[android] How to create a TextArea in Android

How do I display a TextArea for my android project? From xml, the only choice is TextField, multi lined. But thats editable. I need a TextArea which is only for displaying messages/text can't be edit/input by the user.

If you do not want to allow user to enter text TextView is the best option here. Any how you can also add EditText for this purpose. here is a sample code for that.

This would automatically show scrollbar if there is more text than the specified lines.

<EditText
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:inputType="textMultiLine"
    android:lines="8"
    android:maxLines="10"
    android:minLines="6"
    android:scrollbars="vertical" />

Edit: Adding attributes below to textView would make it a textArea that would not be editable.

android:lines="8"
android:maxLines="10"
android:minLines="6" // optional

Try this:

<EditText
        android:id="@+id/edit_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="150dp"
        android:inputType="text|textMultiLine"
        android:gravity="top"/>

All of the answers are good but not complete. Use this.

 <EditText
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="0dp"
      android:layout_marginTop="12dp"
      android:layout_marginBottom="12dp"
      android:background="@drawable/text_area_background"
      android:gravity="start|top"
      android:hint="@string/write_your_comments"
      android:imeOptions="actionDone"
      android:importantForAutofill="no"
      android:inputType="textMultiLine"
      android:padding="12dp" />

Defining an Android Mulitline EditText Field is done via the inputType=”textMultiline”. Unfortunately the text looks strangely aligned. To solve that also use the gravity=”left|top” attribute.

<EditText
   android:id="@+id/editText1"
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent"
   android:ems="10"
   android:gravity="left|top"
   android:inputType="textMultiLine" >

   <requestFocus />

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this short answer might help someone who is looking to do. add this simple code in your code

<EditText
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:editable="false"
    android:focusable="false"
    android:singleLine="true" />

       <EditText
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="160dp"
            android:ems="10"
            android:gravity="left|top"
            android:hint="Write your comment.."
            android:inputType="textMultiLine"
            android:textSize="15sp">
            <requestFocus />
       </EditText>

Use TextView inside a ScrollView to display messages with any no.of lines. User can't edit the text in this view as in EditText.

I think this is good for your requirement. Try it once.

You can change the default color and text size in XML file only if you want to fix them as below:

<TextView 
    android:id="@+id/tv"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="100px"
    android:textColor="#f00"
    android:textSize="25px"
    android:typeface="serif"
    android:textStyle="italic"/>

or if you want to change dynamically whenever you want use as below:

TextView textarea = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.tv);  // tv is id in XML file for TextView
textarea.setTextSize(20);
textarea.setTextColor(Color.rgb(0xff, 0, 0));
textarea.setTypeface(Typeface.SERIF, Typeface.ITALIC);

Use TextView inside a ScrollView

<ScrollView
    android:id="@+id/ScrollView01"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="150dip">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

</ScrollView>

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/comments_textbox"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="comments"
    android:inputType="textMultiLine"
    android:longClickable="false" />

use it to create multi line text box like textArea in Html

<android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="100dp">
<EditText
    android:id="@+id/question_input"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:ems="10"
    android:inputType="text|textMultiLine"
    android:lineSpacingExtra="5sp"
    android:padding="5dp"
    android:textAlignment="textEnd"
    android:typeface="normal" />

</android.support.v4.widget.NestedScrollView>