How to prevent editing of text in a UITextField without disabling other events using Swift 3?

Question

I'm trying to modify the text rendered in the UITextField based on certain events such as Touch Down or Touch Down Repeat . I want the UITextField to be responsive only to events but prevent users from modifying the actual value in the UITextField .

I have tried unchecking the Enabled state of the UITextField but that causes it to not respond to touch events either.

How do I prevent users from changing the contents of the UITextField without affecting the response to touch events, specifically using Swift 3?

Answer 1

So, I was finally able to get this working in the expected manner. What I did was -

1 - Extend the UITextFieldDelegate in the ViewController class

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate {

2 - Inside the function viewDidLoad() , assign the textfield delegate to the controller

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

(you will have assign each UITextField's delegate that you want to be prevented from editing)

3 - Lastly, implement your custom behavior in the textFieldShouldBeginEditing function

func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    return false
}        

For reference, check outthis API Reference on Apple Developer

Answer 2

Override textFieldShouldBeginEditing , and return false.

func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(state: UITextField) -> Bool {
 return false
}

you can also disable for specific text field.

func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
 if(textField == self.myTextField){
   return false
   }
 return true;
}