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。

我对发布的任何解决方案都不太满意，因为它们有点重。向视图中添加视图并不理想(尤其是在drawRect:)。它们都有漏洞，这也是不可接受的。

这是我的解决方案:SAMTextView

SAMTextView.h

//
//  SAMTextView.h
//  SAMTextView
//
//  Created by Sam Soffes on 8/18/10.
//  Copyright 2010-2013 Sam Soffes. All rights reserved.
//

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

/**
 UITextView subclass that adds placeholder support like UITextField has.
 */
@interface SAMTextView : UITextView

/**
 The string that is displayed when there is no other text in the text view.

 The default value is `nil`.
 */
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *placeholder;

/**
 The color of the placeholder.

 The default is `[UIColor lightGrayColor]`.
 */
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIColor *placeholderTextColor;

/**
 Returns the drawing rectangle for the text views’s placeholder text.

 @param bounds The bounding rectangle of the receiver.
 @return The computed drawing rectangle for the placeholder text.
 */
- (CGRect)placeholderRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds;

@end

SAMTextView.m

//
//  SAMTextView.m
//  SAMTextView
//
//  Created by Sam Soffes on 8/18/10.
//  Copyright 2010-2013 Sam Soffes. All rights reserved.
//

#import "SAMTextView.h"

@implementation SAMTextView

#pragma mark - Accessors

@synthesize placeholder = _placeholder;
@synthesize placeholderTextColor = _placeholderTextColor;

- (void)setText:(NSString *)string {
  [super setText:string];
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


- (void)insertText:(NSString *)string {
  [super insertText:string];
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


- (void)setAttributedText:(NSAttributedString *)attributedText {
  [super setAttributedText:attributedText];
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


- (void)setPlaceholder:(NSString *)string {
  if ([string isEqual:_placeholder]) {
    return;
  }

  _placeholder = string;
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


- (void)setContentInset:(UIEdgeInsets)contentInset {
  [super setContentInset:contentInset];
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


- (void)setFont:(UIFont *)font {
  [super setFont:font];
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


- (void)setTextAlignment:(NSTextAlignment)textAlignment {
  [super setTextAlignment:textAlignment];
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}


#pragma mark - NSObject

- (void)dealloc {
  [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:self];
}


#pragma mark - UIView

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
  if ((self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder])) {
    [self initialize];
  }
  return self;
}


- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
  if ((self = [super initWithFrame:frame])) {
    [self initialize];
  }
  return self;
}


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

  if (self.text.length == 0 && self.placeholder) {
    rect = [self placeholderRectForBounds:self.bounds];

    UIFont *font = self.font ? self.font : self.typingAttributes[NSFontAttributeName];

    // Draw the text
    [self.placeholderTextColor set];
    [self.placeholder drawInRect:rect withFont:font lineBreakMode:NSLineBreakByTruncatingTail alignment:self.textAlignment];
  }
}


#pragma mark - Placeholder

- (CGRect)placeholderRectForBounds:(CGRect)bounds {
  // Inset the rect
  CGRect rect = UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(bounds, self.contentInset);

  if (self.typingAttributes) {
    NSParagraphStyle *style = self.typingAttributes[NSParagraphStyleAttributeName];
    if (style) {
      rect.origin.x += style.headIndent;
      rect.origin.y += style.firstLineHeadIndent;
    }
  }

  return rect;
}


#pragma mark - Private

- (void)initialize {
  [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(textChanged:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:self];

  self.placeholderTextColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.702f alpha:1.0f];
}


- (void)textChanged:(NSNotification *)notification {
  [self setNeedsDisplay];
}

@end

它比其他的要简单得多，因为它不使用子视图(或有泄漏)。请随意使用。

更新11/10/11:它现在是文档化的，并支持在接口生成器中使用。

更新11/24/13:指向新的回购。

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
        }
    }
}

斯威夫特3.1

在尝试了所有快速的答案之后，这个答案将为我节省3个小时的研究时间。希望这能有所帮助。

确保你的textField(不管你有什么自定义名称)指向它在Storyboard中的委托，并且有一个@IBOutlet和你的customtextfield 将以下内容添加到viewDidLoad()中，加载视图时会出现:

告诉我什么看起来是占位符:

yourCustomTextField = "Start typing..." 
yourCustomTextField.textColor = .lightGray

在viewDidLoad外部但在同一个类内部添加以下声明:UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate, UINavigationControllerDelegate

这段代码将使yourCustomTextField在输入textField时消失:

func textViewDidBeginEditing (_ textView: UITextView) { 

    if (textView.text == "Start typing...") {

        textView.text = ""
        textView.textColor = .black
    }

    textView.becomeFirstResponder()
}

func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
    if (textView.text == "") {

        textView.text = "Start typing..."
        textView.textColor = .lightGray
    }

    textView.resignFirstResponder()
}

我用swift写了一个类。您可以在需要时导入这个类。

import UIKit

public class CustomTextView： UITextView {

private struct Constants {
    static let defaultiOSPlaceholderColor = UIColor(red: 0.0, green: 0.0, blue: 0.0980392, alpha: 0.22)
}
private let placeholderLabel: UILabel = UILabel()

private var placeholderLabelConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint]()

@IBInspectable public var placeholder: String = "" {
    didSet {
        placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
    }
}

