Develop Reference

Calling setSingleLine on an EditText with inputType=textPassword make characters visible

I put an EditText with inputType="textPassword" in my activity's XML
<EditText
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="Enter Password"
android:inputType="textPassword"
android:padding="16dp"
android:id="#+id/passwordInput"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
Till now there is not any problem and I see circles intead of real password characters:
The interesting part is here. Now if I call setSingleLine() on the EditText in the Activity:
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
passwordInput.setSingleLine()
}
}
will see that the password characters is surprisingly visible!
Another interesting thing is that this issue will not happen if I put android:singleLine="true" in XML of the EditText.
Note: I know that setting setSingleLine on a password field is useless, but I'm curious why calling this function has such side effect.

I think it is because when you call setSingleLine, textview will change it transformation method from PasswordTransformationMethod to SingleLineTransformationMethod. there is only one transformation method accepted at the time in EditText (which is child of TextView)
you can check the source code here:
setSingleLine()
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/jb-mr0-release/core/java/android/widget/TextView.java#6727
follow through the code fill call function setTransformationMethod
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/jb-mr0-release/core/java/android/widget/TextView.java#1461

Try to set it inside XML:
android:inputType="textPassword"
android:maxLines="1"
android:singleLine="true"
I can't tell you why setting it programaticaly lead to this strange behavior because I usually do this inside XML and I'm doing this in code just to manipulate Views.

If you want to hide the password, you will:
yourTextView.setTransformationMethod(new PasswordTransformationMethod());
If you want to show the password, you will:
yourTextView.setTransformationMethod(new DoNothingTransformation()), or setTransformationMethod(null)
Method setTransformationMethod is show/hide text
Now, you can check the code of class TextView, Because of EditText extended from TextView.
You will see in the function setSingleLine(), It's call function applySingleLine(singleLine, true, true), This function will set again setTransformationMethod(SingleLineTransformationMethod.getInstance());
This is change your Transformation(show/hide text of EditText):
private void applySingleLine(boolean singleLine, boolean applyTransformation,
boolean changeMaxLines) {
mSingleLine = singleLine;
if (singleLine) {
setLines(1);
setHorizontallyScrolling(true);
// change Transformation
if (applyTransformation) {
setTransformationMethod(SingleLineTransformationMethod.getInstance());
}
} else {
if (changeMaxLines) {
setMaxLines(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
}
setHorizontallyScrolling(false);
if (applyTransformation) {
setTransformationMethod(null);
}
}
}

Espresso set cursor for edittext

I am trying to test an EditText that already contains some text using Espresso. The problem is that when I use typeText(), the cursor is placed at an arbitrary position within the text. I tried performing click() before using typeTextIntoFocusedView but the cursor is sometimes placed at the beginning of the EditText. I want to know is it possible to set the cursor at the end of the EditText before typing text into it?

A better way would be to use Espresso the way it's meant to be used: with actions on view matchers.
Example in Kotlin:
class SetEditTextSelectionAction(private val selection: Int) : ViewAction {
override fun getConstraints(): Matcher<View> {
return allOf(isDisplayed(), isAssignableFrom(EditText::class.java))
}
override fun getDescription(): String {
return "set selection to $selection"
}
override fun perform(uiController: UiController, view: View) {
(view as EditText).setSelection(selection)
}
}
Example usage:
onView(withId(R.id.my_text_view).perform(SetEditTextSelectionAction(selection))
An extra advantage over manually doing findViewById() is that you can combine this with matchers like withSubString("my text") if you don't have the ID of the view.
By the way: to change this into setting selection at the end of text you can simply remove the selection: Int constructor argument and change setSelection(selection) to setSelection(view.text.lastIndex).

The only way I have found to do this is to get a reference to the EditText itself and use EditText#setSelection(). For example, to move the cursor to the end of the current text:
val activity = activityRule.activity
val tv = activity.findViewById<EditText>(R.id.edittext)
activity.runOnUiThread { tv.setSelection(tv.text.length) }

I've had success by inserting the KeyCodes for "Home" and "End". These work just like on your desktop keyboard, by moving the cursor to either the beginning or end of the EditText. For example:
onView(withId(R.id.myView))
.perform(pressKey(KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MOVE_HOME))
To move to the end, you can use KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MOVE_END, and you can move left or right using KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_LEFT and KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_RIGHT.

