What s the best way to limit text length of EditText in Android

Question

What s the best way to limit the text length of an EditText in Android   Is there a way to do this via xml

User · Answer

Another way you can achieve this is by adding the following definition to the XML file:

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/input"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:inputType="number"
    android:maxLength="6"
    android:hint="@string/hint_gov"
    android:layout_weight="1"/>

This will limit the maximum length of the EditText widget to 6 characters.

User · Answer

A note to people who are already using a custom input filter and also want to limit the max length    When you assign input filters in code all previously set input filters are cleared  including one set with android maxLength  I found this out when attempting to use a custom input filter to prevent the use of some characters that we don t allow in a password field  After setting that filter with setFilters the maxLength was no longer observed  The solution was to set maxLength and my custom filter together programmatically  Something like this   myEditText setFilters new InputFilter             new PasswordCharFilter    new InputFilter LengthFilter 20

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Kotlin   edit text filters    InputFilter LengthFilter 10    ZTE Blade A520 has strange effect  When you type more than 10 symbols  for instance  15   EditText shows first 10  but other 5 are not visible and not accessible  But when you delete symbols with Backspace  it first deletes right 5 symbols and then removes remaining 10  To overcome this behaviour use a solution   android inputType  textNoSuggestions textVisiblePassword  android maxLength  10    or this   android inputType  textNoSuggestions    or this  if you want to have suggestions   private class EditTextWatcher private val view  EditText    TextWatcher       private var position   0     private var oldText           override fun afterTextChanged s  Editable     Unit      override fun beforeTextChanged s  CharSequence   start  Int  count  Int  after  Int            oldText   s  toString                 position   view selectionStart            override fun onTextChanged s  CharSequence   start  Int  before  Int  count  Int            val newText   s  toString                 if  newText length  gt  10                with view                    setText oldText                  position   if  start  gt  0  amp  amp  count  gt  2                           Text paste in nonempty field                      start                   else                       if  position in 1  10   1                               Symbol paste in the beginning or middle of the field                          position - 1                       else                           if  start  gt  0                                   Adding symbol to the end of the field                              start - 1                           else                                  Text paste in the empty field                              0                                                                                   setSelection position                                      Usage  editTextWatcher   EditTextWatcher view edit text  view edit text addTextChangedListener editTextWatcher

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Xml  android maxLength  10    Java   InputFilter   editFilters   editText getFilters    InputFilter   newFilters   new InputFilter editFilters length   1   System arraycopy editFilters  0  newFilters  0  editFilters length   newFilters editFilters length    new InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength   editText setFilters newFilters     Kotlin   editText filters    InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength

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Documentation  Example  android maxLength  10

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From material io  you can use TextInputEditText combined with TextInputLayout    lt com google android material textfield TextInputLayout     android layout width  match parent      android layout height  wrap content      app counterEnabled  true      app counterMaxLength  1000      app passwordToggleEnabled  false  gt        lt com google android material textfield TextInputEditText         android id    id edit text          android hint   string description          android layout width  match parent          android layout height  wrap content          android maxLength  1000          android gravity  top start          android inputType  textMultiLine textNoSuggestions   gt    lt  com google android material textfield TextInputLayout gt    You can configure a password EditText with drawable     Or you can limit text length with without a counter     Dependency   implementation  com google android material material 1 1 0-alpha02

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Due to goto10 s observation  I put together the following code to protected against loosing other filters with setting the max length          This sets the maximum length in characters of an EditText view  Since the    max length must be done with a filter  this method gets the current    filters  If there is already a length filter in the view  it will replace    it  otherwise  it will add the max length filter preserving the other         param view     param length     public static void setMaxLength EditText view  int length        InputFilter curFilters        InputFilter LengthFilter lengthFilter      int idx       lengthFilter   new InputFilter LengthFilter length        curFilters   view getFilters        if  curFilters    null            for  idx   0  idx  lt  curFilters length  idx                  if  curFilters idx  instanceof InputFilter LengthFilter                    curFilters idx    lengthFilter                  return                                      since the length filter was not part of the list  but            there are filters  then add the length filter         InputFilter newFilters     new InputFilter curFilters length   1           System arraycopy curFilters  0  newFilters  0  curFilters length           newFilters curFilters length    lengthFilter          view setFilters newFilters         else           view setFilters new InputFilter     lengthFilter

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Kotlin one-liner etxt userinput filters   arrayOf lt InputFilter gt  InputFilter LengthFilter 100    where 100 is the maxLength

