Develop Reference

Android - ellipsize="end" Not Showing Three Dots

I'm working on a TextView which is contained in a ConstraintLayout.
I want ellipsize to add three dots at the end of text(in the TextView) if its length exceeds maxLength.
maxLines="1" and ellipsize="end" seemed to the best answer after a thorough research about my question. Unfortunately, it didn't work for my case. The three dots did't show at all.
Here's the snapshot :
The original string was "Test for long description"(The n was dropped). It's supposed to show "Test for long descrip...".
Here's my xml :
<TextView
android:id="#+id/txtDescription"
android:maxLength="24"
android:maxLines="1"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginStart="120dp"
android:layout_marginTop="8dp"
android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
android:layout_marginBottom="8dp"
android:text="DescriptionView"
android:textSize="18sp"
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintHorizontal_bias="0.0"
app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintVertical_bias="0.72" />
I feel like there's something override ellipsize in the XML, or did I miss something crucial in the XML file?

The problem is:
android:maxLength="24"
remove it since you want the TextView to be ellipsized.
A TextView gets ellipsized when it is not wide enough to show the whole text. I think you do not understand what this attribute android:ellipsize="end" is all about. If it is wide enough then you will not see any dots at the end because they are not needed.
If you set android:layout_width="40dp" then you will see the dots.
With android:layout_width="wrap_content" the TextView is wide enough and it is not ellipsized.

1) Add one more property android:singleLine="true" in your Textview
(But its Deprecated so use second option)
2) Use this three together
android:maxLines="1"
android:scrollHorizontally="true"
android:ellipsize="end"

Ellipsize is quite a pain in android, apply below on your textView :
txtDescription.setSingleLine(true);
Hope it helps.

The key for making three dots shows is constrain the width of the text view.
Suppose the name of image in your posted figure is left_image,
change the xml attributes of TextView as below:
....
android:layout_width="0dp"
app:layout_constraintStart_toEndOf="#+id/left_image"
....
above two lines make the width of TextView is constrainted(between left img and right border of parent).

In my case following line was the problem. I commented it out and it worked.
<item name="android:inputType">text|textNoSuggestions</item>

To fix this, you need to use a fixed width for the textview instead of maxLength attribute in your xml
In xml :
android:maxLines="1"
android:ellipsize="end"
And in java/kotlin program :[Important]
textDescription.setSelected(true) -> Java
or
textDescription.isSelected=true -> Kotlin

How to limit lines on a TextView

I'm trying to limit a TextView to 1 line, the length of the screen. I'm having trouble keeping it from expanding.
I've tried adding the
android:minLines="1"
android:maxLines="1"
attributes to the TextView xml. This does keep the view from expanding, but this does not limit the characters of the text. For example, if I have entered the maximum number of characters in a line and proceed to add a '(' to the string, I can see the top of it printed below the first line.
Basically, I need a way to limit the amount of characters to the width of the screen. I've tried this:
while(txt.getLineCount() > 1) {
txt.setText(txt.getText().subSequence(0,txt.getText().length()-1));
}
which doesn't work at all. I've also tried that same method with comparing the txt.getHeight() to the txt.getTextSize().
I'm out of ideas. What can I do?

If I use a textview this way it will ocupy only 1 line:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:maxLines="1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

Try this. This will limit textview to single line. , if the text was more than one line it will display ... at end.
<TextView
android:id="#+id/textView"
android:singleline="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

EditText automatically to the latest char?

I want create simple calculator for android, and having problem with displaying long equations. Everything is OK (one line, horizontal scrolling), but I don't see end of line (always see start of line). Would it be possible to scroll it automatically to the latest character?
Example:
Hello there
...lo there
--------
-
<EditText
android:id="#+id/etDisplay"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="4"
android:clickable="false"
android:cursorVisible="false"
android:ems="10"
android:focusable="false"
android:focusableInTouchMode="false"
android:gravity="right"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:scrollHorizontally="true"
android:singleLine="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:hint="0." />
Image: SimpleCalc image

Try this one:
EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editText1);
editText.setSelection(editText.getText().length());

The "official" way of doing that is (as suggested in the comments), via the ellipsize attribute set to end. If it's not working, it might be due this attribute is a bit tricky, meaning that it has some circumstances to be happening in order to work (like for example, singleLine=true).
You might want to see this, it helped me when I had this issue.

Can't get text to wrap and use ellipsis in Android 2.3

I have a textview that should show a maximum of 5 lines and wrap the text. It should also show an ellipsis if the text is too long. The following works using Android 4.1 but not on 2.3. If I set scrollHorizontally to false, I only get 2 lines. Is there anything I can do to get the same result under 4.1?
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tvDescription"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignTop="#id/ivIcon"
android:layout_toRightOf="#id/ivIcon"
android:layout_marginTop="-5dp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="5"
android:scrollHorizontally="true"
android:textColor="#000000"
android:textSize="16sp" />

Seems to be a known bug. Here's one solution I came across:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/6763689/753632
But that's over 2 years old. Not sure if someone came up with a better solution.

You must try android:Lines in place of android.maxLines

Android TextView with multiple lines

I want a TextView that should be broken into 4 lines. For e.g.
Vishal Vyas
Having
342
Reputation
Note, the gravity should be center_horizontal
I tried following :
<TextView
android:gravity="center_horizontal"
android:id="#+id/lblUserRep"
android:layout_width="70dp"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:lines="4"
android:maxLines="4"
android:text="VishalVyas Having 342 Reputation" >
</TextView>
This works! but produces following output:
VishalVyas
Having
342
Reputation
Problems:
It doesn't work with the space between words Vishal and Vyas.
android:layout_width="70dp" is harcoded and there can be any name with n number of characters instead of VishalVyas.
Please advice.
Added:
It would be fine if I need to write a custom TextView for achieving this but I'll require some guidance.
Thanks in advance.

I think it's wrapping because "Vishal Vyas" is going beyond 70dp. Instead, do wrap_content on the width and use newline characters for lines instead of wrapping (i.e. "Vishal Vyas\n342\nReputation")

You should be able to insert the newline character \n to control where the splits go. Once you do that, you can expand your TextView wider so that it can accommodate a longer user name but still break in the right place.

android:lines="2"
android:minLines="2"
android:singleLine="false"
Even if Android Studio warns that android:singleLine=false is deprecated, keep it and one can have the number of lines they want for their text box depending on the length of their text

I did so:
The Container of TextView:
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
The TextView:
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
Then,
The Text of the TextView was showed in two lines or more...