Android EditText Tutorial with Examples

Android EditText
android:inputType
EditText Attributes
EditText Methods
Ví dụ EditText
Android InputTextLayout

1. Android EditText

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In Android, EditText is a subclass of TextView,so it inherits all the features of a TextView. In addition, it has new features that allow the user to enter or modify the text for various purposes. Therefore, you need to specify a data type which can accept through the android:inputType attribute.

Android TextView

<EditText
     android:id="@+id/txtSub"
     android:layout_width="match_parent"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:hint="Subject"
     android:inputType="text"
     ... />

EditText editText = (EditText) this.findViewById(R.id.editText1);

// Set Text:
editText.setText("New Text");

// Get Text
String text = editText.getText().toString();

Create an EditText by using Java code:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        LinearLayout linearLayout =  (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.linearlayout);
        
        // Create a EditText
        EditText editText = new EditText(this);
        editText.setHint("Subject");
        linearLayout.addView(editText);

        // Set Text
        editText.setText("Some Text");

        // Get Text
        String text = editText.getText().toString();
    }

}

2. android:inputType

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The android:inputType attribute specifies the type of data that EditText can accept. Simultaneously, it suggests Android to assist the user when he/she enters data, such as displaying a virtual keyboard that matches the data type of the EditText. However, it does not guarantee that the user will enter the correct type of data, so you also need some additional manipulation.

Here are some common values of android:inputType:

textUri	Allow to enter a URI.
textEmailAddress	Allow to enter an Email address.
textPersonName	Allow to enter the name of a person
textPassword	Allow to enter a password, users only see the asterisk characters (*) (or similar).
textVisiblePassword	Allow enter a password, and the user can read its contents.
number	For entering numeric data.
phone	For entering a phone number
date	For entering a date
time	For entering a time
textMultiLine	Allows entering text data on multiple lines.

You can combine multiple values which are separated by ( | ) in order to create a new one for android:inputType.

<EditText
  android:inputType="textCapSentences|textMultiLine"
/>

android:inputType="textPassword"

Allows a password to be entered, and the user will only see asterisks (*) (or similar).

<!-- A Text Password -->
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText_password"
    android:hint="Password"
    android:inputType="textPassword" ...
/>

android:inputType="numberPassword"

Allows the user to enter a password containing numeric characters only.

<!-- A Numeric Password -->
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText_password"
    android:hint="Numeric Password"
    android:inputType="numberPassword"  ...
/>

android:inputType="textVisiblePassword"

android:inputType="text"

EditText accepts all types of plain text data.

android:inputType=" textMultiLine"

The android:inputType="textMultiLine" attribute allows EditText to display text on multiple lines. With this attribute, you also need to combine it with the android.gravity="left|top" attribute to set the text displayed at the top left corner.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText_test1"
    android:background="#F1FDDC"
    android:gravity="top|left"
    android:inputType="textMultiLine|text"
    android:padding="10dp"
    android:text="0123456789" ... />

android:inputType="number"

Allows the user to enter numeric data as well as supports a virtual keyboard for the numeric input data.

android:inputType="textEmailAddress"

This virtual keyboard is simpler to enter an Email than the regular virtual keyboard. It removes invalid characters for an email address.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText_email"
    android:hint="Email"
    android:inputType="textEmailAddress"
    ...
/>

The Java code checks whether the email entered by the user is valid or not:

public boolean isEmailValid(CharSequence email) {
    return android.util.Patterns.EMAIL_ADDRESS.matcher(email).matches();
}

android:inputType="date"

With the aim of entering Date data, the virtual keyboard has a suitable layout for this data type.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText_birthday"
    android:hint="dd-MM-yyyy"
    android:inputType="date"
    ...
/>

Note: With android:inputType="date", the user still can enter a Date data that does not match your hint. Therefore, if you want to make sure that the user is entering a data that matches the specified Date format such as "dd-MM-yyyy", you have to combine EditText and TextWatcher.

Android TextWatcher

3. EditText Attributes

Basically, most of the attributes of EditText are inherited from TextView:

android:gravity	It is used to specify how to align the text like left, right, center, top, etc.
android:text	It is used to set the text.
android:hint	It is used to display the hint text when text is empty
android:textColor	It is used to change the color of the text.
android:textColorHint	It is used to change the text color of hint text.
android:textSize	It is used to specify the size of the text.
android:textStyle	It is used to change the style (bold, italic, bolditalic) of text.
android:background	It is used to set the background color for edit text control
android:ems	It is used to make the textview be exactly this many ems wide.
android:width	It makes the TextView be exactly this many pixels wide.
android:height	It makes the TextView be exactly this many pixels tall.
android:maxWidth	It is used to make the TextView be at most this many pixels wide.
android:minWidth	It is used to make the TextView be at least this many pixels wide.
android:textAllCaps	It is used to present the text in all CAPS
android:typeface	It is used to specify the Typeface (normal, sans, serif, monospace) for the text.
android:textColorHighlight	It is used to change the color of text selection highlight.
android:inputType	It is used to specify the type of text being placed in text fields.
android:fontFamily	It is used to specify the fontFamily for the text.
android:editable	If we set false, EditText won't allow us to enter or modify the text

Android TextView

android:textColorHint

The android:hint attribute is used to display a hint text for the user when the EditText text is empty.

android:textColorHighlight

Sets the background color for the selected sub-text.