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This is a custom EditText Class that allow Length filter to live along with other filters  Thanks to Tim Gallagher s Answer  below   import android content Context  import android text InputFilter  import android util AttributeSet  import android widget EditText    public class EditTextMultiFiltering extends EditText       public EditTextMultiFiltering Context context            super context              public EditTextMultiFiltering Context context  AttributeSet attrs            super context  attrs              public EditTextMultiFiltering Context context  AttributeSet attrs  int defStyleAttr            super context  attrs  defStyleAttr              public void setMaxLength int length            InputFilter curFilters            InputFilter LengthFilter lengthFilter          int idx           lengthFilter   new InputFilter LengthFilter length            curFilters   this getFilters            if  curFilters    null                for  idx   0  idx  lt  curFilters length  idx                      if  curFilters idx  instanceof InputFilter LengthFilter                        curFilters idx    lengthFilter                      return                                                  since the length filter was not part of the list  but                there are filters  then add the length filter             InputFilter newFilters     new InputFilter curFilters length   1               System arraycopy curFilters  0  newFilters  0  curFilters length               newFilters curFilters length    lengthFilter              this setFilters newFilters             else               this setFilters new InputFilter     lengthFilter

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Set Length filter  Restricting to 10 characters only editText setFilters new InputFilter   new InputFilter LengthFilter MAX LENGTH        Allowing only upper case characters editText setFilters new InputFilter   new InputFilter AllCaps         Attaching multiple filters editText setFilters new InputFilter   new InputFilter LengthFilter MAX LENGTH   new InputFilter AllCaps

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TextView tv   new TextView this   tv setFilters new InputFilter    new InputFilter LengthFilter 250

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You can use android maxLength  10  in the EditText  Here the limit is upto 10 characters

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it simple way in xml  android maxLength  quot   length  quot   for setting it programmatically you can use the following function public static void setMaxLengthOfEditText EditText editText  int length        InputFilter   filters   editText getFilters        List arrayList   new ArrayList        int i2   0      if  filters    null  amp  amp  filters length  gt  0            int filtersSize   filters length          int i3   0          while  i2  lt  filtersSize                Object obj   filters i2               if  obj instanceof LengthFilter                    arrayList add new LengthFilter length                    i3   1                else                   arrayList add obj                             i2                      i2   i3            if  i2    0            arrayList add new LengthFilter length              if   arrayList isEmpty              editText setFilters  InputFilter    arrayList toArray new InputFilter arrayList size

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XML  android maxLength  10   Programmatically   int maxLength   10  InputFilter   filters   new InputFilter 1   filters 0    new InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength   yourEditText setFilters filters       Note  internally  EditText  amp  TextView parse the value of android maxLength in XML and use InputFilter LengthFilter   to apply it   See  TextView java L1564

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I have had this problem and I consider we are missing a well explained way of doing this programmatically without losing the already set filters  Setting the length in XML  As the accepted answer states correctly  if you want to define a fixed length to an EditText which you won t change further in the future just define in your EditText XML  android maxLength  quot 10 quot        Setting the length programmatically To set the length programmatically you ll need to set it through an InputFilter  But if you create a new InputFilter and set it to the EditText you will lose all the other already defined filters  e g  maxLines  inputType  etc  which you might have added either through XML or programatically  So this is WRONG  editText setFilters new InputFilter    new InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength      To avoid losing previously added filters you need to get those filters  add the new one  maxLength in this case   and set the filters back to the EditText as follow  Java InputFilter   editFilters   editText getFilters    InputFilter   newFilters   new InputFilter editFilters length   1   System arraycopy editFilters  0  newFilters  0  editFilters length   newFilters editFilters length    new InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength    editText setFilters newFilters    Kotlin however made it easier for everyone  you also need to add the filter to the already existing ones but you can achieve that with a simple  editText filters    InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength

