为了使它与任何长度的字符串剪切和粘贴工作，我建议将函数更改为如下内容:

#define MAX_LENGTH 20

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string
    {
        NSInteger insertDelta = string.length - range.length;

        if (textField.text.length + insertDelta > MAX_LENGTH)
        {
           return NO; // the new string would be longer than MAX_LENGTH
        }
        else {
            return YES;
        }
    }

我已经开源了一个UITextField子类，STATextField，它通过maxCharacterLength属性提供了这个功能(以及更多)。

Swift 2.1+

func textField(textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersInRange range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

    if (range.length + range.location > textField.text!.characters.count )
    {
        return false;
    }

    let newLength = textField.text!.characters.count + string.characters.count - range.length
    return newLength <= 25
}

希望能有所帮助

你也可以在Swift 4中使用NotificationCenter来做到这一点

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(self.handleTextChange(recognizer:)), name: NSNotification.Name.UITextFieldTextDidChange, object: yourTextField)

    @objc func handleTextChange(recognizer: NSNotification) {
            //max length is 50 charater max
            let textField = recognizer.object as! UITextField

            if((textField.text?.count)! > 50) {
                let newString: String? = (textField.text as NSString?)?.substring(to: 50)
                textField.text = newString

            }         
        }

为了完成八月的回答，建议函数的一个可能实现(参见UITextField的委托)。

我没有测试domness代码，但我的代码不会卡住，如果用户达到了限制，它与一个新的字符串兼容，取代一个更小或等于一个。

-(BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string {
    //limit the size :
    int limit = 20;
    return !([textField.text length]>limit && [string length] > range.length);
}

下面的代码类似于sickp的答案，但是正确地处理复制-粘贴操作。如果尝试粘贴超过限制的文本，下面的代码将截断文本以符合限制，而不是完全拒绝粘贴操作。

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string {
    static const NSUInteger limit = 70; // we limit to 70 characters
    NSUInteger allowedLength = limit - [textField.text length] + range.length;
    if (string.length > allowedLength) {
        if (string.length > 1) {
            // get at least the part of the new string that fits
            NSString *limitedString = [string substringToIndex:allowedLength];
            NSMutableString *newString = [textField.text mutableCopy];
            [newString replaceCharactersInRange:range withString:limitedString];
            textField.text = newString;
        }
        return NO;
    } else {
        return YES;
    }
}