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?

Answer 1

This works fine...

android:maxLength="10"

this will accept only 10 characters.

Answer 2

it simple way in xml:

android:maxLength="@{length}"

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 && filters.length > 0) {
        int filtersSize = filters.length;
        int i3 = 0;
        while (i2 < 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()]));
    }
}

Answer 3

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 < 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 });
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

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 < 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 });
    }
}

Answer 5

From material.io, you can use TextInputEditText combined with TextInputLayout:

<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">

    <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"/>

</com.google.android.material.textfield.TextInputLayout>

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'

Answer 6

Documentation

Example

android:maxLength="10"