How to get number of lines of TextView?

Question

I want to get the number of lines of a text view

textView.setText("Test line 1 Test line 2 Test line 3 Test line 4 Test line 5.............")

textView.getLineCount(); always returns zero

Then I have also tried:

ViewTreeObserver vto = this.textView.getViewTreeObserver();
vto.addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new OnGlobalLayoutListener() {

    @Override
    public void onGlobalLayout() {
        ViewTreeObserver obs = textView.getViewTreeObserver();
        obs.removeGlobalOnLayoutListener(this);
        System.out.println(": " + textView.getLineCount());

    }
});

It returns the exact output.

But this works only for a static layout.

When I am inflating the layout dynamically this doesn't work anymore.

How could I find the number of line in a TextView?

yes i know, i have already mentioned that not i face this problem while inflating layout dynamically. — MAC, Aug 20 '12 at 12:16
I think [this is helpful for you.][1] [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2239356/is-there-a-way-of-retrieving-a-textviews-visible-line-count-or-range — Hardik Joshi, Aug 20 '12 at 12:18
Possible duplicate of [Is there a way of retrieving a TextView's visible line count or range?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2239356/is-there-a-way-of-retrieving-a-textviews-visible-line-count-or-range) — Raut Darpan, Apr 11 '17 at 13:30
See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15679147/how-to-get-line-count-of-textview-before-rendering/28525249. — CoolMind, Nov 09 '20 at 11:16

score 113 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 21 '16 at 12:55

113

I was able to get getLineCount() to not return 0 using a post, like this:

textview.setText(“Some text”);
textview.post(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        int lineCount = textview.getLineCount();
        // Use lineCount here
    }
});

edited Apr 21 '16 at 12:55

Cactus

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answered Sep 01 '15 at 20:49

Marilia

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Could you give more details about your code that was trying to get the line count of a `TextView`? Maybe there's some detail in the adapter that may be causing the views to be loaded differently than the expected? – Marilia Jun 26 '17 at 18:21
I solved it by different approach and now its working fine I followed this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/22217849/2579281 – Vikash Kumar Verma Jun 26 '17 at 18:41
Thanks for sharing what worked for your `RecycleView`. That's an interesting approach and definitely worth a try if this simpler code didn't do the trick for that specific case. :) – Marilia Jun 26 '17 at 19:06

score 42 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

42

As mentioned in this post,

getLineCount() will give you the correct number of lines only after a layout pass.

It means that you need to render the TextView first before invoking the getLineCount() method.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered Aug 20 '12 at 12:16

aymeric

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thax for ans but still have problem – MAC Aug 20 '12 at 15:05
2

this is correct. You must not be adding the listener correctly. Add the OnGlobalLayoutListener directly to the TextView instance and not the parent layout. – user123321 Dec 27 '12 at 20:43
1

This only works if textview contains line breaks, but it doesn't work for word wrap – May 21 '17 at 22:01

score 33 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 02 '19 at 06:04

ViewTreeObserver is not so reliable especially when using dynamic layouts such as ListView.

Let's assume:
1. You will do some work depending on the lines of TextView.
2. The work is not very urgent and can be done later.

Here is my solution:

public class LayoutedTextView extends TextView {

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

        public LayoutedTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
                super(context, attrs);
        }

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

        public interface OnLayoutListener {
                void onLayouted(TextView view);
        }

        private OnLayoutListener mOnLayoutListener;

        public void setOnLayoutListener(OnLayoutListener listener) {
                mOnLayoutListener = listener;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onLayout(boolean changed, int left, int top, int right,
                        int bottom) {
                super.onLayout(changed, left, top, right, bottom);

                if (mOnLayoutListener != null) {
                        mOnLayoutListener.onLayouted(this);
                }
        }

}

Usage:

LayoutedTextView tv = new LayoutedTextView(context);
tv.setOnLayoutListener(new OnLayoutListener() {
        @Override
        public void onLayouted(TextView view) {
                int lineCount = view.getLineCount();
                // do your work
        }
});

Neat approach. I employed this approach in a listview. Works like a charm. — JaydeepW, Mar 11 '14 at 09:22
I tried other approach but only this solution is working perfect. I tested it in recycleview. — Vikash Kumar Verma, Jun 24 '17 at 14:19
not call listener any help appreciate check my this question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60790803/using-viewtreeobserver-i-am-adding-setmaxlines-and-setellipsize-in-materialtextv — Kishan Viramgama, Mar 23 '20 at 10:42
@VikashKumarVerma Can u please share how it works for u in recyclerView, it doesn't work for me. — xaif, Feb 20 '21 at 07:56

score 23 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 14 '19 at 22:40

23

 textView.getViewTreeObserver().addOnPreDrawListener(new ViewTreeObserver.OnPreDrawListener() {

        @Override
        public boolean onPreDraw() {
            // Remove listener because we don't want this called before _every_ frame
            textView.getViewTreeObserver().removeOnPreDrawListener(this)

            // Drawing happens after layout so we can assume getLineCount() returns the correct value
            if(textView.getLineCount() > 2) {
                // Do whatever you want in case text view has more than 2 lines
            }  

            return true; // true because we don't want to skip this frame
        }
});

edited Feb 14 '19 at 22:40

Zsolt Safrany

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answered Jul 22 '17 at 07:36

priti

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Not sure why this didn't get more vote. This needs to the selected answer. Using a layout listener will provide callback once the layout is complete, which means that any changes that are needs in the purview of the parent are not possible. Example: a scroll view having children. How does one make all the children adjust depending on something happening in one of the children. Thus, OnPreDraw works better and more efficiently. – Sunny Nov 10 '18 at 09:49
inside this method getting infinite number of calls – Muhammed Haris Feb 19 '20 at 10:42
using RecyclerView.Adapter call every time and hang phone @priti – Kishan Viramgama Mar 24 '20 at 11:21

score 10 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

I think the crux of this question is that people want to be able to find out the size of a TextView in advance so that they can dynamically resize it to nicely fit the text. A typical use might be to create talk bubbles (at least that was what I was working on).

I tried several solutions, including use of getTextBounds() and measureText() as discussed here. Unfortunately, both methods are slightly inexact and have no way to account for line breaks and unused linespace. So, I gave up on that approach.

That leaves getLineCount(), whose problem is that you have to "render" the text before getLineCount() will give you the number of lines, which makes it a chicken-and-egg situation. I read various solutions involving listeners and layouts, but just couldn't believe that there wasn't something simpler.

After fiddling for two days, I finally found what I was looking for (at least it works for me). It all comes down to what it means to "render" the text. It doesn't mean that the text has to appear onscreen, only that it has to be prepared for display internally. This happens whenever a call is made directly to invalidate() or indirectly as when you do a setText() on your TextView, which calls invalidate() for you since the view has changed appearance.

Anyway, here's the key code (assume you already know the talk bubble's lineWidth and lineHeight of a single line based on the font):

TextView talkBubble;
// No peeking while we set the bubble up.
talkBubble.setVisibility( View.INVISIBLE );
// I use FrameLayouts so my talk bubbles can overlap
// lineHeight is just a filler at this point
talkBubble.setLayoutParams( new FrameLayout.LayoutParams( lineWidth, lineHeight ) );
// setText() calls invalidate(), which makes getLineCount() do the right thing.
talkBubble.setText( "This is the string we want to dynamically deal with." );
int lineCount = getLineCount();
// Now we set the real size of the talkBubble.
talkBubble.setLayoutParams( new FrameLayout.LayoutParams( lineWidth, lineCount * lineHeight ) );
talkBubble.setVisibility( View.VISIBLE );

Anyway, that's it. The next redraw will give a bubble tailor-made for your text.

Note: In the actual program, I use a separate bubble for determining lines of text so that I can resize my real bubble dynamically both in terms of length and width. This allows me to shrink my bubbles left-to-right for short statements, etc.

