Question

hi
i am using a series of textfields in a row in my application and my requirement is the textfield should accept only one character.if a user enters second character no action should be performed.

i implemented the delegate method as below

 - (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField 
              shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range 
              replacementString:(NSString *)string{

if ([cellTextField.text length]>=MAXLENGTH && range.length==0) {
    textField.text=[cellTextField.text substringToIndex:MAXLENGTH-1];
    return NO;
}
else {
    return YES;
}

but my requirement is not being filled using the above code.

my next requirement is if a user continues entering a second character, the character should be placed in the consecutive textField(imagine crossword or scramble application). please help me in both scenarios if possible else solution for first requirement is also thankful.

thank you,
dinakar

Answer 1

The following code solved this for me.

Make sure you check for the “\b” (Backspace escape character) so that the user can still erase.

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string {
    if ([textField.text length] >= MAXLENGTH && ![string isEqualToString:@"\b"])
        return NO;
    return YES;
}

---

As far as your second requirement goes it’s really not too hard. Just add a few lines of code into the above if-statement:

nextTextField.text = [nextTextField.text stringByAppendingString:string]; 

This should add whatever text you just typed in to the end of your next text field. You might also want to change the way backspace is handled. Something like:

 if ([string isEqualToString:@"\b"])
    nextTextField.text = [nextTextField.text substringToIndex:[nextTextField.text length]-1];

Adding that code inside the above if statement as well should allow you to delete the character at the end of the complete string (at the end of the string in the next text field).

---

EDIT: Here’s the code I use to create the field.

titleInput = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:(CGRect){40,145,400,30}];
titleInput.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyleRoundedRect;
titleInput.delegate = self;
[self addSubview:titleInput];

---

Cheers