Develop Reference

RTL alignment not working with long text

I'm working on a layout that includes both English and Hebrew (intended as right-to-left) text, in separate views. When a line of Hebrew text gets beyond a certain length, it becomes written left-to-right (I assume that this has to do with length because it looks fine with shorter text, and when I display it on a tablet instead of a phone).
The relevant view looks like this:
<TextView
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:singleLine="true"
android:gravity="center"
android:textDirection="rtl"
android:text="#string/tx_middle_text"
android:textSize="#dimen/big_text_dp" />
and the string is defined in strings.xml like this:
<string name="tx_middle_text">טקסט בעברית</string>
(I've replaced the original text, which was 50 characters long, and made up entirely of Hebrew letters and white-spaces).
Note the text has the rtl attribute. I've tried replacing it with anyRtl, and I've tried changing gravity to "right" - neither helps.
I need the text to remain in one line and be cut off with an ellipsis if it doesn't fit - as it is, that's what happens, but with the text written left-to-right.
How can I fix this?
Edit: For an ad-hoc solution I made a shorter string as an alternative resource for the smaller layout (it works as long as the text is less than one line long on a given device), but I'd still like to know if there's a general solution to this.

RTL is detected automatically by the system depending on the characters. i.e for Arabic characters, text will be drawn from right to left.
This is an example on how my spinner is drawn. For this TextView:
<TextView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/spinner_item"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="50dp"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
android:textColor="#color/spinner_filter_text"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:singleLine="true"
android:paddingStart="20dp"
android:paddingEnd="20dp"/>
And these strings:
<string name="all_categories">All Categories</string> (values)
(values-ar)
The result is:
If I modify the TextView with:
android:layout_width="100dp"
The result is:
Which I think is fine... Note that in strings.xml the string direction for ar language is wrong but Android is drawing it properly. I guess it is because of some Android Studio setting.

Replace android:singleLine="true" with
android:lines="1"
android:maxLines="1"
also add android:ellipsize="end"

Dynamic Android TextView size

I have a RelativeLayout where I have 2 TextView side by side (the left one it's the field name and the right one it's the value).
What I need it's to have the left textview always showing the full field name and the other TextView using the remaining space in that line to print the field value. Imagining that I have a field named "Field" with the value "That's a huge value!" and the remaining width of screen just leaves us with space to have half of the field value I need to have it like this:
| Field: That's a huge v... |
If, for some reason, the field name would fill the entire screen I don't event want to appear the value (I have another way of solving that).
I'm trying to find an adaptive way to do this (for any field and any value) but I can't find the right settings.

If I understood your question, the answer is simple:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv1"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="FieldHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:"/>
<TextView
android:id="#+id/tv2"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="#+id/tv1"
android:singleLine="true"
android:text="Value lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggT"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Android TextView doesn't do linebreak in ListView (multiline text)

I have created a 3-level ExpandableListView and have the problem that the TextViews which are used for the 2nd and 3rd level do not support line-breaks if the content is too long. It should be dynamically over more than one line, if needed. The 1st level TextView does it well (automatically) and I actually had the same settings in the xml for all three TextViews. Followed are the layout xmls, the one TextView with the id groupname is for the 2nd level (e.g. the first red X in the picture below) and the one with id childname is for the 3rd level (e.g. the second and third red X in the picture below). It should all be like at the green hook in the picture.
"singleLine=false" seems not to work. Also tried some different options found in other SO posts, but what I've testet haven't worked for me. Like ellipsize, scroll horizontale, different layout_width and so on. The only thing worked is to set a fixed layout_width on x hundred dp, but this is not dynamically, I'm right?
Would be great if anybody could help me with this. Lot of thanks!
Here's a screenshot:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="match_parent" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/childname"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginRight="60dp"
android:layout_marginLeft="60dp"
android:textColor="#AAAAAA"
android:singleLine="false"
android:text=""
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/groupname"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_marginLeft="45dp"
android:layout_marginRight="60dp"
android:textColor="#555555"
android:singleLine="false"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:text=""
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />

Add this line in your xml
android:inputType="textMultiLine"
or
Add text using coding like this, where you can add line break using '\n'(But here you have to manually add breaks where you want them)
TextView txt1 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.childname);
txt1.setText("Hi \nHello \nHow are You");
Results will be
Hi
Hello
How are You
Edit
Accepted Answer - removing the line 'android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"

try using LinearLayout instead of RelativeLayout as parent for the TextView

I had add this attribute to my TextView inside ListView, and makes it do line break correct.
android:maxWidth="xxxdp"
F.Y.R.

Android bold text in xml not working

I am making an application, and in that application I want to make some text which is partly bold and partly normal like this:
Cake Try this delicious cake made with carrots.
In my main.xml, I have entered this:
<LinearLayout
android:id="#+id/itemone"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_weight="20"
android:padding="3dp" >
<ImageView
android:layout_width="110dp"
android:layout_height="85dp"
android:src="#drawable/cake" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/TextView01"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="#string/cake"
android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />
</LinearLayout>
And in my strings.xml I have entered this:
<string name="cake"><b>Cake</b>\n Try this delicious cake made with carrots.</string>
The result is not what I except. All I get is the word "Cake", and its not bold.