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/editText"
    android:inputType="text"
    android:text="I am an EditText"
    android:textColorHighlight="#24AC55" ... />

android: android:maxLength

Specifies the maximum number of characters of the text.

android:editable

This attribute is no longer used in EditText. If you do not want the user to change the text content of EditText, adopt one of the solutions below:

Solution 1:

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/myEditText"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="Hint"
    android:focusable="false"
    android:clickable="false"
    android:cursorVisible="false"
    />

You can get the same result with Java code:

EditText editText = findViewById(R.id.myEditText);
editText.setFocusable(false);
editText.setClickable(false);
editText.setCursorVisible(false);

Solution 2:

EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editText);
editText.setKeyListener(null);

Solution 3:

private void setNonEditable(EditText editText) {
    // Need to disable displaying Virtual Keyboard.
    editText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);

    // editText.setTextIsSelectable(false); // ?
    editText.setOnKeyListener(new View.OnKeyListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
            // Blocks input from hardware keyboards.
            return true;
        }
    });
}

4. EditText Methods

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In addition to the methods inherited from TextView, EditText also has its own methods:

void selectAll()
void setSelection(int start, int stop) .
void setSelection(int index)
void extendSelection(int index)

selectAll()

Selects the entire text.

setSelection(int start, int stop)

Selects a sub-text from start to stop. The index starts from 0, 1, 2 and so on.

setSelection(int index)

Move the cursor to the position of the index of "index".

extendSelection(int index)

Selects a sub-text from the current position of the cursor to the position of the index of "index".

Note: You can see the example of how to use these methods at the end of the article.

5. Ví dụ EditText

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In this example, I'm going to show you how to use selectAll(), extendSelection(), and setSelection() methods of EditText. Here is the preview image of the example:

Here is the application interface:

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editText_test"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="16dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="16dp"
        android:ems="10"
        android:inputType="text"
        android:text="0123456789"
        android:textSize="50sp"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView_info"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="16dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="16dp"
        android:background="#F3FBDE"
        android:gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:text="(Info)"
        android:textColor="#3F51B5"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/editText_test" />

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/linearLayout"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView_info">

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button_selectAll"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="selectAll()"
            android:textAllCaps="false" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button_extendSelection"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="extendSelection(5)"
            android:textAllCaps="false" />
    </LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/linearLayout">

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button_setSelection1"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="setSelection(3)"
            android:textAllCaps="false" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button_setSelection2"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="setSelection(2, 7)"
            android:textAllCaps="false" />
    </LinearLayout>

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

MainActivity.java

package com.example.edittextexample;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.text.TextWatcher;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private EditText editTextTest;
    private TextView textViewInfo;

    private Button button_selectAll;
    private Button button_setSelection1;
    private Button button_setSelection2;
    private Button button_extendSelection;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        this.editTextTest = (EditText) this.findViewById(R.id.editText_test);
        this.textViewInfo = (TextView) this.findViewById(R.id.textView_info);

        this.button_selectAll = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button_selectAll);
        this.button_setSelection1 = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button_setSelection1);
        this.button_setSelection2 = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button_setSelection2);
        this.button_extendSelection = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button_extendSelection);

        // Focus
        this.editTextTest.requestFocus();

        this.button_selectAll.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                selectAllHandler();
            }
        });

        this.button_setSelection1.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                setSelection1Handler();
            }
        });

        this.button_setSelection2.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                setSelection2Handler();
            }
        });

        this.button_extendSelection.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                extendSelectionHandler();
            }
        });
    }

    // Usage of: editText.selectALl()
    private void selectAllHandler() {
        this.editTextTest.selectAll();
        this.textViewInfo.setText("selectAll()");
    }

    // Usage of: editText.setSelection(int index)
    private void setSelection1Handler() {
        this.editTextTest.setSelection(3);
        this.textViewInfo.setText("setSelection(3)");
    }

    // Usage of: editText.setSelection(int start, int stop)
    private void setSelection2Handler() {
        this.editTextTest.setSelection(2, 7);
        this.textViewInfo.setText("setSelection(2, 7)");
    }

    // Usage of: editText.extendSelection(int index)
    private void extendSelectionHandler() {
        this.editTextTest.extendSelection(5);

        int selectionStart = this.editTextTest.getSelectionStart();
        this.textViewInfo.setText("selectionStart = " + selectionStart+ " --> extendSelection(5)");
    }

}

6. Android InputTextLayout

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TextInputLayout is an interface component that contains an EditText and provides support for EditText visually. There is an illustration of TextInputLayout below:

You should use InputTextLayout to enhance the user's experience:

Android TextInputLayout

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Android Programming Tutorials

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Android EditText Tutorial with Examples

1. Android EditText

2. android:inputType

3. EditText Attributes

4. EditText Methods

5. Ví dụ EditText

6. Android InputTextLayout

Android Programming Tutorials

Android Programming Tutorials

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