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。

我做了我自己版本的UITextView的子类。我喜欢Sam Soffes使用通知的想法，但我不喜欢drawRect: overwrite。对我来说太过分了。我认为我做了一个非常干净的实现。

你可以看看我的子类。还包括一个演示项目。

你能做的是在文本属性中设置文本视图的初始值，并将textColor更改为[UIColor grayColor]或类似的东西。然后，每当文本视图变为可编辑时，清除文本并显示游标，如果文本字段再次为空，则将占位符文本放回。根据需要将颜色更改为[UIColor blackColor]。

它与UITextField中的占位符功能不完全相同，但很接近。

简单的方法，使用以下UITextViewDelegate方法在UITextView中创建占位符文本:

- (void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([textView.text isEqualToString:@"placeholder text here..."]) {
         textView.text = @"";
         textView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor]; //optional
    }
    [textView becomeFirstResponder];
}

- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([textView.text isEqualToString:@""]) {
        textView.text = @"placeholder text here...";
        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor]; //optional
    }
    [textView resignFirstResponder];
}

只需要记住在创建时使用准确的文本设置myUITextView即可。

UITextView *myUITextView = [[UITextView alloc] init];
myUITextView.delegate = self;
myUITextView.text = @"placeholder text here...";
myUITextView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor]; //optional

在包含这些方法之前，让父类成为一个UITextViewDelegate。

@interface MyClass () <UITextViewDelegate>
@end

Swift 3.1代码

func textViewDidBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) 
{
    if (textView.text == "placeholder text here..." && textView.textColor == .lightGray)
    {
        textView.text = ""
        textView.textColor = .black
    }
    textView.becomeFirstResponder() //Optional
}

func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView)
{
    if (textView.text == "")
    {
        textView.text = "placeholder text here..."
        textView.textColor = .lightGray
    }
    textView.resignFirstResponder()
}

只需要记住在创建时使用准确的文本设置myUITextView即可。

 let myUITextView = UITextView.init()
 myUITextView.delegate = self
 myUITextView.text = "placeholder text here..."
 myUITextView.textColor = .lightGray

在包含这些方法之前，让父类成为一个UITextViewDelegate。

class MyClass: UITextViewDelegate
{

}

这里有一个更简单的解决方案，它的行为完全像UITextField的占位符，但不需要绘制自定义视图，或辞职第一响应器。

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

    if (textView.text.length == 0){
        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
        textView.text = placeholderText;
        [textView setSelectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 0)];
        isPlaceholder = YES;

    } else if (isPlaceholder && ![textView.text isEqualToString:placeholderText]) {
        textView.text = [textView.text substringToIndex:1];
        textView.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        isPlaceholder = NO;
    }

}

(else if语句中的第二个检查是针对没有输入任何内容且用户按下退格键的情况)

只需要将你的类设置为UITextViewDelegate。在viewDidLoad中，你应该这样初始化

- (void) viewDidLoad{
    // initialize placeholder text
    placeholderText = @"some placeholder";
    isPlaceholder = YES;
    self.someTextView.text = placeholderText;
    self.someTextView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];
    [self.someTextView setSelectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 0)];

    // assign UITextViewDelegate
    self.someTextView.delegate = self;
}

I know there are already a lot of answers to this one, but I didn't really find any of them sufficient (at least in Swift). I needed the "placeholder" functionality of the UITextField in my UITextView (I wanted the exact behavior, including text display attributes, animations, etc, and didn't want to have to maintain this over time). I also wanted a solution that provided the same exact border as a UITextField (not an approximated one that looks sort of like it looks right now, but one that looks exactly like it and will always look exactly like it). So while I was not initially a fan of jamming an extra control into the mix, it seemed that in order to meet my goals I had to use an actual UITextField and let it do the work.

这个解决方案处理定位占位符和保持字体在两个控件之间的同步，以便占位符文本是输入到控件的文本的确切字体和位置(许多其他解决方案没有解决的问题)。

// This class is necessary to support "inset" (required to position placeholder 
// appropriately in TextView)
//
class TextField: UITextField
{
    var inset: UIEdgeInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 0, bottom: 0, right: 0);

    override func textRectForBounds(bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect
    {
        return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(bounds, inset);
    }

    override func placeholderRectForBounds(bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect
    {
        return UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(bounds, inset);
    }
}

// This class implements a UITextView that has a UITextField behind it, where the 
// UITextField provides the border and the placeholder text functionality (so that the
// TextView looks and works like a UITextField).
//
class TextView : UITextView, UITextViewDelegate
{
    var textField = TextField();

    required init?(coder: NSCoder)
    {
        super.init(coder: coder);
    }

    override init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?)
    {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer);

        self.delegate = self;

        // Create a background TextField with clear (invisible) text and disabled
        self.textField.borderStyle = UITextBorderStyle.RoundedRect;
        self.textField.textColor = UIColor.clearColor();
        self.textField.userInteractionEnabled = false;

        // Align the background TextView to where text appears in the TextField, so
        // that any placeholder will be in the correct position.
        self.textField.contentVerticalAlignment = UIControlContentVerticalAlignment.Top;
        self.textField.inset = UIEdgeInsets(
            top: self.textContainerInset.top,
            left: self.textContainerInset.left + self.textContainer.lineFragmentPadding,
            bottom: self.textContainerInset.bottom,
            right: self.textContainerInset.right
        );

        // The background TextField should use the same font (for the placeholder)
        self.textField.font = self.font;

        self.addSubview(textField);
        self.sendSubviewToBack(textField);
    }

    convenience init()
    {
        self.init(frame: CGRectZero, textContainer: nil)
    }

    override var font: UIFont?
    {
        didSet
        {
            // Keep the font of the TextView and background textField in sync
            self.textField.font = self.font;
        }
    }

    var placeholder: String? = nil
    {
        didSet
        {
            self.textField.placeholder = self.placeholder;
        }
    }

    override func layoutSubviews()
    {
        super.layoutSubviews()
        // Do not scroll the background textView
        self.textField.frame = CGRectMake(0, self.contentOffset.y, self.frame.width, self.frame.height);
    }

    // UITextViewDelegate - Note: If you replace delegate, your delegate must call this
    func scrollViewDidScroll(scrollView: UIScrollView)
    {
        // Do not scroll the background textView
        self.textField.frame = CGRectMake(0, self.contentOffset.y, self.frame.width, self.frame.height);
    }

    // UITextViewDelegate - Note: If you replace delegate, your delegate must call this
    func textViewDidChange(textView: UITextView)
    {
        // Updating the text in the background textView will cause the placeholder to 
        // appear/disappear (including any animations of that behavior - since the
        // textView is doing this itself).
        self.textField.text = self.text;
    }
}