How to change text color of PlaceHolder in UISearchBar? (iOS 13)

Question

After looking for updated (iOS 13) answers, I didn't find any solutions to this simple problem :

How to change the textColor of the placeholder in an UISearchBar ?

My app doesn't handle Light/Dark mode. I don't want the system to change my UIPlaceHolder text color. I want it to be always white.

    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        let attrString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "My PlaceHolder")
        attrString.addAttributes([NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white], range: NSRange(location: 0, length: attrString.length))
        searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = attrString
    }

I expected this code to work. I thought the new property searchTextField would have made it easier to customize my UISearchBar.

EDIT:

This code kind of works in the viewDidAppear method :

if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
     searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "My PlaceHolder", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white.withAlphaComponent(0.80)])
 }

The issue is that the color is changing when you scroll up and down.

Hi. Maybe this topic will help you https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28499701/how-can-i-change-the-uisearchbar-search-text-color. Answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/28499827/9048325 — Vladyslav Shmatok, Oct 08 '19 at 13:45
I have already read it. Only 1 answer mention iOS 13, and it's just an extension to access the searchTextField property. — Funnycuni, Oct 08 '19 at 13:47

Dejan Skledar · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-09T12:01:16.637

As you already mentioned, your code works only in viewDidAppear, which makes the placeholder to flicker from the default gray color to the preferred color.

However, there seem to be a time before viewDidAppear (I couldn't figure it out when exactly), to change the placeholder before the view actually appears.

I suppose, this may be connected to how iOS handles light/dark mode and/or an iOS bug.

The solution I came out with that works around the issue:

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)

    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
        let placeholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Search",
                                             attributes: [
                                                .foregroundColor: UIColor.white
        ])
        let searchTextField = searchBar.searchTextField

        // Key workaround to be able to set attributedPlaceholder
        DispatchQueue.global().async {
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                searchTextField.attributedPlaceholder = placeholder
            }
        }
    }
}

There seem to be no performance and/or other downside to this method.

If anybody else comes with a better approach, feel free to collaborate.

This. This was the answer I have been looking for. Thank you very much. — Manu Mateos, Nov 28 '19 at 17:32
I believe you can get rid of the for loop there, DispatchQueue.main will fix the problem. — Shahriyar, Jan 09 '20 at 09:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '19 at 13:47

0

you can set this with UITextField appearance property. check this line of code

 UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white]

answered Oct 08 '19 at 13:47

Ashish

706
8
22

1

The question was about the placeholder text's color, not the text color itself. – gklka Oct 14 '19 at 14:32

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 09 '19 at 02:08

I guess the reason why it doesn't work is probably the searchController.searchBar.searchTextField = nil you got.

searchTextField is a new property for iOS 13, which can be done if you only support >= iOS 13. If you want to adapt to the previous version of iOS 13, you can traverse UISearchBar to find UISearchBarTextField and directly set the found UISearchBarTextField.

The code I looked up is probably like this, I put it in the Category of UIView.

- (UIView *)findChildViewClass:(Class)childViewClass fromView:(UIView *)fromView{
    for (UIView *subView in fromView.subviews) {
        if ([subView isMemberOfClass:childViewClass]) {
            return subView;
        }
        UIView *finalView = [self findChildViewClass:childViewClass fromView:subView];
        if (finalView) {
            return finalView;
        }else{
            continue;
        }
    }
    return nil;
}

When used, you can customize a searchTextField property to inherit from UITextField to save the found value.

_searchTextField = (UITextField *)[searchBar findChildViewClass:NSClassFromString(@"UISearchBarTextField") fromView: searchBar];

This is what I use now, it is working, I hope to be useful to you.

How to change text color of PlaceHolder in UISearchBar? (iOS 13)

3 Answers3