How to add clear button to TextField Widget

Question

Is there a proper way to add a clear button to the TextField?

Just like this picture from Material design guidelines:

What I found is

Answer 1

If you want a ready-to-use Widget, which you can just put in a file and then have a reusable element you can use everywhere by inserting ClearableTextField(), use this piece of code:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class ClearableTexfield extends StatefulWidget {
  ClearableTexfield({
    Key key,
    this.controller,
    this.hintText = 'Enter text'
  }) : super(key: key);

  final TextEditingController controller;
  final String hintText;

  @override
  State<StatefulWidget> createState() {
    return _ClearableTextfieldState();
  }
}

class _ClearableTextfieldState extends State<ClearableTexfield> {
  bool _showClearButton = false;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    widget.controller.addListener(() {
      setState(() {
        _showClearButton = widget.controller.text.length > 0;
      });
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return TextField(
      controller: widget.controller,
      decoration: InputDecoration(
        hintText: widget.hintText,
        suffixIcon: _getClearButton(),
      ),
    );
  }

  Widget _getClearButton() {
    if (!_showClearButton) {
      return null;
    }

    return IconButton(
      onPressed: () => widget.controller.clear(),
      icon: Icon(Icons.clear),
    );
  }
}

Further explanations can be found on this page:

https://www.flutterclutter.dev/flutter/tutorials/text-field-with-clear-button/2020/104/

It also builds upon IconButton, but has the advantage of only displaying the clear button when there is text inside the textfield.

Looks like this:

Answer 2

    suffixIcon: IconButton(
      icon: Icon(
        Icons.cancel,
      ),
      onPressed: () {
        _controllerx.text = '';
      }
    ),

Answer 3

Output:

Create a variable

var _controller = TextEditingController();

And your TextField:

TextField(
  controller: _controller,
  decoration: InputDecoration(
    hintText: "Enter a message",
    suffixIcon: IconButton(
      onPressed: () => _controller.clear(),
      icon: Icon(Icons.clear),
    ),
  ),
)

Answer 4

Here's a snippet of my code that works.

What it does: only show clear button if text field value is not empty

class _MyTextFieldState extends State<MyTextField> {
  TextEditingController _textController;
  bool _wasEmpty;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    _textController = TextEditingController(text: widget.initialValue);
    _wasEmpty = _textController.text.isEmpty;
    _textController.addListener(() {
      if (_wasEmpty != _textController.text.isEmpty) {
        setState(() => {_wasEmpty = _textController.text.isEmpty});
      }
    });
  }

  @override
  void dispose() {
    _textController.dispose();
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return TextFormField(
          controller: _textController,
          decoration: InputDecoration(
            labelText: widget.label,
            suffixIcon: _textController.text.isNotEmpty
                ? Padding(
                    padding: const EdgeInsetsDirectional.only(start: 12.0),
                    child: IconButton(
                      iconSize: 16.0,
                      icon: Icon(Icons.cancel, color: Colors.grey,),
                      onPressed: () {
                        setState(() {
                          _textController.clear();
                        });
                      },
                    ),
                  )
                : null,
          ),);
...

Answer 5

Didn't want to go the StatefulWidget route. Here's an example using TextEditingController and StatelessWidget (with Providers pushing updates). I keep the controller in the static field.

class _SearchBar extends StatelessWidget {
  static var _controller = TextEditingController();

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    var dictionary = Provider.of<Dictionary>(context);

    return TextField(
        controller: _controller,
        autofocus: true,
        onChanged: (text) {
          dictionary.lookupWord = text;
        },
        style: TextStyle(fontSize: 20.0),
        decoration: InputDecoration(
            border: InputBorder.none,
            hintText: 'Search',
            suffix: GestureDetector(
              onTap: () {
                dictionary.lookupWord = '';
                _controller.clear();
              },
              child: Text('x'),
            )));
  }
}

Answer 6

IconButton(
              icon: Icon(Icons.clear_all),
              tooltip: 'Close',
              onPressed: () { 
              },
            )