I wanted to post my answer since I just had this problem and none of the other answers solved my problem.
I used a GeneralClickAction to click on the right side of the edit text which put the cursor at the end of the EditText where I wanted it. After that I used the TypeTextAction and disabled the tapToFocus behavior by passing in false to the constructor:
onView(withId(R.id.edit_text))
.perform(
new GeneralClickAction(Tap.SINGLE, GeneralLocation.CENTER_RIGHT, Press.FINGER, 0, 0, null),
new TypeTextAction(text, false)
);

Detect if content of EditText was changed by user or programmatically?

I would need a way to detect if the EditText has been changed by the user typing something or by the app changing the text programmatically. Any standard way of doing this? I guess I could always do something hackish like unsetting the TextWatcher before setText() and setting it back again afterwards, but there's got to be a better way of doing this... right?
I tried checking if the EditText is focused in the TextWatcher, but that was of little help since the EditTexts gets focused "semi-randomly" anyway when scrolling...
Background
I have a ListView with EditTexts in every listitem. I've sorted out the basic problem of storing the values for the EditTexts for reuse when the user scrolls.
I also have a TextWatcher that sums up the values in all EditTexts and displays the sum when the user edits the content of any of the EditTexts.
The problem is that when I'm scrolling the list and my custom adapter is reentering the stored values in the EditTexts on bindView(), that also triggers the TextWatchers afterTextChanged() method, causing the scrolling to lag because the summing-up-function is triggered.

This sorted itself out a long time ago, but for anyone who finds their way here looking for an answer, here's what I did:
I ended up setting the Tag of the EditText to some arbitrary value right before I'm about to change it programmatically, and changing the value, and then resetting the Tag to null. Then in my TextWatcher.afterTextChanged() method I check if the Tag is null or not to determine if it was the user or the program that changed the value. Works like a charm!
Something like this:
edit.setTag( "arbitrary value" );
edit.setText( "My Text Value" );
edit.setTag(null);
and then
public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
if( view.getTag() == null )
// Value changed by user
else
// Value changed by program
}

The accepted answer is perfectly valid, but I have another approach;
#Override
public void onTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence,
int start, int before, int count) {
boolean userChange = Math.abs(count - before) == 1;
if (userChange) {
}
}
It works by checking if the change was a single character.
This is not a fool-proof solution as copy-paste operations might be missed, and non-user changes of a single character will also be missed.
Depending on your use case, this might be a viable solution.

One thing that helped to me is having boolean canListenInput field. Use it inside of watcher.
email.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
#Override
public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
if (canListenInput) {
emailChanged = true;
}
}
});
Clear it before changing text programmatically. Set it inside of onAttachedToWindow, (after state) restoration:
#Override
public void onAttachedToWindow() {
super.onAttachedToWindow();
canListenInput = true;
}

Depending on your use case (e.g. you are auto-populating this field when the user types into another field), you can also check if the view has focus, e.g.:
textView.doAfterTextChanged {
val isValueChangedByUser = textView.hasFocus()
// ...
}

I have created some extension methods to tackle this scenario
inline fun TextView.runTaggingCode(block: () -> Unit) {
this.setTag(R.string.tag_text_id, "set_from_code")
block()
this.setTag(R.string.tag_text_id, null)
}
fun TextView.isTaggedForCode() = this.getTag(R.string.tag_text_id) != null
where I have defined the R.string.tag_text_id as below
<string name="tag_text_id" translatable="false">dummy</string>
Now where I to use these methods, I will simply change my code as below,
override fun beforeTextChanged(
s: CharSequence, start: Int, count: Int,
after: Int,
) {
if (textView.isTaggedForCode()) {
return
}
textView.runTaggingCode {
// your logic here
}
}
But in case you don't want to change the same text view text, in it own TextWatcher you can also see the answer

You can do this by adding:
private String current = "";
#Override
public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
if(!s.toString().equals(current)){
[your_edittext].removeTextChangedListener(this);
//Format your string here...
current = formatted;
[your_edittext].setText(formatted);
[your_edittext].setSelection(formatted.length());
[your_edittext].addTextChangedListener(this);
}

How to remove focus without setting focus to another control?

