Working with the EditText

Overview

The EditText is the standard text entry widget in Android apps. If the user needs to enter text into an app, this is the primary way for them to do that.

There are many important properties that can be set to customize the behavior of an EditText. Several of these are listed below. Check out the official text fields guide for even more input field details.

Usage

An EditText is added to a layout with all default behaviors with the following XML:

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/et_simple"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_width="match_parent">
</EditText>

Note that an EditText is simply a thin extension of the TextView and inherits all of the same properties.

Retrieving the Value

Getting the value of the text entered into an EditText is as follows:

EditText simpleEditText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.et_simple);
String strValue = simpleEditText.getText().toString();

Customizing the Input Type

By default, any text contents within an EditText control is displayed as plain text. By setting inputType, we can facilitate input of different types of information, like phone numbers and passwords:

<EditText
    ...
    android:inputType="phone">
</EditText>

Most common input types include:

Type	Description
textUri	Text that will be used as a URI
textEmailAddress	Text that will be used as an e-mail address
textPersonName	Text that is the name of a person
textPassword	Text that is a password that should be obscured
number	A numeric only field
phone	For entering a phone number
date	For entering a date
time	For entering a time
textMultiLine	Allow multiple lines of text in the field

You can see a list of all available input types here.

Further Entry Customization

We might want to limit the entry to a single-line of text (avoid newlines):

<EditText
  android:singleLine="true"
  android:lines="1"
/>

You might also want to use the capitalize attribute to automatically capitalize each sentence, word or character:

<EditText
  android:capitalize="sentences"
/>

You can limit the characters that can be entered into a field using the digits attribute:

<EditText
  android:inputType="number"
  android:digits="01"
/>

This would restrict the digits entered to just "0" and "1". We might want to limit the total number of characters with:

<EditText
  android:maxLength="5"
/>

Using these properties we can define the expected input behavior for text fields.

Displaying Placeholder Hints

You may want to set the hint for the EditText control to prompt a user for specific input with:

<EditText
    ...
    android:hint="@string/my_hint">
</EditText>

which results in:

Listening for EditText Input

Check out the basic event listeners cliffnotes for a look at how to listen for changes to an EditText and perform an action when those changes occur.

Providing Auto-complete

Check out the official text fields guide for a step-by-step on how to setup autocomplete for the entry.

References

• http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/controls/text.html
• http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/android-user-interface-design-edittext-controls--mobile-7183
• http://www.codeofaninja.com/2012/01/android-edittext-example.html
• http://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/android_edittext_control.htm
• http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/EditText.html