How can I change the UISearchBar search text color?

Question

How can I change the text color of a UISearchBar?

score 118 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 19 '17 at 00:03

118

You have to access the UITextField inside the UISearchBar. You can do that by using valueForKey("searchField")

var textFieldInsideSearchBar = yourSearchbar.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField

textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = yourcolor

Swift 3 update

let textFieldInsideSearchBar = yourSearchbar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField

textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = yourcolor

edited Jul 19 '17 at 00:03

esilver

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answered Feb 13 '15 at 12:39

Christian

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Thanks! But is that API public or private? – MrTourkos Feb 15 '15 at 17:43
It doesn't compile. After a few changes it did, but then threw a runtime error complaining "Array index out of range" and if i change it to subView[0] it's a UIView that cannot be casted to a textField. Notice that i'm using Swift 1.2 if that has something to do. Thanks and sorry for the late reply. – MrTourkos Feb 20 '15 at 12:16
1

I've edited my answer. You can access the field by using valueforkey("searchField") – Christian Feb 20 '15 at 12:20
Alright now working great! Just a minor, you need to unwrap textFieldInsideSearchBar?.textColor = yourcolor to access textColor Thanks man! – MrTourkos Feb 20 '15 at 12:24
How did you find the name of the searchField value ? I'd like to change the font of the cancel button but I don't find the value for it. – YoanGJ Jun 01 '16 at 08:37
not working at all ---- Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSUnknownKeyException', reason: '[ valueForUndefinedKey:]: this class is not key value coding-compliant for the key searchField.' – bLacK hoLE Jun 04 '16 at 09:06
7

It's not private API but it's very fragile and can break on any iOS update. You shouldn't ever use things like these in production code – Lope Jul 10 '17 at 10:19
@NextDeveloper Have you checked how long ago this answer was posted? It’s possible that it doesn’t work anymore. Feel free to show another approach. – Christian Aug 25 '17 at 09:40
3

@Christian - it doesn't matter when the original answer was posted, it still relies on private API. If it was public, you wouldn't need to access `searchField` via KVC. – Greg Brown Nov 29 '17 at 12:05
2

Downvote. See @juanjo's answer and my comment for a much more robust approach approved by Apple and far less likely to break. – RobP Jun 27 '18 at 02:19
2

Don't use this answer, you are accessing private APIs and it could get your app rejected. – aryaxt Sep 23 '18 at 17:50

interrupt · Answer 2 · 2015-08-31T04:31:33.117

76

If you want to set text color for UISearchBar in storyboard (without code), it is easy to do as well (in identity inspector). Here is a red text for search bar.

edited Aug 31 '15 at 04:31

answered Aug 31 '15 at 04:12

interrupt

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It is better to have less code for view elements. Thanks. – Navid Rezaei Dec 10 '15 at 17:23
Perfect solution! – Mona May 27 '20 at 06:27

score 60 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 29 '17 at 10:53

60

If you only need to make it readable on a dark background you can change the barStyle. The following makes text and buttons in the searchbar white:

searchController.searchBar.barStyle = .black

answered Dec 29 '17 at 10:53

Bacon

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@Bacon, It helped too! Thanks – Goppinath May 07 '18 at 08:02

score 57 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 25 '18 at 15:18

57

Working in Swift 4 for me:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor.rawValue: UIColor.white]

Swift 4.2, IOS 12:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white]

edited Sep 25 '18 at 15:18

Chandana

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answered May 23 '18 at 12:04

chronikum

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Working for me. – Surjeet Rajput Aug 07 '18 at 11:19
and it change color for every searchbar in module? – Zaporozhchenko Oleksandr Feb 12 '19 at 18:12

score 32 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 15 '16 at 10:16

32

public extension UISearchBar {

    public func setTextColor(color: UIColor) {
        let svs = subviews.flatMap { $0.subviews }
        guard let tf = (svs.filter { $0 is UITextField }).first as? UITextField else { return }
        tf.textColor = color
    }
}

answered Mar 15 '16 at 10:16

Adam Waite

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Like you solution. Thanks. – Bagusflyer Oct 31 '16 at 04:50
You can also add "searchField.backgroundColor" to control the background color of the text field separate from the bar tint. – Sherwin Zadeh Nov 10 '19 at 21:40

score 14 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 19 '17 at 17:32

14

This works for me on iOS 11, Xcode 9:

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).textColor = UIColor.blue

I write it in the AppDelegate but I guess it works if you put it somewhere else too.

answered Dec 19 '17 at 17:32

juanjo

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This is a much more robust approach than the key-value nonsense in the accepted answer and other answers. However, Apple in their wisdom has deprecated the API you use here and offers a new version for iOS 9.0 and above, like so: `[[UITextField appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[[UISearchBar class]]] setTextColor:[UIColor blueColor]];` This is of course Objective-C, with obvious translation to Swift using `appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf:)` – RobP Jun 27 '18 at 02:16
2

Doesn't seem to work for me in Xcode 10, iOS 12, on an actual device. – Oded Nov 16 '18 at 02:17
@RobP this is the same hack based on assumption that there is a `UITextField` inside the `UISearchBar`. But instead of localizing ugliness in a place of usage it's spilling it all over the project. – Zapko May 18 '21 at 16:42

Tal Zion · Answer 7 · 2017-05-20T20:34:58.340

The most convenient way I think is to set a textColor property in UISearchBar.

