UXML element TextField

A TextField lets users input text data into an application. It accepts and displays text input. You can set placeholder text to provide hints or instructions to the user on what to enter. You can also add validation functions to ensure that the entered data meets certain requirements.

Note: To align a TextField with other fields in an InspectorA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info
See in Glossary window, simply apply the .unity-base-field__aligned USS class to it. For more information, refer to BaseField.

Create a TextField

You can create a TextField with UI(User Interface) Allows a user to interact with your application. Unity currently supports three UI systems. More info
See in Glossary Builder, UXML, and C#. The following C# example creates a TextField that allows multiple lines text input:

var textField = new TextField();
textField.label = "Enter your text here:";
textField.multiline = true;
textField.maxLength = 140;

Set a placeholder text

You can set a placeholder text for the element. You can also hide the placeholder text on focus.

Note: The placeholder text won’t display if you set a value for the element. To unset a value in UI Builder, right-click the Value field in the element’s Inspector tab and select Unset.

In C#, use the placeholder and the hidePlaceholderOnFocus properties through textEdition:

myElement.textEdition.placeholder = "Enter your value here";
myElement.textEdition.hidePlaceholderOnFocus = true;

To style the placeholder text, use the .unity-base-text-field__input--placeholder USS selector.

Customize the input text selection

Input text is selectable by default. You can customize the selection behaviors such as selectAllOnMouseUP and selectAllOnFocus.

In C#, set them through textSelection:

myElement.textSelection.selectAllOnMouseUp = false;
myElement.textSelection.selectAllOnFocus = false;

You can also style the selected text using the --unity-selection-color USS custom property. For example, the following USS sets the color of the selected input text to yellow:

.unity-base-text-field__input {
    --unity-selection-color: yellow;
}

Enable a vertical scrollbar

If you have enabled multiline text on the TextField, you can display a vertical scrollbar for the text input fieldA field that allows the user to input a Text string More info
See in Glossary.

In C#, set the verticalScrollerVisibility property to ScrollerVisibility.Auto or ScrollerVisibility.AlwaysVisible:

// Set the multiline property to true to enable multiple lines of text
textField.multiline = true;

// Set the vertical scrollbar visibility to AlwaysVisible
textField.verticalScrollerVisibility = ScrollerVisibility.AlwaysVisible;

Control the behavior of the input text

You can use events to control the behavior of the input text. The following example uses event callback functions to handle navigation and submission events for a text field. The example registers navigation events to the TrickleDown phase before they’re handled by the TextElement base class:

// A callback function that executes submit logic to handle user input submission. 
// It stops the propagation of the event to prevent it from reaching other event handlers.
myField.RegisterCallback<NavigationSubmitEvent>((evt) => {

    // Submit logic
    evt.StopPropagation();
}, TrickleDown.TrickleDown);

// A callback function that executes focus logic to handle navigation between different UI elements. 
// If the navigation direction is up, down, left, or right, it stops the propagation of the event and instructs 
// the focusController to ignore the event.
myField.RegisterCallback<NavigationMoveEvent>((evt) => {

    if (evt.direction == NavigationMoveEvent.Direction.Up || evt.direction == NavigationMoveEvent.Direction.Down || evt.direction == NavigationMoveEvent.Direction.Left || evt.direction == NavigationMoveEvent.Direction.Right)
    {
        // Focus logic
        evt.StopPropagation();
        focusController.IgnoreEvent(evt);
    }

}, TrickleDown.TrickleDown);

Example

The following UXML example creates a TextField:

<UXML xmlns="UnityEngine.UIElements" xmlns:uie="UnityEditor.UIElements">
    <TextField label="UXML Field" name="the-uxml-field" value="It's snowing outside." />
</UXML>

The following C# example illustrates some of the customizable functionalities of the TextField:

/// <sample>
// Get a reference to the field from UXML and append a value to it.
var uxmlField = container.Q<TextField>("the-uxml-field");
uxmlField.value += "..";

// Create a new field, disable it, and give it a style class.
var csharpField = new TextField("C# Field");
csharpField.value = "It's snowing outside...";
csharpField.SetEnabled(false);
csharpField.AddToClassList("some-styled-field");
csharpField.value = uxmlField.value;
container.Add(csharpField);

// Mirror the value of the UXML field into the C# field.
uxmlField.RegisterCallback<ChangeEvent<string>>((evt) =>
{
    csharpField.value = evt.newValue;
});
/// </sample>

To try this example live in Unity, go to Window > UI Toolkit > Samples.

C# base class and namespace

C# class: TextField
Namespace: UnityEngine.UIElements
Base class: TextInputBaseField_1

Member UXML attributes

This element has the following member attributes:

Name	Type	Description
multiline	boolean	Set this to true to allow multiple lines in the textfield and false if otherwise.
value	string	The string currently being exposed by the field.

