Clarification on the purpose of return value in textFieldShouldReturn

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Created 6d

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I’m trying to understand the exact role of the return value in the UITextFieldDelegate method textFieldShouldReturn(_:).

From my experiments in Xcode, I observed:

Returning true vs false does not seem to cause any visible difference (e.g., the keyboard does not automatically dismiss either way).
I know that in shouldChangeCharactersIn returning true allows the system to insert the character, and returning false prevents it. That’s clear.
For textFieldShouldReturn, my current understanding is that returning true means “let the OS handle the Return press,” and returning false means “I’ll handle it myself.”

My confusion: what is it that the OS actually does when it “handles” the Return press?

Does UIKit do anything beyond calling this delegate method?
If the system is supposed to dismiss the keyboard when returning true, why doesn’t it happen automatically?

I’d appreciate clarification on the expected use of this return value — specifically, what default behavior the system performs (if any) when we return true.

Thanks!

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Answer 1

Claude31 OP

6d

You should find a lot of information in this (old) post. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33624413/why-textfieldshouldreturn-is-still-working-when-i-return-false

The return value from textFieldShouldReturn answers a different question. If the text field has an action for the control event editingDidEndOnExit, that will cause the keyboard to dismiss unless textFieldShouldReturn is implemented to return false.

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