Question

I’m looking for a way to use a single UIPickerview for two different textfields. I’d like to have the pickerview popup when each textfield is selected. After the user selects their item, the item will populate the specific text field. The picker would have to populate based on the textfield chosen.

I’ve read this:

How to use one UIPickerView for multiple textfields in one view?

and this:

How to use UIPickerView to populate different textfields in one view?

and this:

Multiple sources for UIPickerView on textfield editing

However, none gives a complete solution.

I’m very new at Xcode so I’d like a solution that includes steps to set the storyboard also.

I appreciate any help as i’ve researched this for weeks.

EDIT: HERE IS MY CODE:

.h:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface klViewController : UIViewController <UIPickerViewDelegate, UIPickerViewDataSource> {

IBOutlet UITextField *textField1;
IBOutlet UITextField *textField2;
NSMutableArray *pickerArray1;
NSMutableArray *pickerArray2;
UIPickerView *pickerView;
}
@property(nonatomic,retain) IBOutlet UITextField *textField1;
@property(nonatomic,retain) IBOutlet UITextField *textField2;
@property(nonatomic,retain) IBOutlet UIPickerView *pickerView;


@end

.m:
#import "klViewController.h"

@interface klViewController ()

@end

@implementation klViewController
@synthesize pickerView;
@synthesize textField1;
@synthesize textField2;
int variabla;

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
    [pickerView setHidden:YES];
    if (textField1.editing == YES) {
        [textField1 resignFirstResponder];
        [pickerView setHidden:NO];
        variabla = 1;
    }else if (textField2.editing == YES) {
        [textField2 resignFirstResponder];
        [pickerView setHidden:NO];
        variabla = 2;
    }
    NSLog(@"variabla %d",variabla);
    [pickerView reloadAllComponents];
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfComponentsInPickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView;
{
    return 1;
}
- (NSInteger)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView numberOfRowsInComponent:(NSInteger)component;
{
    if (variabla == 1) {
        return [pickerArray1 count];
    }else if (variabla == 2) {
        return [pickerArray2 count];
    }else {
        return 0;
    }
}
- (NSString *)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView titleForRow:(NSInteger)row forComponent:(NSInteger)component;
{
    if (variabla == 1) {
        return [pickerArray1 objectAtIndex:row];
    }else if (variabla == 2) {
        return [pickerArray2 objectAtIndex:row];
    }else {
        return 0;
    }
}
- (void)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField{
    [textField resignFirstResponder];
}
- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [pickerView setHidden:YES];
    pickerArray1 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"0", @"1", @"2", nil];
    pickerArray2 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"3", @"4", @"5", nil];
}

@end

HERE IS A SCREEN SHOT OF MY STORYBOARD:

STATUS UPDATE:

When I run the program:
1) the pickerview is hidden.
2) when I select a textfield, the picker view appears and populates correctly depending on the textfield selected.

PROBLEMS:
1) Picker doesn’t go away when click outside of the textfield.
2) Textfields don’t populated when a row in the Picker is selected.

Hope this provides more insight.

Answer 1

1) Picker doesn’t go away when click outside of the textfield.

You have no code that attempts to make the picker go away when that happens. Try adding a simple tap gesture recognizer to the view. Add a line to viewDidLoad like:

[self.view addGestureRecognizer:[[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(backgroundTap:)]];

Then implement the function simply like:

-(void)backgroundTap:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)tapGR{
    self.pickerView.hidden = YES;
    // And maybe..
    variabla = 0;
}

Since you are making the picker appear and disappear using the hidden property this will work very simply. There are other more sophisticated ways to do this which I hope you explore. Generally the picker is set as the textfield’s inputView property; that is worth investigating.

2) Textfields don’t populated when a row in the Picker is selected.

You haven’t handled the picker’s pickerView:didSelectRow:inComponent: delegate method. That’s the method that gets called when the picker stops turning and lands on an item. Don’t assume that this is the item the user selected it will be called multiple times.

-(void)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView didSelectRow:(NSInteger)row inComponent:(NSInteger)component{
    NSString *text = [self pickerView:pickerView titleForRow:row forComponent:component];
    UITextField *current = nil;
    if (variabla == 1) current = self.textField1;
    else if (variabla == 2) current = self.textField2;
    current.text = text;
}

That should get your implementation working. One more thing though variabla is an instance variable and should be declared in curly braces immediately following the @interface or @implementation line.

@implementation klViewController {
    int variabla;
}
@synt....