Inherited UXML attributes

This element inherits the following attributes from its base class:

Name	Type	Description
auto-correction	boolean	Determines if the touch screen keyboard auto correction is turned on or off.
binding-path	string	Path of the target property to be bound.
emoji-fallback-support	boolean	Specifies the order in which the system should look for Emoji characters when rendering text. If this setting is enabled, the global Emoji Fallback list will be searched first for characters defined as Emoji in the Unicode 14.0 standard.
focusable	boolean	True if the element can be focused.
hide-mobile-input	boolean	Hides or shows the mobile input field.
is-delayed	boolean	If set to true, the value property isn’t updated until either the user presses Enter or the text field loses focus.
keyboard-type	TouchScreenKeyboardType	The type of mobile keyboard that will be used.
label	string	The string representing the label that will appear beside the field.
max-length	int	Maximum number of characters for the field.
select-all-on-focus	boolean	Controls whether the element’s content is selected upon receiving focus.
select-all-on-mouse-up	boolean	Controls whether the element’s content is selected when you mouse up for the first time.
tabindex	int	An integer used to sort focusables in the focus ring. Must be greater than or equal to zero.
value	string	The value associated with the field.
vertical-scroller-visibility	UIElements.ScrollerVisibility	Option for controlling the visibility of the vertical scroll bar in the TextInputBaseField_1.

This element also inherits the following attributes from VisualElement:

Name	Type	Description
content-container	string	Child elements are added to it, usually this is the same as the element itself.
data-source	Object	Assigns a data source to this VisualElement which overrides any inherited data source. This data source is inherited by all children.
data-source-path	string	Path from the data source to the value.
name	string	The name of this VisualElement. Use this property to write USS selectors that target a specific element. The standard practice is to give an element a unique name.
picking-mode	UIElements.PickingMode	Determines if this element can be pick during mouseEvents or IPanel.Pick queries.
style	string	Reference to the style object of this element. Contains data computed from USS files or inline styles written to this object in C#.
tooltip	string	Text to display inside an information box after the user hovers the element for a small amount of time. This is only supported in the Editor UI.
usage-hints	UIElements.UsageHints	A combination of hint values that specify high-level intended usage patterns for the VisualElement. This property can only be set when the VisualElement is not yet part of a Panel. Once part of a Panel, this property becomes effectively read-only, and attempts to change it will throw an exception. The specification of proper UsageHints drives the system to make better decisions on how to process or accelerate certain operations based on the anticipated usage pattern. Note that those hints do not affect behavioral or visual results, but only affect the overall performance of the panel and the elements within. It’s advised to always consider specifying the proper UsageHints, but keep in mind that some UsageHints might be internally ignored under certain conditions (e.g. due to hardware limitations on the target platform).
view-data-key	string	Used for view data persistence (ie. tree expanded states, scroll position, zoom level). This is the key used to save/load the view data from the view data store. Not setting this key will disable persistence for this VisualElement. For further information on view data persistence, see the wiki:UIE-ViewData|Unity Manual.

USS classes

The following table lists all the C# public property names and their related USS selector.

C# property	USS selector	Description
ussClassName	.unity-text-field	USS class name of elements of this type.
labelUssClassName	.unity-text-field__label	USS class name of labels in elements of this type.
inputUssClassName	.unity-text-field__input	USS class name of input elements in elements of this type.
ussClassName	.unity-base-text-field	USS class name of elements of this type.
labelUssClassName	.unity-base-text-field__label	USS class name of labels in elements of this type.
inputUssClassName	.unity-base-text-field__input	USS class name of input elements in elements of this type.
singleLineInputUssClassName	.unity-base-text-field__input--single-line	USS class name of single line input elements in elements of this type.
multilineInputUssClassName	.unity-base-text-field__input--multiline	USS class name of multiline input elements in elements of this type.
placeholderUssClassName	.unity-base-text-field__input--placeholder	USS class name of input elements when placeholder text is shown
ussClassName	.unity-base-field	USS class name of elements of this type.
labelUssClassName	.unity-base-field__label	USS class name of labels in elements of this type.
inputUssClassName	.unity-base-field__input	USS class name of input elements in elements of this type.
noLabelVariantUssClassName	.unity-base-field--no-label	USS class name of elements of this type, when there is no label.
labelDraggerVariantUssClassName	.unity-base-field__label--with-dragger	USS class name of labels in elements of this type, when there is a dragger attached on them.
mixedValueLabelUssClassName	.unity-base-field__label--mixed-value	USS class name of elements that show mixed values
alignedFieldUssClassName	.unity-base-field__aligned	USS class name of elements that are aligned in a inspector element
disabledUssClassName	.unity-disabled	USS class name of local disabled elements.

You can also use the Matching Selectors section in the Inspector or the UI Toolkit Debugger to see which USS selectors affect the components of the VisualElement at every level of its hierarchy.

USS custom properties

The following table outlines the custom properties that are available exclusively for the TextField element in USS:

Property	Type	Description
--unity-cursor-color	string	The color code of the text caret.
--unity-selection-color	string	The color code of the selected text.

Additional resources

• Work with text
• UXML element Label
• UXML element DoubleField
• UXML element LongField
• UXML element FloatField
• UXML element IntegerField
• UXML element PropertyField