还有一个简单的答案，使用CATextLayer。

添加CATextLayer到UITextView的层。 使用UITextViewDelegate方法，简单地改变CATextLayer的颜色。

func txtViewPlaceholder() {
    let textlayer = CATextLayer()

    textlayer.frame = CGRect(x: 5, y: 5, width: 200, height: 18)
    textlayer.contentsScale = UIScreen.main.scale
    textlayer.fontSize = 12
    textlayer.alignmentMode = kCAAlignmentLeft
    textlayer.string = "Enter here"
    textlayer.isWrapped = true
    textlayer.name = "placeholder"
    textlayer.backgroundColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
    textlayer.foregroundColor = UIColor.black.cgColor

    yourTxtVw.layer.insertSublayer(textlayer, at: 0)
}

func removeAddPlaceholder(remove: Bool, textView: UITextView) {
    for layers in textView.layer.sublayers! where layers.name == "placeholder" {
        
        if remove {
            (layers as! CATextLayer).foregroundColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
        } else {
            (layers as! CATextLayer).foregroundColor = UIColor.black.cgColor
        }
        
    }
}


extension YourViewController : UITextViewDelegate {

    func textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
    
        removeAddPlaceholder(remove: true, textView: textView)
    
        return true
    }

    func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
    
        if textView.text.count <= 0 {
            removeAddPlaceholder(remove: false, textView: textView)
        }
    }

}

下面是swift 3.1的代码

原始代码由杰森乔治在第一个答案。

不要忘记设置你的自定义类的TextView在接口生成器UIPlaceHolderTextView，然后设置占位符和占位符属性。

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class UIPlaceHolderTextView: UITextView {

@IBInspectable var placeholder: String = ""
@IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor = UIColor.lightGray

private let uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration: Double = 0.05
private let defaultTagValue = 999

private var placeHolderLabel: UILabel?

override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
    super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        self,
        selector: #selector(textChanged),
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

deinit {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(
        self,
        name: NSNotification.Name.UITextViewTextDidChange,
        object: nil
    )
}

@objc private func textChanged() {
    guard !placeholder.isEmpty else {
        return
    }
    UIView.animate(withDuration: uiPlaceholderTextChangedAnimationDuration) {
        if self.text.isEmpty {
            self.viewWithTag(self.defaultTagValue)?.alpha = CGFloat(1.0)
        }
        else {
            self.viewWithTag(self.defaultTagValue)?.alpha = CGFloat(0.0)
        }
    }
}

override var text: String! {
    didSet{
        super.text = text
        textChanged()
    }
}

override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
    if !placeholder.isEmpty {
        if placeHolderLabel == nil {
            placeHolderLabel = UILabel.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 8, width: bounds.size.width - 16, height: 0))
            placeHolderLabel!.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
            placeHolderLabel!.numberOfLines = 0
            placeHolderLabel!.font = font
            placeHolderLabel!.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
            placeHolderLabel!.textColor = placeholderColor
            placeHolderLabel!.alpha = 0
            placeHolderLabel!.tag = defaultTagValue
            self.addSubview(placeHolderLabel!)
        }

        placeHolderLabel!.text = placeholder
        placeHolderLabel!.sizeToFit()
        self.sendSubview(toBack: placeHolderLabel!)

        if text.isEmpty && !placeholder.isEmpty {
            viewWithTag(defaultTagValue)?.alpha = 1.0
        }
    }

    super.draw(rect)
}
}

在UITextView中创建占位符是不可能的，但是你可以通过这个生成类似占位符的效果。

  - (void)viewDidLoad{      
              commentTxtView.text = @"Comment";
              commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
              commentTxtView.delegate = self;

     }
       - (BOOL) textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
     {
         commentTxtView.text = @"";
         commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
         return YES;
     }

     -(void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
     {

    if(commentTxtView.text.length == 0){
        commentTxtView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
        commentTxtView.text = @"Comment";
        [commentTxtView resignFirstResponder];
    }
    }

或者你可以添加标签在textview就像

       lbl = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.0, 0.0,textView.frame.size.width - 10.0, 34.0)];


[lbl setText:kDescriptionPlaceholder];
[lbl setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[lbl setTextColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor]];
textView.delegate = self;

[textView addSubview:lbl];

并设置

- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)theTextView
{
     if (![textView hasText]) {
     lbl.hidden = NO;
}
}

- (void) textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if(![textView hasText]) {
      lbl.hidden = NO;
}
else{
    lbl.hidden = YES;
 }  
}

如果你正在寻找一个简单的方法来实现这一点，试试我的方法:

- (BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([[textView text] isEqualToString:PLACE_HOLDER_TEXT]) {
          textView.text = @"";
          textView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    }

    return YES;
}

-(BOOL)textViewShouldEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([[textView text] length] == 0) {
        textView.text = PLACE_HOLDER_TEXT;
        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    }
    return YES;
}

是的，就是它PLACE_HOLDER_TEXT是一个NSString包含你的占位符

    - (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    placeholderLabel.hidden = YES;
}

在textview上放一个标签。

这完美地模仿了UITextField的占位符，其中占位符文本一直保留到您实际键入一些内容为止。

private let placeholder = "Type here"

@IBOutlet weak var textView: UITextView! {
    didSet {
        textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
        textView.text = placeholder
        textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
    }
}

extension ViewController: UITextViewDelegate {

    func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {
        // Move cursor to beginning on first tap
        if textView.text == placeholder {
            textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        }
    }

    func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
        if textView.text == placeholder && !text.isEmpty {
            textView.text = nil
            textView.textColor = UIColor.black
            textView.selectedRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: 0)
        }
        return true
    }

    func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if textView.text.isEmpty {
            textView.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
            textView.text = placeholder
        }
    }
}