xref: /frameworks/base/docs/html/guide/topics/ui/controls/text.jd

page.title=Text Fields
page.tags=edittext,autocompletetextview
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">
  
<h2>In this document</h2>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#Keyboard">Specifying the Keyboard Type</a>
    <ol>
      <li><a href="#Behaviors">Controlling other behaviors</a></li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#Actions">Specifying Keyboard Actions</a>
    <ol>
      <li><a href="#ActionEvent">Responding to action button events</a></li>
      <li><a href="#ActionLabel">Setting a custom action button label</a></li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#Flags">Adding Other Keyboard Flags</a></li>
  <li><a href="#AutoComplete">Providing Auto-complete Suggestions</a></li>
</ol>
<h2>Key classes</h2>
<ol>
  <li>{@link android.widget.EditText}</li>
  <li>{@link android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView}</li>
</ol>

</div>
</div>

<p>A text field allows the user to type text into your app. It can be either single line or
multi-line. Touching a text field places the cursor and automatically displays the keyboard. In
addition to typing, text fields allow for a variety of other activities, such as text selection
(cut, copy, paste) and data look-up via auto-completion.</p>

<p>You can add a text field to you layout with the {@link android.widget.EditText} object. You
should usually do so in your XML layout with a {@code &lt;EditText&gt;} element.</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-noextract.png" alt="" />



<h2 id="Keyboard">Specifying the Keyboard Type</h2>

<div class="figure" style="width:300px;margin-top:0">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-text.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> The default {@code text} input type.</p>
</div>

<div class="figure" style="width:300px">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-email.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 2.</strong> The {@code textEmailAddress} input type.</p>
</div>

<div class="figure" style="width:300px">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-phone.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 3.</strong> The {@code phone} input type.</p>
</div>

<p>Text fields can have different input types, such as number, date, password, or email address. The
type determines what kind of characters are allowed inside the field, and may prompt the virtual
keyboard to optimize its layout for frequently used characters.</p>

<p>You can specify the type of keyboard you want for your {@link android.widget.EditText} object
with the <a href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:inputType">{@code
android:inputType}</a> attribute. For example, if you want the user to input an email address, you
should use the {@code textEmailAddress} input type:</p>

<pre>
&lt;EditText
    android:id="&#64;+id/email_address"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="&#64;string/email_hint"
    android:inputType="textEmailAddress" />
</pre>


<p>There are several different input types available for different situations.
Here are some of the more common values for
<a href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:inputType"
>{@code android:inputType}</a>:</p>

<dl>
  <dt>{@code "text"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "textEmailAddress"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard with the @ character.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "textUri"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard with the / character.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "number"}</dt>
    <dd>Basic number keypad.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "phone"}</dt>
    <dd>Phone-style keypad.</dd>
</dl>


<h3 id="Behaviors">Controlling other behaviors</h3>

<p>The <a href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:inputType">{@code
android:inputType}</a> also allows you to specify certain keyboard behaviors, such as whether to
capitalize all new words or use features like auto-complete and spelling suggestions.</p>

<p>The <a href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:inputType">{@code
android:inputType}</a> attribute allows bitwise combinations so you can specify both a keyboard
layout and one or more behaviors at once.</p>

<p>Here are some of the common input type values that define keyboard behaviors:</p>

<dl>
  <dt>{@code "textCapSentences"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard that capitalizes the first letter for each new sentence.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "textCapWords"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard that capitalizes every word. Good for titles or person names.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "textAutoCorrect"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard that corrects commonly misspelled words.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "textPassword"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard, but the characters entered turn into dots.</dd>
  <dt>{@code "textMultiLine"}</dt>
    <dd>Normal text keyboard that allow users to input long strings of text that include line
breaks (carriage returns).</dd>
</dl>

<p>For example, here's how you can collect a postal
address, capitalize each word, and disable text suggestions:</p>

<pre>
&lt;EditText
    android:id="@+id/postal_address"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="&#64;string/postal_address_hint"
    android:inputType="textPostalAddress|
                       textCapWords|
                       textNoSuggestions" />
</pre>

<p>All behaviors are also listed with the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:inputType">{@code
android:inputType}</a> documentation.</p>


<h2 id="Actions">Specifying Keyboard Actions</h2>

<div class="figure" style="width:300px">
<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-actionsend.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 4.</strong> If you declare {@code
android:imeOptions="actionSend"}, the keyboard includes the Send action.</p>
</div>

<p>In addition to changing the keyboard's input type, Android allows you to specify an action to be
made when users have completed their input. The action specifies the button that appears in place of
the carriage return key and the action to be made, such as "Search" or "Send."</p>

<p>You can specify the action by setting the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeOptions">{@code
android:imeOptions}</a> attribute. For example, here's how you can specify the Send action:</p>

<pre>
&lt;EditText
    android:id="@+id/search"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="@string/search_hint"
    android:inputType="text"
    android:imeOptions="actionSend" />
</pre>

<p>If you do not explicitly specify an input action then the system attempts to determine if there
are any subsequent <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/view/View.html#attr_android:focusable">{@code
android:focusable}</a> fields. If any focusable fields are found following this one, the system
applies the (@code actionNext} action to the current {@link android.widget.EditText} so the user can
select Next to move to the next field. If there's no subsequent focusable field, the system applies
the {@code "actionDone"} action. You can override this by setting the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeOptions">{@code
android:imeOptions}</a> attribute to any other value such as {@code "actionSend"} or {@code
"actionSearch"} or suppress the default behavior by using the {@code "actionNone"} action.</p>


