Android add placeholder text to EditText

Question

How can I add a placeholder text to EditText in the class that isn't in the XML?

I have the following EditText in my code which will be shown in alertdialog:

    final EditText name = new EditText(this);

Punchy

What do you mean by a placeholder? – Absently

It's the text that is writen by light color on the text bars and when the user clicks on the textbar to write something that text will disappear. – Punchy

Answer 1

Ah, ok. What you're looking for is setHint(int). Simply pass in a resource id of a string from your xml and you're good to go.

EDIT

And in XML, it's simply android:hint="someText"

Absently

Thanks! I didn't know what they call it in android, I just know that on iOS it's called placeholder. – Punchy

Its universally known as a placeholder, but of course android is different just to be different ;) – Lucilelucilia

Answer 2

android:hint="text" provides an info for user that what he need to fill in particular editText

for example :- i have two edittext one for numeric value and other for string value . we can set a hint for user so he can understand that what value he needs to give

android:hint="Please enter phone number"
android:hint="Enter name" 

after running app these two edittext will show the entered hint ,after click on edit text it goes and user can enter what he want (see luxurymode image)

Paternal

This is called hint in android. – Paternal

Answer 3

In your Activity

<EditText
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
                android:background="@null"
                android:hint="Text Example"
                android:padding="5dp"
                android:singleLine="true"
                android:id="@+id/name"
                android:textColor="@color/magenta"/>

Jennelljenner

Answer 4

You have to use the android:hint attribute

<EditText
android:id="@+id/message"
android:hint="<<Your placeholder>>"
/>

In Android Studio, you can switch from XML -> Design View and click on the Component in the layout, the EditText field in this case. This will show all the applicable attributes for that GUI component. This will be handy when you don't know about all the attributes that are there.

You would be surprised to see that EditText has more than 140 attributes for customization.

Mazard

Answer 5

This how to make input password that has hint which not converted to * !!.

On XML :

android:inputType="textPassword"
android:gravity="center"
android:ellipsize="start"
android:hint="Input Password !."

thanks to : mango and rjrjr for the insight :D.

Blowpipe

Answer 6

In Android Studio you can add Hint (Place holder) through GUI. First select EditText field on designer view. Then Click on Component Tree Left side of IDE (Normally it's there, but it may be there minimized) There you can see Properties of selected EditText. Find Hint field as below Image

There you can add Hint(Place holder) to EditText

Ioves

Answer 7

If you mean the location where you will add it in the layout. You can define a container like a FrameLayout and add this EditText to it when it is created.

<LinearLayout xmlns=".."/>
    <FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:id="@+id/container" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>

FrameLayout layout = (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.container);
layout.addView(name);

Frink

Answer 8

If you want to insert text inside your EditText view that stays there after the field is selected (unlike how hint behaves), do this:

In Java:

// Cast Your EditText as a TextView
((TextView) findViewById(R.id.email)).setText("your Text")

In Kotlin:

// Cast your EditText into a TextView
// Like this
(findViewById(R.id.email) as TextView).text = "Your Text"
// Or simply like this
findViewById<TextView>(R.id.email).text = "Your Text"

Fettle