Swift 3.0

    extension UISearchBar {

       var textColor:UIColor? {
           get {
               if let textField = self.value(forKey: "searchField") as? 
   UITextField  {
                   return textField.textColor
               } else {
                   return nil
               }
           }

           set (newValue) {
               if let textField = self.value(forKey: "searchField") as? 
   UITextField  {
                   textField.textColor = newValue
               }
           }
       }
   }

Usage

searchBar.textColor = UIColor.blue // Your color

Swift 2.3

extension UISearchBar {

 var textColor:UIColor? {
     get {
         if let textField = self.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField  {
             return textField.textColor
         } else {
             return nil
         }
     }

     set (newValue) {
         if let textField = self.valueForKey("searchField") as? UITextField  {
             textField.textColor = newValue
         }
     }
 }
}

You would use it as:

searchBar.textColor = UIColor.blueColor() // Your color

Yeah, I wanted to change the placholder text color. Now I found the solutions. Thanks anyway — Kingalione, Mar 08 '17 at 12:47

Saren Inden · Answer 8 · 2019-09-18T09:52:36.910

Since Xcode 11 and iOS 13 it has become possible to access the text field directly:

searchBar.searchTextField

You could write some code to always make it accessible like this.

extension UISearchBar {
    public var textField: UITextField? {
        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            return searchTextField
        } 

        guard let firstSubview = subviews.first else {
            assertionFailure("Could not find text field")
            return nil
        }

        for view in firstSubview.subviews {
            if let textView = view as? UITextField {
                return textView
            }
        }

        assertionFailure("Could not find text field")

        return nil
    }
}

You could also make it not optional with fatal errors, this code is tested since iOS 7 up to iOS 13GM. But i would just go for the optional version.

extension UISearchBar {
    public var textField: UITextField {
        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            return searchTextField
        }

        guard let firstSubview = subviews.first else {
            fatalError("Could not find text field")
        }

        for view in firstSubview.subviews {
            if let textView = view as? UITextField {
                return textView
            }
        }

       fatalError("Could not find text field")
    }
}

Finally! We can access the text field directly. Thanks, Saren. — Mark Moeykens, Nov 14 '19 at 23:17

infiniteLoop · Answer 9 · 2020-01-28T04:38:30.443

6

Try this,

searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = .white

I am using this with app targeted iOS 11 onwards.

[Update] I observed, the app crashes on older versions (< iOS 13), But compiler never complained about the version check, someone please explain why this happened.

edited Jan 28 '20 at 04:38

answered Jan 09 '20 at 11:07

infiniteLoop

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my compiler is complaining – FrugalResolution Jan 11 '21 at 11:49

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 04 '19 at 19:23

I tried a few of the solutions written above but they didn't work (anymore, I guess).

If you only want to handle iOS 13:

mySearchBar.searchTextField.textColor = .red

But if you want to handle older iOS too, Here is the way I did :

Create a custom UISearchBar class, called SearchBar : UISearchBar, UISearchBarDelegate This SearchBar will have the UISearchBarDelegate methods I wanna handle and its delegate set.

And I add to the class:

    var textField: UITextField? {
        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            return self.searchTextField
        }
        return subviews.first?.subviews.first(where: { $0 as? UITextField != nil }) as? UITextField
    }

Short explanation:

With iOS13 now, you can access the UITextField thanks to UISearchBar.searchTextField, which is of type UISearchTextField, which inherits from UITextField.

Since I know my hierarchy, I know my textField won't be nill for older versions so in both case, I get a textfield I can easily customize, working on every version, from 9 to 13 today.

Here is the full code needed to make it work:


class SearchBar: UISearchBar, UISearchBarDelegate {

    var textField: UITextField? {
        if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
            return self.searchTextField
        }
        return subviews.first?.subviews.first(where: { $0 as? UITextField != nil }) as? UITextField
    }


    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()

        delegate = self

        if let textField = textField {
            textField.textColor = .red
            textField.clearButtonMode = .whileEditing
            textField.returnKeyType = .search
        }
    }

}

You can also set some customization on SearchBar by adding this on the :

        let searchBar = UISearchBar.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [SearchBar.self])
        searchBar.backgroundImage = UIImage()
        searchBar.isTranslucent = false
        searchBar.returnKeyType = .search

Then you set it to the XIB / Storyboard and you handle it like if it were a simple UISearchBar (if you did not forget the delegates !).

score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 25 '16 at 18:20

You can do this by accessing the UITextField inside the searchBar, then you can change its background color, text color, and all other UITextField properties

add the following extension to access the textField

extension UISearchBar {
    /// Return text field inside a search bar
    var textField: UITextField? {
        let subViews = subviews.flatMap { $0.subviews }
        guard let textField = (subViews.filter { $0 is UITextField }).first as? UITextField else { return nil
        }
        return textField
    }
}

score 3 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 27 '20 at 09:01

3

Swift 5.2 & iOS 13.3.1:-

It works fine.

UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).defaultTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.white]

answered Feb 27 '20 at 09:01

Dinesh Kumar

97
3

score 3 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 06 '20 at 14:11

3

This worked for me.

    if #available(iOS 13.0, *) {
     searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = .white
    }

answered Nov 06 '20 at 14:11

Lovina Hajirawala

155
9

David Steppenbeck · Answer 14 · 2019-11-07T17:58:45.663

(This solution only tested for Xcode 10 & iOS 12.) Add an extension to access the search bar's text field:

extension UISearchBar {
    var textField: UITextField? {
        return subviews.first?.subviews.compactMap { $0 as? UITextField }.first
    }
}

Then use that property to set the text color of the text field in your search bar:

let searchBar = UISearchBar()
searchBar.textField?.textColor = UIColor.white // or whichever color you want

// EDIT

The code above does not work for iOS 13. A better way to handle this is to use:

extension UISearchBar {
    var textField: UITextField? {
        return self.subviews(ofType: UITextField.self).first
    }
}

extension UIView {
    var recursiveSubviews: [UIView] {
        return self.subviews + self.subviews.flatMap { $0.recursiveSubviews }
    }

    func subviews<T: UIView>(ofType: T.Type) -> [T] {
        return self.recursiveSubviews.compactMap { $0 as? T }
    }
}

for iOS 13 **return subviews.first?.subviews.last?.subviews.compactMap { $0 as? UITextField }.last** — Taras, Nov 05 '19 at 04:04

score 2 · Answer 15 · edited Oct 22 '20 at 07:05

2

In Swift 5 you can do something like below:

yourSearchBar.searchTextField.textColor = .yourColor

edited Oct 22 '20 at 07:05

Syed Ali Salman

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answered Oct 22 '20 at 06:36

johnDoe

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score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 06 '19 at 22:13

Here is a Xamarin.iOS C# version of the "find the UITextField" approach. It will not crash if the UITextField disappears in future iOS view hierarchy.

var tf = searchBar.AllSubViews().FirstOrDefault(v => v is UITextField);
if (tf != null) 
    (tf as UITextField).TextColor = UIColor.White;

public static IEnumerable<UIView> AllSubViews(this UIView view)
{
    foreach (var v in view.Subviews)
    {
        yield return v;
        foreach (var sv in v.AllSubViews())
        {
            yield return sv;
        }
    }
}

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Jan 07 '20 at 17:17

1

//Try this guy

yourSearchbar.searchTextField.textColor = .white

answered Jan 07 '20 at 17:17

Nrv

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 04 '18 at 18:34

0

In my situation solution is

id appearance = [UITextField appearanceWhenContainedInInstancesOfClasses:@[UISearchBar.class, BCRSidebarController.class]];
[appearance setTextColor:[UIColor.whiteColor colorWithAlphaComponent:0.56]];

answered Apr 04 '18 at 18:34

poGUIst

299
4
10

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Oct 01 '19 at 08:45

0

Obj-C

UITextField *textField = [self.yourSearchbar valueForKey:@"_searchField"];
textField.textColor = [UIColor redColor];

Swift 4.x

let textField = yourSearchbar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField
textField?.textColor = UIColor.red

answered Oct 01 '19 at 08:45

Argus

2,241
1
22
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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 01 '20 at 13:04

0

Swift 5:

searchBar[keyPath: \.searchTextField].textColor = UIColor(...)

answered Mar 01 '20 at 13:04

ramzesenok

5,469
4
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score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Nov 30 '21 at 07:49

0

you can set the color for self.searchBar.searchTextField.textColor below code in viewDidLoad works.

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
}

answered Nov 30 '21 at 07:49

pratima s

1
1

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Jan 18 '22 at 04:45

SwiftUI, Swift 5

In SwiftUI, the

init(){

   UITextfiled.appearance().textColor = .white
}

doesn't work. But you can just use the

.foregroundColor(.white)

modifier to change the searchable()'s text color.

If you also want to change the tintColor of the searchbar inside a NavigationView{}. You could init the inti() function of the view.

init(){

   UINavigationBar.appearance().tintColor = .white

}
var body:some View{  
   
    NavigationView{
   
   }
}

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Apr 04 '23 at 07:57

In my case I had the searchBar of a UISearchController in the navigationBar. For some reason textColor only works when called after adding the searchController as an item in the navigation.

previous code...
navigationItem.searchController = searchController
// Only after the assignment it works
searchController.searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = your color

score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Jul 19 '23 at 10:26

set searchTextField.textColor property of the UISearchBar to change the text color:

let searchBar = UISearchBar()
searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = .white

Or, for storyboard:

@IBOutlet weak var searchBar: UISearchBar!
searchBar.searchTextField.textColor = .white

score -2 · Answer 25 · answered Apr 24 '20 at 04:27

-2

Swift 5 Xcode 11.4 iOS 13.4

    UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).textColor = .white
    UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).font = .systemFont(ofSize: 13)

answered Apr 24 '20 at 04:27

blyscuit

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How can I change the UISearchBar search text color?

25 Answers25

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