Set UITextField to mm-dd-yy format in swift - ios

Question

So I want to have a UITextField to only accept digits, solved that by using a custom keyboard input.
The intention of this UITextField is to get someones birthday. I don't want to use an UIDatePicker tough as I don't like it's appearance.
I'd like that the TextField automatically inserts dashes after every second digit that the user put into the TextField.
dd-mm-yy is the placeholder text. I either thought of making the dashes permanently but I don't know how to do that either.
How can I do this?

Answer 1

You want to allow user to enter text in textfield in this dd-mm-yy right ?
if it so i'am sure this will help you.
In top of your class declare this variable which we gonna use later.
var dateFormate = Bool()
Add delegate and tag for that textfield.
Then add this following delegate method
func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
//1. To make sure that this is applicable to only particular textfield add tag.
if textField.tag == 1 {
//2. this one helps to make sure that user enters only numeric characters and '-' in fields
let numbersOnly = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: "1234567890-")
let characterSetFromTextField = NSCharacterSet(charactersInString: string)
let Validate:Bool = numbersOnly .isSupersetOfSet(characterSetFromTextField)
if !Validate {
return false;
}
if range.length + range.location > textField.text?.characters.count {
return false
}
let newLength = (textField.text?.characters.count)! + string.characters.count - range.length
if newLength == 3 || newLength == 6 {
let char = string.cStringUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)!
let isBackSpace = strcmp(char, "\\b")
if (isBackSpace == -92) {
dateFormate = false;
}else{
dateFormate = true;
}
if dateFormate {
let textContent:String!
textContent = textField.text
//3.Here we add '-' on overself.
let textWithHifen:NSString = "\(textContent)-"
textField.text = textWithHifen as String
dateFormate = false
}
}
//4. this one helps to make sure only 8 character is added in textfield .(ie: dd-mm-yy)
return newLength <= 8;
}
return true
}
That's it now user can enter their DOB.No need to worry about '-' it will be added automatically.
Swift 3:
func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
//1. To make sure that this is applicable to only particular textfield add tag.
if textField.tag == 1 {
//2. this one helps to make sure that user enters only numeric characters and '-' in fields
let numbersOnly = CharacterSet(charactersIn: "1234567890-")
let Validate = string.rangeOfCharacter(from: numbersOnly.inverted) == nil ? true : false
if !Validate {
return false;
}
if range.length + range.location > textField.text?.characters.count {
return false
}
let newLength = (textField.text?.characters.count)! + string.characters.count - range.length
if newLength == 3 || newLength == 6 {
let char = string.cString(using: NSUTF8StringEncoding)!
let isBackSpace = strcmp(char, "\\b")
if (isBackSpace == -92) {
dateFormate = false;
}else{
dateFormate = true;
}
if dateFormate {
let textContent:String!
textContent = textField.text
//3.Here we add '-' on overself.
let textWithHifen:NSString = "\(textContent)-"
textField.text = textWithHifen as String
dateFormate = false
}
}
//4. this one helps to make sure only 8 character is added in textfield .(ie: dd-mm-yy)
return newLength <= 8;
}
return true
}

Answer 2

Swift5
// Use textfield delegate shouldChangeCharactersIn
func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
if (textField.text?.count == 2) || (textField.text?.count == 5) {
if !(string == "") {
textField.text = (textField.text)! + "-"
}
}
return !(textField.text!.count > 7 && (string.count ) > range.length)
}