How to navigate through textfields (Next / Done Bu

Question

How can I navigate through all my text fields with the "Next" Button on the iPhone Keyboard?

The last text field should close the Keyboard.

I've setup the IB the Buttons (Next / Done) but now I'm stuck.

I implemented the textFieldShouldReturn action but now the Next and Done Buttons close the Keyboard.

Answer 1

Here's one without delegation:

tf1.addTarget(tf2, action: #selector(becomeFirstResponder), for: .editingDidEndOnExit)
tf2.addTarget(tf3, action: #selector(becomeFirstResponder), for: .editingDidEndOnExit)

ObjC:

[tf1 addTarget:tf2 action:@selector(becomeFirstResponder) forControlEvents:UIControlEventEditingDidEndOnExit];
[tf2 addTarget:tf3 action:@selector(becomeFirstResponder) forControlEvents:UIControlEventEditingDidEndOnExit];

Works using the (mostly unknown) UIControlEventEditingDidEndOnExit UITextField action.

You can also easily hook this up in the storyboard, so no delegation or code is required.

Edit: actually I cannot figure out how to hook this up in storyboard. becomeFirstResponder does not seem to be a offered action for this control-event, which is a pity. Still, you can hook all your textfields up to a single action in your ViewController which then determines which textField to becomeFirstResponder based on the sender (though then it is not as elegant as the above programmatic solution so IMO do it with the above code in viewDidLoad).

Answer 2

I have added to PeyloW's answer in case you're looking to implement a previous/next button functionality:

- (IBAction)moveThroughTextFields:(UIBarButtonItem *)sender 
{
    NSInteger nextTag;
    UITextView *currentTextField = [self.view findFirstResponderAndReturn];

    if (currentTextField != nil) {
        // I assigned tags to the buttons.  0 represent prev & 1 represents next
        if (sender.tag == 0) {
            nextTag = currentTextField.tag - 1;

        } else if (sender.tag == 1) {
            nextTag = currentTextField.tag + 1;
        }
    }
    // Try to find next responder
    UIResponder* nextResponder = [self.view viewWithTag:nextTag];
    if (nextResponder) {
        // Found next responder, so set it.
        // I added the resign here in case there's different keyboards in place.
        [currentTextField resignFirstResponder];
        [nextResponder becomeFirstResponder];
    } else {
        // Not found, so remove keyboard.
        [currentTextField resignFirstResponder];

    }
}

Where you subclass the UIView like this:

@implementation UIView (FindAndReturnFirstResponder)
- (UITextView *)findFirstResponderAndReturn
{
    for (UITextView *subView in self.subviews) {
        if (subView.isFirstResponder){
            return subView;
        }
    }
    return nil;
}
@end

Answer 3

Hi to everyone please see this one

- (void)nextPrevious:(id)sender
{

  UIView *responder = [self.view findFirstResponder];   

  if (nil == responder || ![responder isKindOfClass:[GroupTextField class]]) {
    return;
  }

  switch([(UISegmentedControl *)sender selectedSegmentIndex]) {
    case 0:
      // previous
      if (nil != ((GroupTextField *)responder).previousControl) {
        [((GroupTextField *)responder).previousControl becomeFirstResponder];
        DebugLog(@"currentControl: %i previousControl: %i",((GroupTextField *)responder).tag,((GroupTextField *)responder).previousControl.tag);
      }
      break;
    case 1:
      // next
      if (nil != ((GroupTextField *)responder).nextControl) {
        [((GroupTextField *)responder).nextControl becomeFirstResponder];
        DebugLog(@"currentControl: %i nextControl: %i",((GroupTextField *)responder).tag,((GroupTextField *)responder).nextControl.tag);
      }     
      break;    
  }
}

Answer 4

After you exit from one text field, you call [otherTextField becomeFirstResponder] and the next field gets focus.

This can actually be a tricky problem to deal with since often you'll also want to scroll the screen or otherwise adjust the position of the text field so it's easy to see when editing. Just make sure to do a lot of testing with coming into and out of the text fields in different ways and also leaving early (always give the user an option to dismiss the keyboard instead of going to the next field, usually with "Done" in the nav bar)

Answer 5

in textFieldShouldReturn you should check that the textfield you are currently on is not the last one when they click next and if its n ot dont dismiss the keyboard..

Answer 6

I am surprised by how many answers here fail to understand one simple concept: navigating through controls in your app is not something the views themselves should do. It's the controller's job to decide which control to make the next first responder.

Also most answers only applied to navigating forward, but users may also want to go backwards.

So here's what I've come up with. Your form should be managed by a view controller, and view controllers are part of the responder chain. So you're perfectly free to implement the following methods:

#pragma mark - Key Commands

- (NSArray *)keyCommands
{
    static NSArray *commands;

    static dispatch_once_t once;
    dispatch_once(&once, ^{
        UIKeyCommand *const forward = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:@"\t" modifierFlags:0 action:@selector(tabForward:)];
        UIKeyCommand *const backward = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:@"\t" modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierShift action:@selector(tabBackward:)];

        commands = @[forward, backward];
    });

    return commands;
}

- (void)tabForward:(UIKeyCommand *)command
{
    NSArray *const controls = self.controls;
    UIResponder *firstResponder = nil;

    for (UIResponder *const responder in controls) {
        if (firstResponder != nil && responder.canBecomeFirstResponder) {
            [responder becomeFirstResponder]; return;
        }
        else if (responder.isFirstResponder) {
            firstResponder = responder;
        }
    }

    [controls.firstObject becomeFirstResponder];
}

- (void)tabBackward:(UIKeyCommand *)command
{
    NSArray *const controls = self.controls;
    UIResponder *firstResponder = nil;

    for (UIResponder *const responder in controls.reverseObjectEnumerator) {
        if (firstResponder != nil && responder.canBecomeFirstResponder) {
            [responder becomeFirstResponder]; return;
        }
        else if (responder.isFirstResponder) {
            firstResponder = responder;
        }
    }

    [controls.lastObject becomeFirstResponder];
}

Additional logic for scrolling offscreen responders visible beforehand may apply.

Another advantage of this approach is that you don't need to subclass all kinds of controls you may want to display (like UITextFields) but can instead manage the logic at controller level, where, let's be honest, is the right place to do so.