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I had saw a lot of good solutions  but I d like to give a what I think as more complete and user-friendly solution  which include     1  Limit length  2  If input more  give a callback to trigger your toast  3  Cursor can be at middle or tail  4  User can input by paste a string  5  Always discard overflow input and keep origin     public class LimitTextWatcher implements TextWatcher        public interface IF callback          void callback int left              public IF callback if callback       EditText editText      int maxLength       int cursorPositionLast      String textLast      boolean bypass       public LimitTextWatcher EditText editText  int maxLength  IF callback if callback             this editText   editText          this maxLength   maxLength          this if callback   if callback              Override     public void beforeTextChanged CharSequence s  int start  int count  int after             if  bypass                 bypass   false             else                StringBuilder stringBuilder   new StringBuilder                stringBuilder append s               textLast   stringBuilder toString                 this cursorPositionLast   editText getSelectionStart                          Override     public void onTextChanged CharSequence s  int start  int before  int count                 Override     public void afterTextChanged Editable s            if  s toString   length    gt  maxLength                 int left   maxLength - s toString   length                 bypass   true              s clear                 bypass   true              s append textLast                editText setSelection this cursorPositionLast                if  if callback    null                    if callback callback left                                       edit text addTextChangedListener new LimitTextWatcher edit text  MAX LENGTH  new LimitTextWatcher IF callback          Override     public void callback int left            if left  lt   0                Toast makeText MainActivity this   input is full   Toast LENGTH SHORT  show                           What I failed to do is  if user highlight a part of the current input and try to paste an very long string  I don t know how to restore the highlight     Such as  max length is set to 10  user inputed  12345678   and mark  345  as highlight  and try to paste a string of  0000  which will exceed limitation     When I try to use edit text setSelection start 2  end 4  to restore origin status  the result is  it just insert 2 space as  12 345 678   not the origin highlight  I d like someone solve that

User · Answer

Try this for Java programmatically   myEditText new InputFilter    new InputFilter LengthFilter CUSTOM MAX LEN

User · Answer

it simple way in xml   android maxLength  4    if u require to set 4 character in xml edit-text so use this   lt EditText     android id    id edtUserCode      android layout width  wrap content      android layout height  wrap content      android maxLength  4      android hint  Enter user code    gt

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EditText editText   new EditText this   int maxLength   3      editText setFilters new InputFilter    new InputFilter LengthFilter maxLength

User · Answer

For anyone else wondering how to achieve this  here is my extended EditText class EditTextNumeric    setMaxLength int  - sets maximum number of digits   setMaxValue int  - limit maximum integer value   setMin int  - limit minimum integer value   getValue   - get integer value  import android content Context  import android text InputFilter  import android text InputType  import android widget EditText   public class EditTextNumeric extends EditText       protected int max value   Integer MAX VALUE      protected int min value   Integer MIN VALUE          constructor     public EditTextNumeric Context context            super context           this setInputType InputType TYPE CLASS NUMBER                 checks whether the limits are set and corrects them if not within limits      Override     protected void onTextChanged CharSequence text  int start  int before  int after            if  max value    Integer MAX VALUE                try                   if  Integer parseInt this getText   toString     gt  max value                           change value and keep cursor position                     int selection   this getSelectionStart                        this setText String valueOf max value                        if  selection  gt   this getText   toString   length                              selection   this getText   toString   length                                              this setSelection selection                                   catch  NumberFormatException exception                    super onTextChanged text  start  before  after                                   if  min value    Integer MIN VALUE                try                   if  Integer parseInt this getText   toString     lt  min value                           change value and keep cursor position                     int selection   this getSelectionStart                        this setText String valueOf min value                        if  selection  gt   this getText   toString   length                              selection   this getText   toString   length                                              this setSelection selection                                   catch  NumberFormatException exception                    super onTextChanged text  start  before  after                                   super onTextChanged text  start  before  after                 set the max number of digits the user can enter     public void setMaxLength int length            InputFilter   FilterArray   new InputFilter 1           FilterArray 0    new InputFilter LengthFilter length           this setFilters FilterArray                 set the maximum integer value the user can enter         if exeeded  input value will become equal to the set limit     public void setMaxValue int value            max value   value               set the minimum integer value the user can enter         if entered value is inferior  input value will become equal to the set limit     public void setMinValue int value            min value   value                returns integer value or 0 if errorous value     public int getValue             try               return Integer parseInt this getText   toString               catch  NumberFormatException exception                return 0                      Example usage   final EditTextNumeric input   new EditTextNumeric this   input setMaxLength 5   input setMaxValue total pages   input setMinValue 1     All other methods and attributes that apply to EditText  of course work too

User · Answer

use an input filter to limit the max length of a text view   TextView editEntryView   new TextView       InputFilter   filterArray   new InputFilter 1   filterArray 0    new InputFilter LengthFilter 8   editEntryView setFilters filterArray

User · Answer

This works fine     android maxLength  10   this will accept only 10 characters

[android] What's the best way to limit text length of EditText in Android

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