Android EditText Hint

Question

I have set a hint for an EditText, currently the hint visibility is gone. When a user starts typing, I want to remove the hint text, when the cursor is visible in the EditText, not at the time when a user starts to type. How can I do that?

<EditText android:paddingLeft="10dp" android:background="@drawable/edittextbg" android:layout_marginLeft="4dp" android:layout_marginTop="7dp" android:gravity="left" android:id="@+id/Photo_Comments" android:layout_width="150dip" android:maxLines="1" android:hint="Write Caption" android:maxLength="50" android:singleLine="true" android:maxWidth="100dip" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

Ullas · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-28 13:58:33Z

61

You can use the concept of selector. onFocus removes the hint.

android:hint="Email"

So when TextView has focus, or has user input (i.e. not empty) the hint will not display.

edited Apr 28, 2015 at 13:58

Ullas

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answered Dec 7, 2010 at 6:55

Sunit Kumar Gupta

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4 Comments

Aman Aalam Over a year ago

This looks much appropriate option than mine!

devunwired Over a year ago

Unfortunately, it is incorrect. <selector> elements can only be used for drawables and colors; not strings.

Mike6679 Over a year ago

BUT has to be set from xml or resource id

Jackie Over a year ago

Can you possibly expand on this, I can't find the proper documentation for the selector tag and how to do this

Beryllium · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-04 18:34:37Z

I don't know whether a direct way of doing this is available or not, but you surely there is a workaround via code: listen for onFocus event of EditText, and as soon it gains focus, set the hint to be nothing with something like editText.setHint(""):

This may not be exactly what you have to do, but it may be something like this-

myEditText.setOnFocusListener(new OnFocusListener(){ public void onFocus(){ myEditText.setHint(""); } });

This isn't necessary as the default behavior of the Hint on the EditText will disappear when it has focus and not empty.
This is not the best approach, you can just use a selector applied to the textColorHint. Check my answer below.

aglour · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-07 11:48:24Z

To complete Sunit's answer, you can use a selector, not to the text string but to the textColorHint. You must add this attribute on your editText:

android:textColorHint="@color/text_hint_selector"

And your text_hint_selector should be:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <item android:state_focused="true" android:color="@android:color/transparent" /> <item android:color="@color/hint_color" /> </selector>

@behelit textColorHint receives a color, not a drawable, so the selector must be in the color folder, not the drawable.

David K. Lee · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-17 13:47:22Z

2

et.setOnFocusChangeListener(new View.OnFocusChangeListener() { @Override public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus) { et.setHint(temp +" Characters"); } });

answered Dec 17, 2016 at 13:47

David K. Lee

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1 Comment

GhostCat Over a year ago

Hint. a good answer is more than just a dump of code. You should at least provide some bit of explanation if you intend to be A) helpful to others B) gain reputation for your answer

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