@IBInspectable public var placeholderColor: UIColor = CustomTextView.Constants.defaultiOSPlaceholderColor {
    didSet {
        placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
    }
}

override public var font: UIFont! {
    didSet {
        placeholderLabel.font = font
    }
}

override public var textAlignment: NSTextAlignment {
    didSet {
        placeholderLabel.textAlignment = textAlignment
    }
}

override public var text: String! {
    didSet {
        textDidChange()
    }
}

override public var attributedText: NSAttributedString! {
    didSet {
        textDidChange()
    }
}

override public var textContainerInset: UIEdgeInsets {
    didSet {
        updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel()
    }
}

override public init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
    super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
    commonInit()
}

required public init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    commonInit()
}

private func commonInit() {
    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
                                                     selector: #selector(textDidChange),
                                                     name: UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification,
                                                     object: nil)

    placeholderLabel.font = font
    placeholderLabel.textColor = placeholderColor
    placeholderLabel.textAlignment = textAlignment
    placeholderLabel.text = placeholder
    placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 0
    placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor()
    placeholderLabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    addSubview(placeholderLabel)
    updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel()
}

private func updateConstraintsForPlaceholderLabel() {
    var newConstraints = NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-(\(textContainerInset.left + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding))-[placeholder]",
                                                                        options: [],
                                                                        metrics: nil,
                                                                        views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
    newConstraints += NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("V:|-(\(textContainerInset.top))-[placeholder]",
                                                                     options: [],
                                                                     metrics: nil,
                                                                     views: ["placeholder": placeholderLabel])
    newConstraints.append(NSLayoutConstraint(
        item: placeholderLabel,
        attribute: .Width,
        relatedBy: .Equal,
        toItem: self,
        attribute: .Width,
        multiplier: 1.0,
        constant: -(textContainerInset.left + textContainerInset.right + textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2.0)
        ))
    removeConstraints(placeholderLabelConstraints)
    addConstraints(newConstraints)
    placeholderLabelConstraints = newConstraints
}

@objc private func textDidChange() {
    placeholderLabel.hidden = !text.isEmpty
}

public override func layoutSubviews() {
    super.layoutSubviews()
    placeholderLabel.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = textContainer.size.width - textContainer.lineFragmentPadding * 2.0
}

deinit {
    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self,
                                                        name: UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification,
                                                        object: nil)
}

}

下面是“SAMTextView”ObjC代码的Swift端口，作为对这个问题的第一批回答之一。我在iOS 8上进行了测试。我调整了一些东西，包括占位符文本的位置的边界偏移，因为原来的位置太高，太右了(在那个帖子的一个评论中使用了建议)。

我知道有很多简单的解决方案，但我喜欢子类化UITextView的方法，因为它是可重用的，而且我不必在使用它的机制时使类变得混乱。

斯威夫特2.2:

import UIKit

class PlaceholderTextView: UITextView {

    @IBInspectable var placeholderColor: UIColor = UIColor.lightGrayColor()
    @IBInspectable var placeholderText: String = ""

    override var font: UIFont? {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var contentInset: UIEdgeInsets {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var textAlignment: NSTextAlignment {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var text: String? {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var attributedText: NSAttributedString? {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

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

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

    private func setUp() {
        NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: #selector(PlaceholderTextView.textChanged(_:)),
                                                         name: UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification, object: self)
    }

    func textChanged(notification: NSNotification) {
        setNeedsDisplay()
    }

    func placeholderRectForBounds(bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect {
        var x = contentInset.left + 4.0
        var y = contentInset.top  + 9.0
        let w = frame.size.width - contentInset.left - contentInset.right - 16.0
        let h = frame.size.height - contentInset.top - contentInset.bottom - 16.0

        if let style = self.typingAttributes[NSParagraphStyleAttributeName] as? NSParagraphStyle {
            x += style.headIndent
            y += style.firstLineHeadIndent
        }
        return CGRect(x: x, y: y, width: w, height: h)
    }

    override func drawRect(rect: CGRect) {
        if text!.isEmpty && !placeholderText.isEmpty {
            let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
            paragraphStyle.alignment = textAlignment
            let attributes: [ String: AnyObject ] = [
                NSFontAttributeName : font!,
                NSForegroundColorAttributeName : placeholderColor,
                NSParagraphStyleAttributeName  : paragraphStyle]

            placeholderText.drawInRect(placeholderRectForBounds(bounds), withAttributes: attributes)
        }
        super.drawRect(rect)
    }
}

斯威夫特4.2:

import UIKit

class PlaceholderTextView: UITextView {

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

    override var font: UIFont? {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var contentInset: UIEdgeInsets {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var textAlignment: NSTextAlignment {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var text: String? {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

    override var attributedText: NSAttributedString? {
        didSet {
            setNeedsDisplay()
        }
    }

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

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

    private func setUp() {
        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self,
         selector: #selector(self.textChanged(notification:)),
         name: Notification.Name("UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification"),
         object: nil)
    }

    @objc func textChanged(notification: NSNotification) {
        setNeedsDisplay()
    }

    func placeholderRectForBounds(bounds: CGRect) -> CGRect {
        var x = contentInset.left + 4.0
        var y = contentInset.top  + 9.0
        let w = frame.size.width - contentInset.left - contentInset.right - 16.0
        let h = frame.size.height - contentInset.top - contentInset.bottom - 16.0

        if let style = self.typingAttributes[NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle] as? NSParagraphStyle {
            x += style.headIndent
            y += style.firstLineHeadIndent
        }
        return CGRect(x: x, y: y, width: w, height: h)
    }

    override func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
        if text!.isEmpty && !placeholderText.isEmpty {
            let paragraphStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
            paragraphStyle.alignment = textAlignment
            let attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [
            NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.font.rawValue) : font!,
            NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor.rawValue) : placeholderColor,
            NSAttributedString.Key(rawValue: NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle.rawValue)  : paragraphStyle]

            placeholderText.draw(in: placeholderRectForBounds(bounds: bounds), withAttributes: attributes)
        }
        super.draw(rect)
    }
}