how do I build a text input in react native that has a placeholder that changes to a textview on top when clicked

Question

I am a bit new to react native and I have an issue I need help with

how do I build a text input in react native that has a placeholder that changes to a text view on top when clicked? Similar to the screenshot below

empty text input field looks like this in its default state

text field with data entered

see the empty input text has a placeholder appearing in the middle of the input text field

see the second diagram, the place holder text is moved to the top of the input field once the user starts typing text into the input field

Answer 1

Here is what I use without library, working example and if you want to add animation to the fields working example with animation

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import {
  View,
  StatusBar,
  TextInput,
  Text,
} from 'react-native';

class FloatingLabelInput extends Component {
  state = {
    isFocused: false,
  };

  handleFocus = () => this.setState({ isFocused: true });
  handleBlur = () => this.setState({ isFocused: false });

  render() {
    const { label, ...props } = this.props;
    const { isFocused } = this.state;
    const labelStyle = {
      position: 'absolute',
      left: 0,
      top: !isFocused ? 18 : 0,
      fontSize: !isFocused ? 20 : 14,
      color: !isFocused ? '#aaa' : '#000',
    };
    return (
      <View style={{ paddingTop: 18 }}>
        <Text style={labelStyle}>
          {label}
        </Text>
        <TextInput
          {...props}
          style={{ height: 26, fontSize: 20, color: '#000', borderBottomWidth: 1, borderBottomColor: '#555' }}
          onFocus={this.handleFocus}
          onBlur={this.handleBlur}
          blurOnSubmit
        />
      </View>
    );
  }
}


export default class App extends Component {
  state = {
    value: '',
  };

  handleTextChange = (newText) => this.setState({ value: newText });

  render() {
    return (
      <View style={{ flex: 1, padding: 30, backgroundColor: '#f5fcff' }}>
        <StatusBar hidden />
        <FloatingLabelInput
          label="Email"
          value={this.state.value}
          onChangeText={this.handleTextChange}
        />
      </View>
    );
  }
}

Answer 2

The easiest way is to use react-native-paper package with their text input:

import * as React from 'react';
import { TextInput } from 'react-native-paper';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const [text, setText] = React.useState('');

  return (
    <TextInput
      label="Email"
      value={text}
      onChangeText={text => setText(text)}
    />
  );
};

export default MyComponent;

Result: