Can underline words in TextView text

Question

Is there possibility in android to provide TextView some text in Java code with setText(text) function with basic tags like and to make marked words underlined ?

possible duplicate of [How to display HTML in TextView?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2116162/how-to-display-html-in-textview) — David Hedlund, Jul 16 '12 at 11:34
[**This will help you,**](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2394935/can-i-underline-text-in-an-android-layout) this is the example by which you can `underline` your textview text and also `italic`. — Nikunj Patel, Dec 19 '11 at 07:26

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '11 at 07:21

41

Yes, you can, use the Html.fromhtml() method:

textView.setText(Html.fromHtml("this is <u>underlined</u> text"));

answered Dec 19 '11 at 07:21

kameny

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well, I am facing a problem. Here is the line of codes that is not working. `textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(getResources().getString(R.string.have_activation_code)));` `I have activation code` – iamcrypticcoder May 10 '14 at 20:52
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@mahbub.kuet You have to put your HTML string into <![CDATA[]]>. So <![CDATA[I have activation code]]> – JerabekJakub Oct 06 '15 at 13:09
1

`Html.fromHtml` is deprecated now – Sami Eltamawy Aug 29 '16 at 21:20

score 34 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 29 '17 at 04:21

34

Define a string as:

<resources>
    <string name="your_string">This is an <u>underline</u> text demo for TextView.</string>
</resources>

edited Jul 29 '17 at 04:21

Pang

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answered Dec 19 '11 at 07:22

Paresh Mayani

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Yes but you can use it for dynamic strings by using Html.fromHtml(), check above answer http://stackoverflow.com/a/8558246/379693 – Paresh Mayani Dec 01 '15 at 11:27
@PareshMayani but beware, there are tags not supported by `Html.fromHtml()`. Check this out http://stackoverflow.com/a/3150456/1987045 – rahulrvp Sep 28 '16 at 13:01

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 19 '11 at 07:23

10

You can use UnderlineSpan from SpannableString class:

SpannableString content = new SpannableString(<your text>);
content.setSpan(new UnderlineSpan(), 0, content.length(), 0);

Then just use textView.setText(content);

answered Dec 19 '11 at 07:23

josephus

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Khemraj Sharma · Answer 4 · 2020-08-07T11:52:45.147

Most Easy Way

TextView tv = findViewById(R.id.tv);
tv.setText("some text");
setUnderLineText(tv, "some");

Also support TextView childs like EditText, Button, Checkbox

public void setUnderLineText(TextView tv, String textToUnderLine) {
        String tvt = tv.getText().toString();
        int ofe = tvt.indexOf(textToUnderLine, 0);

        UnderlineSpan underlineSpan = new UnderlineSpan();
        SpannableString wordToSpan = new SpannableString(tv.getText());
        for (int ofs = 0; ofs < tvt.length() && ofe != -1; ofs = ofe + 1) {
            ofe = tvt.indexOf(textToUnderLine, ofs);
            if (ofe == -1)
                break;
            else {
                wordToSpan.setSpan(underlineSpan, ofe, ofe + textToUnderLine.length(), Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
                tv.setText(wordToSpan, TextView.BufferType.SPANNABLE);
            }
        }
    }

If you want

- Clickable underline text?

- Underline multiple parts of TextView?

Then Check This Answer

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 30 '13 at 13:54

3

tobeunderlined= <u>some text here which is to be underlined</u> 

textView.setText(Html.fromHtml("some string"+tobeunderlined+"somestring"));

edited Apr 30 '13 at 13:54

mmBs

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answered Dec 19 '11 at 08:49

Harsh Dev Chandel

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Can underline words in TextView text

5 Answers5

Most Easy Way

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