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bcd的解决方案做了一些小修改，以允许从Xib文件初始化、文本包装和保持背景颜色。希望它能为其他人省去麻烦。

UIPlaceHolderTextView.h:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
IB_DESIGNABLE
@interface UIPlaceHolderTextView : UITextView

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

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

@end

UIPlaceHolderTextView.m:

#import "UIPlaceHolderTextView.h"

@interface UIPlaceHolderTextView ()

@property (nonatomic, retain) UILabel *placeHolderLabel;

@end

@implementation UIPlaceHolderTextView

CGFloat const UI_PLACEHOLDER_TEXT_CHANGED_ANIMATION_DURATION = 0.25;

- (void)dealloc
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
#if __has_feature(objc_arc)
#else
    [_placeHolderLabel release]; _placeHolderLabel = nil;
    [_placeholderColor release]; _placeholderColor = nil;
    [_placeholder release]; _placeholder = nil;
    [super dealloc];
#endif
}

- (void)awakeFromNib
{
    [super awakeFromNib];

    // Use Interface Builder User Defined Runtime Attributes to set
    // placeholder and placeholderColor in Interface Builder.
    if (!self.placeholder) {
        [self setPlaceholder:@""];
    }

    if (!self.placeholderColor) {
        [self setPlaceholderColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor]];
    }

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

- (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 *)notification
{
    if([[self placeholder] length] == 0)
    {
        return;
    }

    [UIView animateWithDuration:UI_PLACEHOLDER_TEXT_CHANGED_ANIMATION_DURATION animations:^{
    if([[self text] length] == 0)
    {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:1];
    }
    else
    {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:0];
    }
    }];
}

- (void)setText:(NSString *)text {
    [super setText:text];
    [self textChanged:nil];
}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    if( [[self placeholder] length] > 0 )
    {
        if (_placeHolderLabel == nil )
        {
            _placeHolderLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(8,8,self.bounds.size.width - 16,0)];
            _placeHolderLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
            _placeHolderLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
            _placeHolderLabel.font = self.font;
            _placeHolderLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
            _placeHolderLabel.textColor = self.placeholderColor;
            _placeHolderLabel.alpha = 0;
            _placeHolderLabel.tag = 999;
            [self addSubview:_placeHolderLabel];
        }

        _placeHolderLabel.text = self.placeholder;
        [_placeHolderLabel sizeToFit];
        [self sendSubviewToBack:_placeHolderLabel];
    }

    if( [[self text] length] == 0 && [[self placeholder] length] > 0 )
    {
        [[self viewWithTag:999] setAlpha:1];
    }

    [super drawRect:rect];
}

@end

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
    }
}

更简单，并且仍然考虑到用户在某些时候输入的一些文本

BOOL placeHolderTextVisible;

在viewDidLoad上，设置它为YES(或DidMoveToSuperview，或awakeFromNib)

然后,在 - (BOOL) textView:(UITextView*)textView shouldBeginEditing

    - (BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView;
{
   if (placeHolderTextVisible) {
    placeHolderTextVisible = NO;
    textView.text = @"";
   }
 return YES;
}

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。

你也可以创建一个新的类TextViewWithPlaceholder作为UITextView的子类。

(这段代码有点粗糙——但我认为它在正确的轨道上。)

@interface TextViewWithPlaceholder : UITextView
{

    NSString *placeholderText;  // make a property
    UIColor *placeholderColor;  // make a property
    UIColor *normalTextColor;   // cache text color here whenever you switch to the placeholderColor
}

- (void) setTextColor: (UIColor*) color
{
   normalTextColor = color;
   [super setTextColor: color];
}

- (void) updateForTextChange
{
    if ([self.text length] == 0)
    { 
        normalTextColor = self.textColor;
        self.textColor = placeholderColor;
        self.text = placeholderText;
    }
    else
    {
        self.textColor = normalTextColor;
    }

}

在委托中，添加以下内容:

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    if ([textView respondsToSelector: @selector(updateForTextChange)])
    {
        [textView updateForTextChange];
    }

}