Prevent user entering a certain character on search bar

Question

Is it possible to prevent the user to enter certain characters on search bar while typing. For example, the user types some string... "This is a text " and after word text the user tries enter an '*' character. I wish to prevent the user from entering that character.

Is it possible to restrict the user to enter a certain character while typing on a search bar?

Answer 1

UISearchBar has a delegate much like the one for UITextField. Implement the delegate's searchBar:shouldChangeTextInRange:replacementText: method. Return YES or NO as needed. If you return NO, the text won't be entered.

- (BOOL)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text {
    // check the resulting text. Return NO if not allowed
}