我是这样做的:

UITextView2.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UITextView2 : UITextView <UITextViewDelegate> {
 NSString *placeholder;
 UIColor *placeholderColor;
}

@property(nonatomic, retain) NSString *placeholder;
@property(nonatomic, retain) UIColor *placeholderColor;

-(void)textChanged:(NSNotification*)notif;

@end

UITextView2.m

@implementation UITextView2

@synthesize placeholder, placeholderColor;

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
        [self setPlaceholder:@""];
        [self setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor]];
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(textChanged:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];
    }
    return self;
}

-(void)textChanged:(NSNotification*)notif {
    if ([[self placeholder] length]==0)
        return;
    if ([[self text] length]==0) {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:1];
    } else {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:0];
    }

}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    if ([[self placeholder] length]>0) {
        UILabel *l = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(8, 8, 0, 0)];
        [l setFont:self.font];
        [l setTextColor:self.placeholderColor];
        [l setText:self.placeholder];
        [l setAlpha:0];
        [l setTag:999];
        [self addSubview:l];
        [l sizeToFit];
        [self sendSubviewToBack:l];
        [l release];
    }
    if ([[self text] length]==0 && [[self placeholder] length]>0) {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:1];
    }
    [super drawRect:rect];
}

- (void)dealloc {
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
    [super dealloc];
}


@end

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;
 }  
}

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。

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。

这个帖子已经有了很多答案，但这里是我更喜欢的版本。

它扩展了现有的UITextView类，因此很容易重用，并且它不拦截像textViewDidChange这样的事件(这可能会破坏用户的代码，如果他们已经在其他地方拦截了这些事件)。

使用我的代码(如下所示)，你可以很容易地添加一个占位符到任何你的UITextViews像这样:

self.textViewComments.placeholder = @"(Enter some comments here.)";

当你设置这个新的占位符值时，它会悄悄地在你的UITextView上添加一个UILabel，然后在必要时隐藏/显示它:

好的，要做这些改变，添加一个包含以下代码的"UITextViewHelper.h"文件:

//  UITextViewHelper.h
//  Created by Michael Gledhill on 13/02/15.

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface UITextView (UITextViewHelper)

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString* placeholder;
@property (nonatomic, strong) UILabel* placeholderLabel;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString* textValue;

-(void)checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder;

@end

…和一个UITextViewHelper。M文件包含:

//  UITextViewHelper.m
//  Created by Michael Gledhill on 13/02/15.
//
//  This UITextView category allows us to easily display a PlaceHolder string in our UITextView.
//  The downside is that, your code needs to set the "textValue" rather than the "text" value to safely set the UITextView's text.
//
#import "UITextViewHelper.h"
#import <objc/runtime.h>

@implementation UITextView (UITextViewHelper)

#define UI_PLACEHOLDER_TEXT_COLOR [UIColor colorWithRed:170.0/255.0 green:170.0/255.0 blue:170.0/255.0 alpha:1.0]

@dynamic placeholder;
@dynamic placeholderLabel;
@dynamic textValue;

-(void)setTextValue:(NSString *)textValue
{
    //  Change the text of our UITextView, and check whether we need to display the placeholder.
    self.text = textValue;
    [self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder];
}
-(NSString*)textValue
{
    return self.text;
}

-(void)checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder
{
    //  If our UITextView is empty, display our Placeholder label (if we have one)
    if (self.placeholderLabel == nil)
        return;

    self.placeholderLabel.hidden = (![self.text isEqualToString:@""]);
}

-(void)onTap
{
    //  When the user taps in our UITextView, we'll see if we need to remove the placeholder text.
    [self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder];

    //  Make the onscreen keyboard appear.
    [self becomeFirstResponder];
}

-(void)keyPressed:(NSNotification*)notification
{
    //  The user has just typed a character in our UITextView (or pressed the delete key).
    //  Do we need to display our Placeholder label ?
   [self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder];
}

#pragma mark - Add a "placeHolder" string to the UITextView class

NSString const *kKeyPlaceHolder = @"kKeyPlaceHolder";
-(void)setPlaceholder:(NSString *)_placeholder
{
    //  Sets our "placeholder" text string, creates a new UILabel to contain it, and modifies our UITextView to cope with
    //  showing/hiding the UILabel when needed.
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &kKeyPlaceHolder, (id)_placeholder, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC);

    self.placeholderLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:self.frame];
    self.placeholderLabel.numberOfLines = 1;
    self.placeholderLabel.text = _placeholder;
    self.placeholderLabel.textColor = UI_PLACEHOLDER_TEXT_COLOR;
    self.placeholderLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    self.placeholderLabel.userInteractionEnabled = true;
    self.placeholderLabel.font = self.font;
    [self addSubview:self.placeholderLabel];

    [self.placeholderLabel sizeToFit];

    //  Whenever the user taps within the UITextView, we'll give the textview the focus, and hide the placeholder if necessary.
    [self addGestureRecognizer:[[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(onTap)]];

    //  Whenever the user types something in the UITextView, we'll see if we need to hide/show the placeholder label.
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector: @selector(keyPressed:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];

    [self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder];
}
-(NSString*)placeholder
{
    //  Returns our "placeholder" text string
    return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &kKeyPlaceHolder);
}

#pragma mark - Add a "UILabel" to this UITextView class

NSString const *kKeyLabel = @"kKeyLabel";
-(void)setPlaceholderLabel:(UILabel *)placeholderLabel
{
    //  Stores our new UILabel (which contains our placeholder string)
    objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &kKeyLabel, (id)placeholderLabel, OBJC_ASSOCIATION_RETAIN_NONATOMIC);

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector: @selector(keyPressed:) name:UITextViewTextDidChangeNotification object:nil];

    [self checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder];
}
-(UILabel*)placeholderLabel
{
    //  Returns our new UILabel
    return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &kKeyLabel);
}
@end

是的，它有很多代码，但是一旦你把它添加到你的项目中，并包含了.h文件……

#import "UITextViewHelper.h"

.．.你可以很容易地在UITextViews中使用占位符。

不过有一个问题。

如果你这样做:

self.textViewComments.placeholder = @"(Enter some comments here.)";
self.textViewComments.text = @"Ooooh, hello there";

.．.占位符将出现在文本的顶部。设置文本值时，不会调用任何常规通知，因此我不知道如何调用我的函数来决定是否显示/隐藏占位符。

解决方案是设置textValue而不是text:

self.textViewComments.placeholder = @"(Enter some comments here.)";
self.textViewComments.textValue = @"Ooooh, hello there";

或者，您可以设置文本值，然后调用checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder。

self.textViewComments.text = @"Ooooh, hello there";
[self.textViewComments checkIfNeedToDisplayPlaceholder];

我喜欢这样的解决方案，因为它们“填补了”苹果提供给我们的东西和我们(作为开发者)在应用程序中实际需要的东西之间的空白。只需编写一次此代码，将其添加到“helper”.m/.h文件库中，随着时间的推移，SDK实际上开始变得不那么令人沮丧。

(我写了一个类似的帮助添加一个“清除”按钮到我的UITextViews，另一个烦人的东西存在于UITextField但不在UITextView…)