SwiftUI TextField max length

A slightly shorter version of Paulw11's answer would be:

class TextBindingManager: ObservableObject {
    @Published var text = "" {
        didSet {
            if text.count > characterLimit && oldValue.count <= characterLimit {
                text = oldValue
            }
        }
    }
    let characterLimit: Int

    init(limit: Int = 5){
        characterLimit = limit
    }
}

struct ContentView: View {
    @ObservedObject var textBindingManager = TextBindingManager(limit: 5)
    
    var body: some View {
        TextField("Placeholder", text: $textBindingManager.text)
    }
}

All you need is an ObservableObject wrapper for the TextField string. Think of it as an interpreter that gets notified every time there's a change and is able to send modifications back to the TextField. However, there's no need to create the PassthroughSubject, using the @Published modifier will have the same result, in less code.

One mention, you need to use didSet, and not willSet or you can end up in a recursive loop.

With SwiftUI, UI elements, like a text field, are bound to properties in your data model. It is the job of the data model to implement business logic, such as a limit on the size of a string property.

For example:

import Combine
import SwiftUI

final class UserData: BindableObject {

    let didChange = PassthroughSubject<UserData,Never>()

    var textValue = "" {
        willSet {
            self.textValue = String(newValue.prefix(8))
            didChange.send(self)
        }
    }
}

struct ContentView : View {

    @EnvironmentObject var userData: UserData

    var body: some View {
        TextField($userData.textValue, placeholder: Text("Enter up to 8 characters"), onCommit: {
        print($userData.textValue.value)
        })
    }
}

By having the model take care of this the UI code becomes simpler and you don't need to be concerned that a longer value will be assigned to textValue through some other code; the model simply won't allow this.

In order to have your scene use the data model object, change the assignment to your rootViewController in SceneDelegate to something like

UIHostingController(rootView: ContentView().environmentObject(UserData()))

Use Binding extension.

extension Binding where Value == String {
    func max(_ limit: Int) -> Self {
        if self.wrappedValue.count > limit {
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                self.wrappedValue = String(self.wrappedValue.dropLast())
            }
        }
        return self
    }
}

Example

struct DemoView: View {
    @State private var textField = ""
    var body: some View {
        TextField("8 Char Limit", text: self.$textField.max(8)) // Here
            .padding()
    }
}

You can do it with Combine in a simple way.

Like so:

import SwiftUI
import Combine

struct ContentView: View {

    @State var username = ""

    let textLimit = 10 //Your limit
    
    var body: some View {
        //Your TextField
        TextField("Username", text: $username)
        .onReceive(Just(username)) { _ in limitText(textLimit) }
    }

    //Function to keep text length in limits
    func limitText(_ upper: Int) {
        if username.count > upper {
            username = String(username.prefix(upper))
        }
    }
}