setSpan() on EditText deletes other spans

Question

I have a bold button that, when pressed, is supposed to change the typeface of the selected text in the EditText field. This all works perfectly, with one exception. If there is bold typeface elsewhere in the EditText, and I try to create a new bold section, the original section is changed back to normal. For example, this string:

Bold not bold more bold.

If I highlight any of the normal words and press the button, they do become bold, but the first word becomes normal. I can't see any reason for this in my code.

Thanks!

final StyleSpan normalStyle = new StyleSpan(Typeface.NORMAL);
final StyleSpan boldStyle = new StyleSpan(Typeface.BOLD);
boldButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                int startSelection = field.getSelectionStart();
                int endSelection = field.getSelectionEnd();
                Editable editableText = field.getText();

                StyleSpan[] selectedSpans = editableText.getSpans(startSelection, endSelection, StyleSpan.class);
                boolean isAlreadyBold = false;
                for (StyleSpan style : selectedSpans) {
                    print("The style is " + style.getStyle());
                    if (style.getStyle() == Typeface.BOLD) {
                        int styleStart = editableText.getSpanStart(style);
                        int styleEnd = editableText.getSpanEnd(style);
                        if (styleStart == startSelection && styleEnd == endSelection) {
                            editableText.removeSpan(style);
                            editableText.setSpan(normalStyle, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                            isAlreadyBold = true;
                            print("Spans are equal");
                        } else if (styleStart < startSelection && styleEnd > endSelection) {
                            editableText.removeSpan(style);
                            editableText.setSpan(boldStyle, styleStart, startSelection, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
                            editableText.setSpan(boldStyle, endSelection, styleEnd, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
                            editableText.setSpan(normalStyle, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                            isAlreadyBold = true;
                            print("Style is larger than selection");
                        } else if (styleStart < startSelection && styleEnd >= startSelection) {
                            editableText.removeSpan(style);
                            editableText.setSpan(boldStyle, styleStart, startSelection, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
                            editableText.setSpan(normalStyle, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                            isAlreadyBold = true;
                            print("Style begins before selection");
                        } else if (endSelection < styleEnd && endSelection >= styleStart) {
                            editableText.removeSpan(style);
                            editableText.setSpan(boldStyle, endSelection, styleEnd, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
                            editableText.setSpan(normalStyle, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                            isAlreadyBold = true;
                            print("Style ends after selection");
                        }
                    }
                }
                if (!isAlreadyBold) {
                    editableText.setSpan(boldStyle, startSelection, endSelection, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE);
                }
            }
        });

Note: - print is a utility log that I added

Answer 1

I can't see any reason for this in my code.

Create a new StyleSpan for each spanned area. Do not reuse StyleSpan instances that are already in use.