在代码行中使用它的简单方法:

取一个标签到。nib中的UITextView 将这个标签连接到你的代码， 在它。

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text{

    if (range.location>0 || text.length!=0) {
        placeholderLabel1.hidden = YES;
    }else{
        placeholderLabel1.hidden = NO;
    }
    return YES;
}

我通读了所有这些，但提出了一个非常简短的Swift 3解决方案，在我的所有测试中都有效。它可以更一般化一点，但过程很简单。这是整个东西，我称之为“TextViewWithPlaceholder”。

import UIKit

class TextViewWithPlaceholder: UITextView {

    public var placeholder: String?
    public var placeholderColor = UIColor.lightGray

    private var placeholderLabel: UILabel?

    // Set up notification listener when created from a XIB or storyboard.
    // You can also set up init() functions if you plan on creating
    // these programmatically.
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()

        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self,
                                           selector: #selector(TextViewWithPlaceholder.textDidChangeHandler(notification:)),
                                           name: .UITextViewTextDidChange,
                                           object: self)

        placeholderLabel = UILabel()
        placeholderLabel?.alpha = 0.85
        placeholderLabel?.textColor = placeholderColor
    }

    // By using layoutSubviews, you can size and position the placeholder
    // more accurately. I chose to hard-code the size of the placeholder
    // but you can combine this with other techniques shown in previous replies.
    override func layoutSubviews() {
        super.layoutSubviews()

        placeholderLabel?.textColor = placeholderColor
        placeholderLabel?.text = placeholder

        placeholderLabel?.frame = CGRect(x: 6, y: 4, width: self.bounds.size.width-16, height: 24)

        if text.isEmpty {
            addSubview(placeholderLabel!)
            bringSubview(toFront: placeholderLabel!)
        } else {
            placeholderLabel?.removeFromSuperview()
        }
    }

    // Whenever the text changes, just trigger a new layout pass.
    func textDidChangeHandler(notification: Notification) {
        layoutSubviews()
    }
}

我遵循了这个链接的代码。只有7个简单的步骤。它添加了一个UILabel的textView和隐藏/显示标签时，文本输入或从textView通过textView的textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView)委托方法。我将步骤放在代码上方的注释中。

// 1. make sure to include the UITextViewDelegate
class YourClass: UITextViewDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var textView : UITextView!

    // 2. create placeholder textLabel
    let placeHolderTextLabel: UILabel = {
        let placeholderLabel = UILabel()
        placeholderLabel.text = "Placeholder text..."
        placeholderLabel.sizeToFit()
        placeholderLabel.textColor = UIColor.lightGray
        return placeholderLabel
    }()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // 3. set textView delegate
        textView.delegate = self

        configurePlaceholderTextLabel()
    }


    func configurePlaceholderTextLabel() {

        // 4. add placeholder label to textView, set it's frame and font
        textView.addSubview(placeHolderTextLabel)
        placeHolderTextLabel.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: 5, y: (textView.font?.pointSize)! / 2)
        placeHolderTextLabel.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: (textView.font?.pointSize)!)

        // 5. decide wether the placeHolderTextLabel is hidden or not depending on if there is or isn't text inside the textView
        placeHolderTextLabel.isHidden = !textView.text.isEmpty

    }

    // 6. implement textView delegate method to update the placeHolderTextLabel when the text is changed
    func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {

        // 7. decide wether the placeHolderTextLabel is hidden or not depending on if there is or isn't text inside the textView when text in textView is changed
        placeHolderTextLabel.isHidden = !textView.text.isEmpty
    }

}

在swift 5。工作很好。

class BaseTextView: UITextView {

    // MARK: - Views
    private var placeholderLabel: UIlabel!

    // MARK: - Init
    override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
        setupUI()
        startupSetup()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        setupUI()
        startupSetup()
    }

    deinit {
        NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
    }    
}

// MARK: - Setup UI
private extension BaseTextView {
    func setupUI() {
        addPlaceholderLabel()

        textColor = .textColor
    }

    func addPlaceholderLabel() {
        placeholderLabel = BaseLabel(frame: .zero)
        placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        insertSubview(placeholderLabel, at: 0)

        placeholderLabel.alpha = 0
        placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
        placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = .clear
        placeholderLabel.textColor = .lightTextColor
        placeholderLabel.lineBreakMode = .byWordWrapping
        placeholderLabel.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
        placeholderLabel.font = UIFont.openSansSemibold.withSize(12)

        placeholderLabel.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor, constant: 8).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leftAnchor, constant: 5).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.rightAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: rightAnchor, constant: -8).isActive = true
        placeholderLabel.bottomAnchor.constraint(lessThanOrEqualTo: bottomAnchor, constant: -8).isActive = true
    }
}