I like my UIs to be intuitive; each screen should naturally and unobtrusively guide the user on to the next step in the app. Barring that, I strive to make things as confusing and confounding as possible.
Just kidding :-)
I've got three TableRows, each containing a read-only and non-focusable EditText control and then a button to its right. Each button starts the same activity but with a different argument. The user makes a selection there and the sub-activity finishes, populating the appropriate EditText with the user's selection.
It's the classic cascading values mechanism; each selection narrows the available options for the next selection, etc. Thus I'm disabling both controls on each of the next rows until the EditText on the current row contains a value.
I need to do one of two things, in this order of preference:
When a button is clicked, immediately remove focus without setting focus to a different button
Set focus to the first button when the activity starts
The problem manifests after the sub-activity returns; the button that was clicked retains focus.
Re: #1 above - There doesn't appear to be a removeFocus() method, or something similar
Re: #2 above - I can use requestFocus() to set focus to the button on the next row, and that works after the sub-activity returns, but for some reason it doesn't work in the parent activity's onCreate().
I need UI consistency in either direction--either no buttons have focus after the sub-activity finishes or each button receives focus depending on its place in the logic flow, including the very first (and only) active button prior to any selection.

Using clearFocus() didn't seem to be working for me either as you found (saw in comments to another answer), but what worked for me in the end was adding:
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/my_layout"
android:focusable="true"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true" ...>
to my very top level Layout View (a linear layout). To remove focus from all Buttons/EditTexts etc, you can then just do
LinearLayout myLayout = (LinearLayout) activity.findViewById(R.id.my_layout);
myLayout.requestFocus();
Requesting focus did nothing unless I set the view to be focusable.

Old question, but I came across it when I had a similar issue and thought I'd share what I ended up doing.
The view that gained focus was different each time so I used the very generic:
View current = getCurrentFocus();
if (current != null) current.clearFocus();

You can use View.clearFocus().
Use View.requestFocus() called from onResume().

android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants"
using the following in the activity with some layout options below seemed to work as desired.
getWindow().getDecorView().findViewById(android.R.id.content).clearFocus();
in connection with the following parameters on the root view.
<?xml
android:focusable="true"
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
android:descendantFocusability="beforeDescendants" />
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/ViewGroup#attr_android:descendantFocusability
Answer thanks to:
https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/1856/how-to-disable-auto-focus-on-edit-text
About windowSoftInputMode
There's yet another point of contention to be aware of. By default,
Android will automatically assign initial focus to the first EditText
or focusable control in your Activity. It naturally follows that the
InputMethod (typically the soft keyboard) will respond to the focus
event by showing itself. The windowSoftInputMode attribute in
AndroidManifest.xml, when set to stateAlwaysHidden, instructs the
keyboard to ignore this automatically-assigned initial focus.
<activity
android:name=".MyActivity"
android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"/>
great reference

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
android:id="#+id/ll_root_view"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical">
LinearLayout llRootView = findViewBindId(R.id.ll_root_view);
llRootView.clearFocus();
I use this when already finished update profile info and remove all focus from EditText in my layout
====> Update: In parent layout content my EditText add line:
android:focusableInTouchMode="true"

What about just adding android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden" on your activity in the manifest.
Taken from a smart man commenting on this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2059394/956975

I tried to disable and enable focusability for view and it worked for me (focus was reset):
focusedView.setFocusable(false);
focusedView.setFocusableInTouchMode(false);
focusedView.setFocusable(true);
focusedView.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);

First of all, it will 100% work........
Create onResume() method.
Inside this onResume() find the view which is focusing again and again by findViewById().
Inside this onResume() set requestFocus() to this view.
Inside this onResume() set clearFocus to this view.
Go in xml of same layout and find that top view which you want to be focused and set focusable true and focusableInTuch true.
Inside this onResume() find the above top view by findViewById
Inside this onResume() set requestFocus() to this view at the last.
And now enjoy......

android:focusableInTouchMode="true"
android:focusable="true"
android:clickable="true"
Add them to your ViewGroup that includes your EditTextView.
It works properly to my Constraint Layout. Hope this help