<h3 id="ActionEvent">Responding to action button events</h3>

<p>If you have specified a keyboard action for the input method using <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeOptions">{@code
android:imeOptions}</a> attribute (such as {@code "actionSend"}), you can listen for the specific
action event using an {@link android.widget.TextView.OnEditorActionListener}. The {@link
android.widget.TextView.OnEditorActionListener} interface provides a callback method called {@link
android.widget.TextView.OnEditorActionListener#onEditorAction onEditorAction()} that indicates the
action type invoked with an action ID such as {@link
android.view.inputmethod.EditorInfo#IME_ACTION_SEND} or {@link
android.view.inputmethod.EditorInfo#IME_ACTION_SEARCH}.</p>

<p>For example, here's how you can listen for when the user clicks the Send button on the
keyboard:</p>

<pre>
EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.search);
editText.setOnEditorActionListener(new OnEditorActionListener() {
    &#64;Override
    public boolean onEditorAction(TextView v, int actionId, KeyEvent event) {
        boolean handled = false;
        if (actionId == EditorInfo.IME_ACTION_SEND) {
            sendMessage();
            handled = true;
        }
        return handled;
    }
});
</pre>


<h3 id="ActionLabel">Setting a custom action button label</h3>

<p>If the keyboard is too large to reasonably share space with the underlying application (such as
when a handset device is in landscape orientation) then fullscreen ("extract mode") is triggered. In
this mode, a labeled action button is displayed next to the input. You can customize the text of
this button by setting the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeActionLabel">{@code
android:imeActionLabel}</a> attribute:</p>

<pre>
&lt;EditText
    android:id="&#64;+id/launch_codes"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:hint="&#64;string/enter_launch_codes"
    android:inputType="number"
    android:imeActionLabel="&#64;string/launch" />
</pre>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-actionlabel.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 5.</strong> A custom action label with <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeActionLabel">{@code
android:imeActionLabel}</a>.</p>



<h2 id="Flags">Adding Other Keyboard Flags</h2>

<p>In addition to the actions you can specify with the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeOptions">{@code
android:imeOptions}</a> attribute, you can add additional flags to specify other keyboard
behaviors. All available flags are listed along with the actions in the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeOptions">{@code
android:imeOptions}</a> documentation.</p>

<p>For example, figure 5 shows how the system enables a fullscreen text field when a handset device
is in landscape orientation (or the screen space is otherwise constrained for space). You can
disable the fullscreen input mode with {@code flagNoExtractUi} in the <a
href="{@docRoot}reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:imeOptions">{@code
android:imeOptions}</a> attribute, as shown in figure 6.</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-noextract.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 6.</strong> The fullscreen text field ("extract mode") is
disabled with {@code android:imeOptions="flagNoExtractUi"}.</p>




<h2 id="AutoComplete">Providing Auto-complete Suggestions</h2>

<p>If you want to provide suggestions to users as they type, you can use a subclass of {@link
android.widget.EditText} called {@link android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView}. To implement
auto-complete, you must specify an (@link android.widget.Adapter) that provides the text
suggestions. There are several kinds of adapters available, depending on where the data is coming
from, such as from a database or an array.</p>

<img src="{@docRoot}images/ui/edittext-autocomplete.png" alt="" />
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 7.</strong> Example of {@link
android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView} with text suggestions.</p>

<p>The following procedure describes how to set up an {@link android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView}
that provides suggestions from an array, using {@link android.widget.ArrayAdapter}:

<ol>
  <li>Add the {@link android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView} to your layout. Here's a
layout with only the text field:
<pre>
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
&lt;AutoCompleteTextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
    android:id="&#64;+id/autocomplete_country"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</pre>
</li>

<li>Define the array that contains all text suggestions. For example, here's an array of country
names that's defined in an XML resource file ({@code res/values/strings.xml}):
<pre>
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
&lt;resources>
    &lt;string-array name="countries_array">
        &lt;item>Afghanistan&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>Albania&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>Algeria&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>American Samoa&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>Andorra&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>Angola&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>Anguilla&lt;/item>
        &lt;item>Antarctica&lt;/item>
        ...
    &lt;/string-array>
&lt;/resources>
</pre>
</li>

<li>In your {@link android.app.Activity} or {@link android.app.Fragment}, use the following
code to specify the adapter that supplies the suggestions:
<pre>
// Get a reference to the AutoCompleteTextView in the layout
AutoCompleteTextView textView = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.autocomplete_country);
// Get the string array
String[] countries = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.countries_array);
// Create the adapter and set it to the AutoCompleteTextView 
ArrayAdapter&lt;String> adapter = 
        new ArrayAdapter&lt;String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, countries);
textView.setAdapter(adapter);
</pre>

<p>Here, a new {@link
android.widget.ArrayAdapter} is initialized to bind each item in the <code>COUNTRIES</code>
string array to a {@link android.widget.TextView} that exists in the {@code simple_list_item_1}
layout (this is a layout provided by Android that provides a standard appearance for text in a
list).</p>
<p>Then assign the adapter to the {@link android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView} by
calling {@link android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView#setAdapter setAdapter()}.</p>
</li>
</ol>