UITextField - Allow only numbers and punctuation input/keypad

Question

I have tried the code below but that only allows for numbers on the keypad to be inputted. My app requires the keypad to use a period/full stop (for money transactions). The code I tried is:

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

   NSCharacterSet *nonNumberSet = [[NSCharacterSet decimalDigitCharacterSet] invertedSet];

     if ([string rangeOfCharacterFromSet:nonNumberSet].location != NSNotFound)
      {
         return NO;
    }
   return YES;

}

Thanks for any help.

Exegesis

set your text field to: [textField setKeyboardType:UIKeyboardTypeNumbersAndPunctuation]; – Vesicatory

@Vesicatory this does not prevent the user from changing to the ABC keyboard. – Exegesis

Answered a similar question here. – Brindabrindell

Answer 1

Try this

Make a macro

#define ACCEPTABLE_CHARACTERS @"0123456789."

And use it

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

    if (textField==textFieldAmount)
    {
        NSCharacterSet *cs = [[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:ACCEPTABLE_CHARACTERS] invertedSet];

        NSString *filtered = [[string componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:cs] componentsJoinedByString:@""];

        return [string isEqualToString:filtered];
    }
    return YES;
}

Diecious

Thanks, whats textFieldAmount? – Exegesis

I have mulitiple textfield thats y i am checking. – Diecious

Answer 2

In Swift 3:

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {
    let allowedCharacters = "0123456789!@#$%^&*()_+~:{}|\"?><\\`,./;'[]=-"
    return allowedCharacters.contains(string) || range.length == 1
}

Norvol

@SPatel Also the question is "allow only punctuation and numbers". . is punctuation – Norvol

Answer 3

Just use

[textField setKeyboardType:UIKeyboardTypeNumbersAndPunctuation];

after creating your textfield.

Consecution

this does not prevent the user from changing to the ABC keyboard. – Exegesis

@Gman Well I guess there is no standard keyboard that fully meets your requirements... I guess you'd have to make your own input view for that purpose though that seems like an overkill to me. – Consecution

It also doesn't defend from pasting incorrect data into a textField – Vilhelmina

Answer 4

How about a custom character set? Something like this:

NSCharacterSet *testChars = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789+*#-() "];

Because setting the keyboard type is pretty useless on iPad...

Adamson