The textAppearanceSmall messes up this thing.
It takes this as the style and ignores the others. Don't include it.
There is also something that messes up, the tags the "<" and ">" should be replaced because there are special xml characters. Search for the html escape characters or fraction characters and the < should look like this: & l t ; (one word)
If you are bored you could search for CDATA in xml. There is a way in including plain text inside xml.
No need to dynamically setting the text of the TextView.

Why does TextView in single line elipsized with "end" show boxes?

I'm using a TextView in Android, what I want to show 1 line in TextView ending with ". " but this give [] type box at the end. I don't know why? I just want to remvoe this box and only to show text ending with "... "
Update code for the list_row.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="85dp"
android:orientation="horizontal"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:cacheColorHint="#4C7B8D"
android:background="#4C7B8D">
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/videoListImage"
android:src="#drawable/audio_thumbnail60x60"
android:layout_height="75dp"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:layout_width="75dp"
android:padding="4dp"
android:background="#color/light_gray" />
<RelativeLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/next_arrow"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:gravity="center_vertical"
android:paddingLeft = "5dp">
<TextView
android:id="#+id/row_title"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textColor="#color/app_background_color"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/row_dis"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textColor="#color/color_black"
android:layout_marginRight="2dp"
android:textSize="15sp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1" />
<TextView
android:text="$7.50"
android:id="#+id/audio_price_btn"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textSize="16dp"
android:textColor="#color/color_white"
android:textStyle = "bold"
android:paddingLeft = "12dp"
android:paddingRight = "12dp"
android:background="#drawable/blue_round_cornor_background" />
</LinearLayout>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/next_arrow"
android:src="#drawable/next_arrow"
android:layout_toLeftOf="#+id/saved_purchased"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:layout_height="25dp"
android:layout_width="18dp"
android:layout_centerVertical="true"
android:visibility = "gone"/>
<ImageView
android:id="#+id/saved_purchased"
android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop ="true"
android:scaleType="fitXY"
android:layout_height="25dp"
android:layout_width="25dp"
android:layout_marginRight="2dp"/>
</RelativeLayout>
Here is the images of "next_arrow"
Here is the code I am using the getView() in adapter.
String discription = listData.getDescription();
if (discription != null && discription.length() > 0) {
if (textViewDis != null) {
textViewDis.setTypeface(titleFont);
Log.e("data", ""+discription);
discription.replaceAll("\r\n", "");
textViewDis.setText(discription);
}
}
Here is the actual String of description to be display.
Andrew and Stephanie Tidwell candidly share their success story in this business. This story will help everyone listening realize that no one is perfect, even in a second generation business. This is a streaming audio file.
Still have some issue? I can update question more.

Quoting myself from one of my books:
Android's TextView class has the built-in ability to "ellipsize" text,
truncating it and adding an ellipsis if the text is longer than the available
space. You can use this via the android:ellipsize attribute, for example.
This works fairly well, at least for single-line text.
The ellipsis that Android uses is not three periods. Rather it uses an actual
ellipsis character, where the three dots are contained in a single glyph.
Hence, any font that you use that you also use the "ellipsizing" feature will
need the ellipsis glyph.
Beyond that, though, Android pads out the string that gets rendered on-screen, such that the length (in characters) is the same before and after
"ellipsizing". To make this work, Android replaces one character with the
ellipsis, and replaces all other removed characters with the Unicode
character 'ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE' (U+FEFF). This means the
"extra" characters after the ellipsis do not take up any visible space on
screen, yet they can be part of the string.
However, this means any custom fonts you use for TextView widgets that
you use with android:ellipsize must also support this special Unicode
character. Not all fonts do, and you will get artifacts in the on-screen
representation of your shortened strings if your font lacks this character
(e.g., rogue X's appear at the end of the line).

I have bumped into the same problem when was trying to use custom "MetaPro-Medium.otf" as font for TextView with a
android:singleLine="true".
The box at the end of the string was really annoying.
I found no way how to solve this problem in Android, but at the same time found following work around.
I have installed "FontLab Studio v5.04"
Opened my font
Selected one of symbols I was not going to use
Menu->Glyph->Rename Glyph
Changed the name and unicode index from it`s original value to "FEFF" (Thank CommonsWare)
Double click on selected symbol and then remove all lines this symbol was created from.
Menu->File->Generate Font->save as type otf
As a result I got updated font and problem gone away.

Arslan, your layout is working fine in my case, I have tested the same with:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/row_title"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textSize="18sp"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="1"
android:text="This is the demo testing demo testing This is the demo testing demo testing"/>
... and getting the exact output as you want "one line ended with ..." and box should be removed. So I think there may be a something wrong with any character or text you are setting.

I face the same issue (show boxes([])) for some special symbols when I try to show content which is coming from webservice url even, I don't use android:ellipsize. then I replace code from
textview.settext(content);
to
textview.settext(Html.fromHtml(content));
working fine.

Actually I was running into this issue and instead of changing the font or using setText I just added scrollHorizontally as false and it fixed the extra box character
android:singleLine="true"
android:scrollHorizontally="false"
android:ellipsize="end"

There was a similar problem which i was facing in my project where in i was using a font type for the text view. few font types have these problem of making the ... appear as [] at the last. The problem would be solved if u try changing the font.