Allow only alphanumeric characters for a UITextField

Question

How would I go about allowing inputting only alphanumeric characters in an iOS UITextField?

Answer 1

Use the UITextFieldDelegate method -textField:shouldChangeCharactersInRange:replacementString: with an NSCharacterSet containing the inverse of the characters you want to allow. For example:

// in -init, -initWithNibName:bundle:, or similar
NSCharacterSet *blockedCharacters = [[[NSCharacterSet alphanumericCharacterSet] invertedSet] retain];

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)field shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)characters
{
    return ([characters rangeOfCharacterFromSet:blockedCharacters].location == NSNotFound);
}

// in -dealloc
[blockedCharacters release];

Note that you’ll need to declare that your class implements the protocol (i.e. @interface MyClass : SomeSuperclass <UITextFieldDelegate>) and set the text field’s delegate to the instance of your class.

Answer 2

Swift 3 version

Currently accepted answer approach:

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

    // Get invalid characters
    let invalidChars = NSCharacterSet.alphanumerics.inverted

    // Attempt to find the range of invalid characters in the input string. This returns an optional.
    let range = string.rangeOfCharacter(from: invalidChars)

    if range != nil {
        // We have found an invalid character, don't allow the change
        return false
    } else {
        // No invalid character, allow the change
        return true
    }
}

Another equally functional approach:

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

    // Get invalid characters
    let invalidChars = NSCharacterSet.alphanumerics.inverted

    // Make new string with invalid characters trimmed
    let newString = string.trimmingCharacters(in: invalidChars)

    if newString.characters.count < string.characters.count {
        // If there are less characters than we started with after trimming
        // this means there was an invalid character in the input. 
        // Don't let the change go through
        return false
    } else {
        // Otherwise let the change go through
        return true
    }

}

Answer 3

This is how I do it:

// Define some constants:
#define ALPHA                   @"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
#define NUMERIC                 @"1234567890"
#define ALPHA_NUMERIC           ALPHA NUMERIC

// Make sure you are the text fields 'delegate', then this will get called before text gets changed.
- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string {

    // This will be the character set of characters I do not want in my text field.  Then if the replacement string contains any of the characters, return NO so that the text does not change.
    NSCharacterSet *unacceptedInput = nil;

    // I have 4 types of textFields in my view, each one needs to deny a specific set of characters:
    if (textField == emailField) {
        //  Validating an email address doesnt work 100% yet, but I am working on it....  The rest work great!
        if ([[textField.text componentsSeparatedByString:@"@"] count] > 1) {
            unacceptedInput = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:[ALPHA_NUMERIC stringByAppendingString:@".-"]] invertedSet];
        } else {
            unacceptedInput = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:[ALPHA_NUMERIC stringByAppendingString:@".!#$%&'*+-/=?^_`{|}~@"]] invertedSet];
        }
    } else if (textField == phoneField) {
        unacceptedInput = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:NUMERIC] invertedSet];
    } else if (textField == fNameField || textField == lNameField) {
        unacceptedInput = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:ALPHA] invertedSet];
    } else {
        unacceptedInput = [[NSCharacterSet illegalCharacterSet] invertedSet];
    }

    // If there are any characters that I do not want in the text field, return NO.
    return ([[string componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:unacceptedInput] count] <= 1);
}

Check out the UITextFieldDelegate Reference too.

Answer 4

I found a simple and working answer and want to share:

connect your UITextField for the event EditingChanged to following IBAction

-(IBAction) editingChanged:(UITextField*)sender
{    
    if (sender == yourTextField)
    {
        // allow only alphanumeric chars
        NSString* newStr = [sender.text stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[[NSCharacterSet alphanumericCharacterSet] invertedSet]];

        if ([newStr length] < [sender.text length])
        {
            sender.text = newStr;
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

The RegEx way in Swift:

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
     if string.isEmpty {
         return true
     }
     let alphaNumericRegEx = "[a-zA-Z0-9]"
     let predicate = NSPredicate(format:"SELF MATCHES %@", alphaNumericRegEx)
     return predicate.evaluate(with: string)
}

Answer 6

For Swift: Connect your UITextField for the event EditingChanged to following IBAction:

@IBAction func ActionChangeTextPassport(sender:UITextField){
    if sender == txtPassportNum{
        let newStr = sender.text?.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet(NSCharacterSet.alphanumericCharacterSet().invertedSet)
        if newStr?.characters.count < sender.text?.characters.count{
            sender.text = newStr
        }
    }
}

Answer 7

You will have to use the textField delegate methods, and use methods textFieldDidBeginEditing, shouldChangeCharactersInRange and textFieldDidEndEditing to check for the characters.

Please refer to this link for the documentation.