You could try turning off the main Activity's ability to save its state (thus making it forget what control had text and what had focus). You will need to have some other way of remembering what your EditText's have and repopulating them onResume(). Launch your sub-Activities with startActivityForResult() and create an onActivityResult() handler in your main Activity that will update the EditText's correctly. This way you can set the proper button you want focused onResume() at the same time you repopulate the EditText's by using a myButton.post(new Runnable(){ run() { myButton.requestFocus(); } });
The View.post() method is useful for setting focus initially because that runnable will be executed after the window is created and things settle down, allowing the focus mechanism to function properly by that time. Trying to set focus during onCreate/Start/Resume() usually has issues, I've found.
Please note this is pseudo-code and non-tested, but it's a possible direction you could try.

You do not need to clear focus, just add this code where you want to focus
time_statusTV.setFocusable(true);
time_statusTV.requestFocus();
InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager)this.getSystemService(Service.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.showSoftInput( time_statusTV, 0);

Try the following (calling clearAllEditTextFocuses();)
private final boolean clearAllEditTextFocuses() {
View v = getCurrentFocus();
if(v instanceof EditText) {
final FocusedEditTextItems list = new FocusedEditTextItems();
list.addAndClearFocus((EditText) v);
//Focus von allen EditTexten entfernen
boolean repeat = true;
do {
v = getCurrentFocus();
if(v instanceof EditText) {
if(list.containsView(v))
repeat = false;
else list.addAndClearFocus((EditText) v);
} else repeat = false;
} while(repeat);
final boolean result = !(v instanceof EditText);
//Focus wieder setzen
list.reset();
return result;
} else return false;
}
private final static class FocusedEditTextItem {
private final boolean focusable;
private final boolean focusableInTouchMode;
#NonNull
private final EditText editText;
private FocusedEditTextItem(final #NonNull EditText v) {
editText = v;
focusable = v.isFocusable();
focusableInTouchMode = v.isFocusableInTouchMode();
}
private final void clearFocus() {
if(focusable)
editText.setFocusable(false);
if(focusableInTouchMode)
editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(false);
editText.clearFocus();
}
private final void reset() {
if(focusable)
editText.setFocusable(true);
if(focusableInTouchMode)
editText.setFocusableInTouchMode(true);
}
}
private final static class FocusedEditTextItems extends ArrayList<FocusedEditTextItem> {
private final void addAndClearFocus(final #NonNull EditText v) {
final FocusedEditTextItem item = new FocusedEditTextItem(v);
add(item);
item.clearFocus();
}
private final boolean containsView(final #NonNull View v) {
boolean result = false;
for(FocusedEditTextItem item: this) {
if(item.editText == v) {
result = true;
break;
}
}
return result;
}
private final void reset() {
for(FocusedEditTextItem item: this)
item.reset();
}
}

Select + copy text in a TextView?

Is there a way to allow the user to select / copy text in a TextView? I need the same functionality of EditText where you can long-press the control and get the popup options of select all / copy, but I need the control to look like a TextView.
Tried a few things like making an EditText use the editable="none" option or inputType="none", but those still retain the framed background of an EditText, which I don't want,
Thanks
------- Update ----------------------
This is 99% there, all I'd want is for the selection hilight to be visible (the orange stuff). Other than that it's good, could live with this though:
<EditText
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:editable="false"
style="?android:attr/textViewStyle"
android:textColor="#color/white"
android:textAppearance="#android:style/TextAppearance.Medium"
android:cursorVisible="false"
android:background="#null" />
I guess it's being caused because of cursorVisible="false" but without that the cursor is present even without any selection being made.

android:textIsSelectable works (at least in ICS - I haven't yet checked in earlier versions)
<TextView
android:id="#+id/deviceIdTV"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textIsSelectable="true"
android:text="" />

Text View needs to be enabled, focusable, longClickable and textIsSelectable
<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text=""
android:id="#+id/pwTextView"
android:enabled="true"
android:textIsSelectable="true"
android:focusable="true"
android:longClickable="true" />

