[java] How To limit the number of characters in JTextField?

How to limit the number of characters entered in a JTextField?

Suppose I want to enter say 5 characters max. After that no characters can be entered into it.

Just Try This :

textfield.addKeyListener(new java.awt.event.KeyAdapter() {
    public void keyTyped(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
        if(textfield.getText().length()>=5&&!(evt.getKeyChar()==KeyEvent.VK_DELETE||evt.getKeyChar()==KeyEvent.VK_BACK_SPACE)) {
            getToolkit().beep();
            evt.consume();
         }
     }
});

Read the section from the Swing tutorial on Implementing a DocumentFilter for a more current solution.

This solution will work an any Document, not just a PlainDocument.

This is a more current solution than the one accepted.

I have solved this problem by using the following code segment:

private void jTextField1KeyTyped(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
    boolean max = jTextField1.getText().length() > 4;
    if ( max ){
        evt.consume();
    }        
}

Just put this code in KeyTyped event:

    if ((jtextField.getText() + evt.getKeyChar()).length() > 20) {
        evt.consume();
    }

Where "20" is the maximum number of characters that you want.

Great question, and it's odd that the Swing toolkit doesn't include this functionality natively for JTextFields. But, here's a great answer from my Udemy.com course "Learn Java Like a Kid":

txtGuess = new JTextField();
txtGuess.addKeyListener(new KeyAdapter() {
    public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) { 
        if (txtGuess.getText().length() >= 3 ) // limit textfield to 3 characters
            e.consume(); 
    }  
});

This limits the number of characters in a guessing game text field to 3 characters, by overriding the keyTyped event and checking to see if the textfield already has 3 characters - if so, you're "consuming" the key event (e) so that it doesn't get processed like normal.

If you wanna have everything into one only piece of code, then you can mix tim's answer with the example's approach found on the API for JTextField, and you'll get something like this:

public class JTextFieldLimit extends JTextField {
    private int limit;

    public JTextFieldLimit(int limit) {
        super();
        this.limit = limit;
    }

    @Override
    protected Document createDefaultModel() {
        return new LimitDocument();
    }

    private class LimitDocument extends PlainDocument {

        @Override
        public void insertString( int offset, String  str, AttributeSet attr ) throws BadLocationException {
            if (str == null) return;

            if ((getLength() + str.length()) <= limit) {
                super.insertString(offset, str, attr);
            }
        }       

    }

}

Then there is no need to add a Document to the JTextFieldLimit due to JTextFieldLimit already have the functionality inside.

import java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager;
import javax.swing.InputVerifier;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import javax.swing.text.AbstractDocument;
import javax.swing.text.AttributeSet;
import javax.swing.text.BadLocationException;
import javax.swing.text.DocumentFilter;
import javax.swing.text.DocumentFilter.FilterBypass;

/**
 *
 * @author Igor
 */
public class CustomLengthTextField extends JTextField {

    protected boolean upper = false;
    protected int maxlength = 0;

    public CustomLengthTextField() {
        this(-1);
    }

    public CustomLengthTextField(int length, boolean upper) {
        this(length, upper, null);
    }

    public CustomLengthTextField(int length, InputVerifier inpVer) {
        this(length, false, inpVer);
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param length - maksimalan length
     * @param upper - turn it to upercase
     * @param inpVer - InputVerifier
     */
    public CustomLengthTextField(int length, boolean upper, InputVerifier inpVer) {
        super();
        this.maxlength = length;
        this.upper = upper;
        if (length > 0) {
            AbstractDocument doc = (AbstractDocument) getDocument();
            doc.setDocumentFilter(new DocumentSizeFilter());
        }
        setInputVerifier(inpVer);
    }

    public CustomLengthTextField(int length) {
        this(length, false);
    }

    public void setMaxLength(int length) {
        this.maxlength = length;
    }

    class DocumentSizeFilter extends DocumentFilter {

        public void insertString(FilterBypass fb, int offs, String str, AttributeSet a)
                throws BadLocationException {

            //This rejects the entire insertion if it would make
            //the contents too long. Another option would be
            //to truncate the inserted string so the contents
            //would be exactly maxCharacters in length.
            if ((fb.getDocument().getLength() + str.length()) <= maxlength) {
                super.insertString(fb, offs, str, a);
            }
        }

        public void replace(FilterBypass fb, int offs,
                int length,
                String str, AttributeSet a)
                throws BadLocationException {

            if (upper) {
                str = str.toUpperCase();
            }

            //This rejects the entire replacement if it would make
            //the contents too long. Another option would be
            //to truncate the replacement string so the contents
            //would be exactly maxCharacters in length.
            int charLength = fb.getDocument().getLength() + str.length() - length;

            if (charLength <= maxlength) {
                super.replace(fb, offs, length, str, a);
                if (charLength == maxlength) {
                    focusNextComponent();
                }
            } else {
                focusNextComponent();
            }
        }

        private void focusNextComponent() {
            if (CustomLengthTextField.this == KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().getFocusOwner()) {
                KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().focusNextComponent();
            }
        }
    }
}