Android EditText: How to disable cursor move on touch?

Question

I have EditText which displays something like ###-###. I want the user to be able to change this text only from the 1st position onward. That is user should not be able to touch a # in the middle and change it. How can I do this? Thanks a lot.

Sorry, I was not precise in my question. I want to disable even tapping in the middle of the text.

score 20 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 27 '12 at 08:53

Following code will force the curser to stay in last position if the user tries to move it with a tap on the edittext:

edittext.setCursorVisible(false);

    edittext.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            edittext.setSelection(edittext.getText().length());
        }
    });

Note that the user can still change the position of the curser via arrow keys and / or trackball. As far as I know there is currently no workaround for this issue.

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 18 '13 at 13:23

try creating a class the derives from edittext and override onSelectionChanged for example

public class BlockedSelectionEditText extends
    EditText{

    /** Standard Constructors */

    public BlockedSelectionEditText (Context context) {
    super(context);
    }

    public BlockedSelectionEditText (Context context,
        AttributeSet attrs) {
    super(context, attrs);
    }
    public BlockedSelectionEditText (Context context,
        AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
    super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onSelectionChanged(int selStart, int selEnd) {
    //on selection move cursor to end of text
    setSelection(this.length());
    }
}

Cleaner way to do this (y) – Akhil Dad Jun 17 '14 at 14:22 — Akhil Dad, Jun 17 '14 at 14:22

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 21 '21 at 11:07

This will receive the on click event when the edit text doesn't have focus. so The user can click on the edit text to transfer the focus, and on focus change listener will update the cursor position to end.

cardNumberEditText.setOnTouchListener { v, event ->
        return@setOnTouchListener cardNumberEditText.hasFocus()

    }
    cardNumberEditText.setOnFocusChangeListener { v, hasFocus ->
        if (hasFocus) {
            cardNumberEditText.setSelection(
                cardNumberEditText.text.length
            )
        }
    }

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 16 '11 at 20:39

1

public class MyEditText extends EditText{

    @Override
    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event)
    {
         final int eventX = event.getX();
         final int eventY = event.getY();
         if( (eventX,eventY) is in the middle of your editText)
         {
              return false;
         }
         return true;
    }
}

This will "disable" tapping in the middle of your edit text

answered Oct 16 '11 at 20:39

asenovm

6,397
2
41
52

Thanks, I see now! Only that must be vice versa true and false, right? Anyway did as you've suggested works now. – Alexander Kulyakhtin Oct 16 '11 at 21:04

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 28 '19 at 13:20

this solution also prevents a touch and drag, apart from click

       //don't allow user to move cursor
       editText.setOnTouchListener { view, motionEvent ->
            if (motionEvent.action == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP) {
                editText.setSelection(editText.text.length)
            }
            return@setOnTouchListener true
        }

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 01 '20 at 15:10

To enforce cursor always remain at the end of View and editable only from the last character, we can put editText.setSelection(editText.length) on any of action MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN or MotionEvent.ACTION_UP and if still want to show keyboard on tap, we can call showKeyboard() for INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE-

    editText.setOnTouchListener { v, event ->
        if (event.action == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP)
            Utils.showKeyboard(editText, this@MyActivity)

        if (event.action == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN)
            editText.setSelection(editText.text.length)

        return@setOnTouchListener true
    }

score -2 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 16 '11 at 19:46

-2

You need to implement the TextWatcher interface and override the three methods, afterTextChanged, beforeTextChanged, onTextChanged (you may only need to actually use one of them) Eg:

public class MyTextWatcher implements TextWatcher {
    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable arg0) {
        changeItBack();
    }

    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
    }
}

You then add this Watcher to your EditText, like so:
myEditText.addTextChangedListener(new MyTextWatcher());

Hope this helps.

answered Oct 16 '11 at 19:46

Caspar Harmer

8,097
2
42
39

The text does not change when I tap it in the middle, does it? So, I think those TextWatcher methods will not be called. – Alexander Kulyakhtin Oct 16 '11 at 20:26
This doesn't stop a tap, but it allows any changes to be overwritten before they are rendered to screen. For example, I used to ensure that a 14 digit series of characters was limited to this format: XXX-XXXXXXXXX-XX-XX. Dashes were written to the correct spaces and any text longer than this format was removed. – Caspar Harmer Oct 16 '11 at 20:58

Android EditText: How to disable cursor move on touch?

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