Enjoy!

I'd guess that this works for you because you are using a fixed line width in code, or a pre-calculated one. For wrap content or match parent, this doesn't work, though, as those values also still have to be calculated. — lilbyrdie, Sep 15 '13 at 20:58

score 9 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 21 '19 at 09:15

You could also use PrecomputedTextCompat for getting the number of lines. Regular method:

fun getTextLineCount(textView: TextView, text: String, lineCount: (Int) -> (Unit)) {
    val params: PrecomputedTextCompat.Params = TextViewCompat.getTextMetricsParams(textView)
    val ref: WeakReference<TextView>? = WeakReference(textView)

    GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.Default) {
        val text = PrecomputedTextCompat.create(text, params)
        GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.Main) {
            ref?.get()?.let { textView ->
                TextViewCompat.setPrecomputedText(textView, text)
                lineCount.invoke(textView.lineCount)
            }
        }
    }
}

Call this method:

getTextLineCount(textView, "Test line 1 Test line 2 Test line 3 Test line 4 Test line 5.............") { lineCount ->
     //count of lines is stored in lineCount variable
}

Or maybe you can create extension method for it like this:

fun TextView.getTextLineCount(text: String, lineCount: (Int) -> (Unit)) {
    val params: PrecomputedTextCompat.Params = TextViewCompat.getTextMetricsParams(this)
    val ref: WeakReference<TextView>? = WeakReference(this)

    GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.Default) {
        val text = PrecomputedTextCompat.create(text, params)
        GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.Main) {
            ref?.get()?.let { textView ->
                TextViewCompat.setPrecomputedText(textView, text)
                lineCount.invoke(textView.lineCount)
            }
        }
    }
}

and then you call it like this:

textView.getTextLineCount("Test line 1 Test line 2 Test line 3 Test line 4 Test line 5.............") { lineCount ->
     //count of lines is stored in lineCount variable
}

score 8 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Based on @secnelis idea, there is even a more clean way if you target API 11 or higher.

Instead of extending a TextView you can use already built-in functionality if View.OnLayoutChangeListener

In ListAdapter.getView(), for instance

if (h.mTitle.getLineCount() == 0 && h.mTitle.getText().length() != 0) {
    h.mTitle.addOnLayoutChangeListener(new View.OnLayoutChangeListener() {
        @Override
        public void onLayoutChange(final View v, final int left, final int top,
                final int right, final int bottom, final int oldLeft,
                final int oldTop, final int oldRight, final int oldBottom) {
            h.mTitle.removeOnLayoutChangeListener(this);
            final int count = h.mTitle.getLineCount();
            // do stuff
        }
    });
} else {
    final int count = h.mTitle.getLineCount();
    // do stuff
}

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered May 30 '19 at 17:16

You can also calculate the amount of lines through this function:

private fun countLines(textView: TextView): Int {
        return Math.ceil(textView.paint.measureText(textView.text.toString()) /
                textView.measuredWidth.toDouble()).toInt()
    }

Keep in mind that It may not work very well on a RecyclerView though.

Mehedi Hasan Shagor · Answer 9 · 2019-11-15T18:45:17.020

1

textview.getText().toString().split(System.getProperty("line.separator")).length

It works fine for me to get number of lines of TextView.

edited Nov 15 '19 at 18:45

answered Nov 15 '19 at 18:38

Mehedi Hasan Shagor

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 21 '16 at 12:55

0

Are you doing this onCreate? The Views aren't laid out yet, so getLineCount() is 0 for a while. If you do this later in the Window LifeCycle, you'll get your line count. You'll have a hard time doing it onCreate, but onWindowFocusChanged with hasFocus=true usually has the Views measured by now.

The textView.post() suggestion is also a good one

edited Apr 21 '16 at 12:55

Cactus

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answered Feb 26 '16 at 18:19

Joe Plante

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How to get number of lines of TextView?

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