Change the background of UISearchBar's textField

Question

I'm struggling with this for a while now. Have searched everywhere but the solution provided only works with objective-c. Which consists in

UITextField *txt = [_searchBar valueForKey:@"_searchField"];

Although some might say that this is protected API and Apple might refuse an app with such code.

So, now I've tried so many ways to work this out and it's not working at all. My code is this:

searchBar = UISearchBar(frame: CGRectMake(0, 0, 320.0, 30.0))
searchBar.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleWidth
searchBar.searchBarStyle = UISearchBarStyle.Minimal
searchBar.layer.cornerRadius = 15
searchBar.delegate = self

searchBar.backgroundColor = UIColor.whiteColor()

if floor(NSFoundationVersionNumber) <= NSFoundationVersionNumber_iOS_6_1{
    // Load resources for iOS 6.1 or earlier
    searchBar.placeholder = "Search";
} else {
    // The following "hack" (if we can call that) breaks the UI for different size devices.
    // Load resources for iOS 7 or later
    searchBar.placeholder = "Search                                         ";
}

This gives me the bizarre result:

While what I want is just the textfield inside the UISearchBar to have a white background and the SearchBar itself have a cornerRadius of, say, 15.

How can I do this?

Thanks so much in advance

Grimbly

UITextField *searchField = [SearchBar valueForKey:@"_searchField"]; searchField.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; I have already used this code in my app and app it already available in App Store.. – Madden

Answer 1

You have to access the UITextField inside the UISearchBar. You can do that by using valueForKey("searchField")

var textFieldInsideSearchBar = yourSearchbar.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField

textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = yourcolor
textFieldInsideSearchBar?.backgroundColor = backgroundColor
...

there you can change any parameters like textColor or backgroundColor of the UITextField

Amorino

you should set style as Prominent or Default. If you prefer to use Minimal, backgroundColor is not working. searchBar.searchBarStyle = UISearchBarStyle.Prominent // or .Default – Bubal

@Bubal thanks this is indeed really important to NOT use Minimal style! spent too much time on this.... – Randolphrandom

Answer 2

In Swift 3:

if let txfSearchField = searchController.searchBar.value(forKey: "_searchField") as? UITextField {
        txfSearchField.borderStyle = .none
        txfSearchField.backgroundColor = .lightGray
    }

Beefy

Answer 3

Adding to the above answer. If you want to keep the search bar style UISearchBarStyleMinimal and change the background of UISearchBar's textField, set the textField's borderStyle to UITextBorderStyleNone

Objective C:

self.searchBar.searchBarStyle = UISearchBarStyleMinimal;

UITextField *txfSearchField = [_searchBar valueForKey:@"_searchField"];
    txfSearchField.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyleNone;
    txfSearchField.backgroundColor = yourColor;

Psalms

I have searched around. This is the solution that really works ! – Magnificat

I concur. This solution works when UISearchBarStyle is set to .minimal. Tested on iOS 10.3 – Latoyialatreece

Answer 4

Swift 5 and iOS 13

searchBar.searchTextField.backgroundColor = .white

You can direct change colour of textfield background.

Elconin

Warning: searchTextField is only available after iOS 13. – Doenitz

Answer 5

Add an extension to UISearchBar to access its UITextField:

import UIKit

extension UISearchBar {

    var textField: UITextField? {
        let subViews = subviews.flatMap { $0.subviews }
        return (subViews.filter { $0 is UITextField }).first as? UITextField
    }
}

Then you can set its properties as you'd expect:

searchController.searchBar.textField?.backgroundColor = .red
searchController.searchBar.textField?.tintColor = .yellow

Fonteyn

You shouldn't answer questions when you haven't tried the answer. This doesn't work in iOS 12 for instance. – Coronel

@ClausJørgensen could you elaborate on what is "not working"? – Fonteyn

searchController.searchBar.textField? is always nil in my case – Aviation

Besides we can now do serachBar.searchTextField.backgroundColor = .white so this answer may have been valid for old SDK's but not in recent SDK's – Aviation

Answer 6

searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.backgroundColor = UIColor.white searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = UIColor.black

Myronmyrrh

Answer 7

When using iOS 13 or newer, the searchTextField property can be directly accessed.

However, setting the backgroundColor only works as expected when the borderStyle is set to .none. This results in a text field without rounded borders. To fix this, use this code:

searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.borderStyle = .none
searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.backgroundColor = .white // Or any other UIColor
searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.layer.cornerRadius = 8.0

Bokbokhara

The searchTextField property has been available on UISearchBar since iOS 13.0 – Tuscany

@Tuscany You're right! – Bokbokhara