I think I have a better solution.
Just call
registerForContextMenu(yourTextView);
and your TextView will be registered for receiving context menu events.
Then override onCreateContextMenu in your Activity
#Override
public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View v, ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) {
//user has long pressed your TextView
menu.add(0, v.getId(), 0, "text that you want to show in the context menu - I use simply Copy");
//cast the received View to TextView so that you can get its text
TextView yourTextView = (TextView) v;
//place your TextView's text in clipboard
ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
clipboard.setText(yourTextView.getText());
}
Hope this helps you and anyone else looking for a way to copy text from a TextView

textview1.setTextIsSelectable(true);
This will enable user to select and copy text on long clicking or as we do usually

Using Kotlin Programmatically (Manual Copy)
button.setTextIsSelectable(true)
Or, add a Kotlin property extension
var TextView.selectable
get() = isTextSelectable
set(value) = setTextIsSelectable(value)
Then call
textview.selectable = true
// or
if (textview.selectable) { ...
Using Kotlin Programmatically (Auto-Copy)
If you want to auto-copy when user long-presses you view, this is the base code required:
myView.setOnLongClickListener {
val clipboardManager = context.getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE) as ClipboardManager
val clip = ClipData.newPlainText("Copied String", myString)
clipboardManager.setPrimaryClip(clip)
true // Or false if not consumed
}
You may want to add a Toast to confirm it happened
Or, add a Kotlin extension function
myView.copyOnHold() // pass custom string to not use view contents
fun TextView.copyOnHold(customText: String? = null) {
setOnLongClickListener {
val clipboardManager = context.getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE) as ClipboardManager
val clip = ClipData.newPlainText("Copied String", customText ?: text)
clipboardManager.setPrimaryClip(clip)
true // Or false if not consumed
}
}
Using Xml (Manual Copy)
Add this to your <TextView>
android:textIsSelectable="true"
NOTE: All of these require android:enabled="true" and android:focusable="true", which are the default values for a TextView.

I'm trying to implement the same, and your question helped me to set my editext layout correctly. So Thanks! :)
Then I realized, that the highlight will actually be visible if the cursor is on.
But I just like you do not want to see a cursor before long clicking on the text, so I hide the cursor in the layout.xml file just like you, and added an eventlistener for long click and display the cursor only when a selection starts.
So add the listener in your Activity in the onCreate section:
public TextView htmltextview;
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
...
htmltextview.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener(){
public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
htmltextview.setCursorVisible(true);
return false;
}
});
}
And voilá, no cursor at the beginning, and if you long-click, the cursor appears with the selection boundaries.
I hope I could help.
Cheers,
fm

I was also trying to do something similar but still needed a custom approach with manipulation of highlighting of text in TextView. I triggered highlight and copying on LongClick action.
This is how I managed using SpannableString:
SpannableString highlightString = new SpannableString(textView.getText());
highlightString.setSpan(new BackgroundColorSpan(ContextCompat.getColor(getActivity(), R.color.gray))
, 0, textView.getText().length(), Spanned.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
textView.setText(highlightString);
copyToClipboard(urlToShare);
and the copy function:
public void copyToClipboard(String copyText) {
ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
ClipData clip = ClipData.newPlainText("url", copyText);
clipboard.setPrimaryClip(clip);
Toast toast = Toast.makeText(getActivity(), "Link is copied", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT);
toast.show();
}
I hope it's helpful for someone who ends up on this question :)

I have found it doesn't work the first time I double click, but it works there after ( at least in android 11). This told me it needed to get focus. So, in the onCreate event, I first made the text view selectable, then I requested the focus to shift to the text view. Now I'm not saying the text view can lose focus and the first attempted selection will work. Not guaranteed. What is guaranteed is once it has focus, it'll work every time until it loses focus again. Don't forget about androids animations. So allow at least a half second for the non overridable animation to play out when the keyboard is hiding.
// In onCreate
TextView1.setTextIsSelectable( true );
// Allow animations to play out.
timer = new TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
TextView1.requestFocus();
}
});
}
};
_timer.schedule(timer, (int)(1000));
}

Thanks a lot gilbot for your explanation. I just want to add another thing.
Selected text background color follows your app theme's colorAccent
For example check the image below
Here AppTheme is my application theme.
<item name="colorAccent">#color/cold</item>
and the colorAccent value will be the selected text background color.

Just use this simple library:
GitHub: Selectable TextView