How to assign a single char to a TextView

Question

I'm trying to assign a single char to a TextView in Android Java.
Using a string works:

textView.setText("X");

But using a char aborts at runtime:

textView.setText('X');

and:

char Key5 = 'X';  
textView.setText(Key5);

Using a Character also aborts at runtime:

Character Key5 = 'X';  
textView.setText(Key5);

Typecasting the Character to a string does work:

Character Key5 = 'X';  
textView.setText(Key5.toString());

How do I assign a plain char variable to a TextView?

duplicate off http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2429228/in-java-how-does-one-turn-a-string-into-a-char-or-a-char-into-a-string — Akyl, Nov 21 '12 at 20:29

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 21 '12 at 20:29

9

You can "convert" a character into a String with the method String.valueOf(char):

char key = 'X';
textView.setText(String.valueOf(key));

answered Nov 21 '12 at 20:29

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

2

Short answer:

You can't, you must use a CharSequence. (Thanks Sam)

Long answer:

The problem is that TextView.setText is not overloaded to take a character as the only parameter. It can only take a CharSequence.

From the CharSequence documentation

This interface represents an ordered set of characters and defines the methods to probe them.

String works because it implements the CharSequence inteface. It doesn't make sense to have a CharSequence that only holds one character

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

answered Nov 21 '12 at 20:33

Robert Estivill

I think this is the better answer to the question: "How do I assign a plain char variable to a TextView?" (i.e. You can't, you must use a CharSequence.) – Sam Nov 21 '12 at 20:41

2 Answers2