after the change happens
      let startingLength = textFieldToChange.text?.characters.count ?? 0
      let lengthToAdd = string.characters.count
      let lengthToReplace = range.length

      let newLength = startingLength + lengthToAdd - lengthToReplace

      return newLength <= characterCountLimit
    } 
}

Additional details here

Answer 5

UITextView count while typing in Swift:

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {

        let textCount = textView.text?.count ?? 0 + text.count - range.length
        self.textCountLabel.text  = "\(textCount)"
        return true
    }

Answer 6

Swift 5.1

Add viewController delegate

final class CreditCardViewController : BaseViewController , UITextFieldDelegate {

    @IBOutlet var cvvTextField: UITextField!

Add viewDidLoad()

cvvTextField.delegate = self

And add delegate function.

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
        if(textField == cvvTextField){
            let characterCountLimit = 3
            let startingLength = textField.text?.count ?? 0
            let lengthToAdd = string.count
            let lengthToReplace = range.length

            let newLength = startingLength + lengthToAdd - lengthToReplace

            return newLength <= characterCountLimit
        }

        return true
    }