// MARK: - Startup
private extension BaseTextView {
    func startupSetup() {
        addObservers()
        textChanged(nil)
        font = UIFont.openSansSemibold.withSize(12)
    }    

    func addObservers() {
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(textChanged(_:)), name: UITextView.textDidChangeNotification, object: nil)
    }
}

// MARK: - Actions
private extension BaseTextView {
    @objc func textChanged(_ sender: Notification?) {
        UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.2) {
            self.placeholderLabel.alpha = self.text.count == 0 ? 1 : 0
        }    
    }
}

// MARK: - Public methods
extension BaseTextView {
    public func setPlaceholder(_ placeholder: String) {
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
    }
}

我修改了Sam Soffes的实现以适应iOS7:

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    [super drawRect:rect];

    if (_shouldDrawPlaceholder)
    {
        UIEdgeInsets insets = self.textContainerInset;        
        CGRect placeholderRect = CGRectMake(
                insets.left + self.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding,
                insets.top,
                self.frame.size.width - insets.left - insets.right,
                self.frame.size.height - insets.top - insets.bottom);

        [_placeholderText drawWithRect:placeholderRect
                           options:NSStringDrawingUsesLineFragmentOrigin | NSStringDrawingTruncatesLastVisibleLine
                        attributes:self.placeholderAttributes
                           context:nil];
    }
}

- (NSDictionary *)placeholderAttributes
{
    if (_placeholderAttributes == nil)
    {
        _placeholderAttributes = @
        {
            NSFontAttributeName : self.font,
            NSForegroundColorAttributeName : self.placeholderColor
        };
    }

    return _placeholderAttributes;
}

记住在可能改变字体和其他可能影响它们的东西的方法中设置_placeholderattributes = nil。如果没有问题的话，您可能还想跳过属性字典的“惰性”创建。

编辑:

如果你想让占位符在自动布局动画之后看起来更好，记得在setBounds的重写版本中调用setNeedsDisplay。

After looking through (and trying out) most of the proposed solutions to this seemingly obvious - but missing - feature of UITextView, the 'best' closest I found was that from BobDickinson. But I didnt like having to resort to a whole new subclass [I prefer drop-in categories for such simple functional additions], nor that it intercepted UITextViewDelegate methods, which is probably going to mess up your existing UITextView handling code. So here's my take on a drop-in category that'll work on any existing UITextView instance...

#import <objc/runtime.h>

// Private subclass needed to override placeholderRectForBounds: to correctly position placeholder
@interface _TextField : UITextField
@property UIEdgeInsets insets;
@end
@implementation _TextField
- (CGRect)placeholderRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds
{
    CGRect rect = [super placeholderRectForBounds:bounds];
    return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, _insets);
}
@end

@implementation UITextView (Placeholder)

static const void *KEY;

- (void)setPlaceholder:(NSString *)placeholder
{
    _TextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    if (!textField) {
        textField = [_TextField.alloc initWithFrame:self.bounds];
        textField.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
        textField.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
        textField.font = self.font;

        textField.contentVerticalAlignment = UIControlContentVerticalAlignmentTop;
        textField.insets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(self.textContainerInset.top,
                                            self.textContainerInset.left + self.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding,
                                            self.textContainerInset.bottom,
                                            self.textContainerInset.right);
        [self addSubview:textField];
        [self sendSubviewToBack:textField];

        objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &KEY, textField, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN);

        [NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter addObserver:self selector:@selector(updatePlaceholder:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];
    }
    textField.placeholder = placeholder;
}

- (NSString*)placeholder
{
    UITextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    return textField.placeholder;
}

- (void)updatePlaceholder:(NSNotification *)notification
{
    UITextField *textField = objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &KEY);
    textField.font = self.font;
    [textField setAlpha:self.text.length? 0 : 1];
}

@end

它使用简单，只是显而易见的

UITextView *myTextView = UITextView.new;
...
myTextView.placeholder = @"enter text here";

它通过添加一个UITextField -在正确的位置-在你的UITextView后面，并利用它的占位符代替(因此你不必担心得到正确的颜色等)，然后监听通知，每当你的UITextView被改变显示/隐藏这个UITextField(因此它不会干扰你现有的UITextViewDelegate调用)。这里面没有什么神奇的数字……: -)

objc_setAssociatedObject()/objc_getAssociatedObject()是为了避免必须子类化UITextView。[不幸的是，要正确地定位UITextField，有必要引入一个'private'子类，以覆盖placeholderRectForBounds:]

改编自BobDickinson的斯威夫特回答。