How to capitalize every letter in an Android EditText?

Question

I have an array of editTexts which I make like this:

        inputs[i] = new EditText(this);
        inputs[i].setWidth(376);
        inputs[i].setInputType(InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_CAP_CHARACTERS);
        tFields.addView(inputs[i]);

I want every character to be capitalized. Right now, the first letter of the first word is lowercase, then all the characters afterwords are upper case. I can take what the user inputs after they are done and convert that to uppercase, but that's not really what I'm going for. Is there a way to get these fields to behave the way I want them to?

you have tried android:capitalize="sentences" in xml for making first latter capitalized — ρяσѕρєя K, Dec 04 '12 at 15:04
There is a similar question here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3286343/text-transformuppercase-equivalent-in-android hope it helps you. — ƒernando Valle, Dec 04 '12 at 15:08
that works fine for me...which android version do you run it on? — sdabet, Dec 04 '12 at 15:10
Possible duplicate of [In Android EditText, how to force writing uppercase](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15961813/in-android-edittext-how-to-force-writing-uppercase) — jzeferino, Mar 16 '16 at 14:39

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '13 at 15:01

You need to tell it it's from the "class" text as well:

inputs[i] = new EditText(this);
inputs[i].setWidth(376);
inputs[i].setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT | InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_CAP_CHARACTERS);
tFields.addView(inputs[i]);

The input type is a bitmask. You can combine the flags by putting the | (pipe) character in the middle, which stands for the OR logic function, even though when used in a bitmask like this it means "this flag AND that other flag".

(This answer is the same as Robin's but without "magic numbers", one of the worst things you can put in your code. The Android API has constants, use them instead of copying the values and risking to eventually break the code.)

+1 I agree on the point we should use defined constants rather than values. — Robin Chander, Oct 17 '13 at 17:40

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

20

This will make all the characters uppercase when writing.

edittext.setFilters(new InputFilter[] {new InputFilter.AllCaps()});

Original answer here.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Mar 16 '16 at 14:32

jzeferino

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Ricardo · Answer 3 · 2019-11-25T08:44:49.283

I know this question is a bit old but here is explained how to do it in different ways:

Applying UpperCase in XML

Add the following to the EditText XML:

android:inputType="textCapCharacters"

Applying UpperCase as the only filter to an EditText in Java

Here we are setting the UpperCase filter as the only filter of the EditText. Notice that this method removes all the previously added filters.

editText.setFilters(new InputFilter[] {new InputFilter.AllCaps()});

Adding UpperCase to the existing filters of an EditText in Java

To keep the already applied filters of the EditText, let's say inputType, maxLength, etc, you need to retrieve the applied filters, add the UpperCase filter to those filters, and set them back to the EditText. Here is an example how:

InputFilter[] editFilters = editText.getFilters();
InputFilter[] newFilters = new InputFilter[editFilters.length + 1];
System.arraycopy(editFilters, 0, newFilters, 0, editFilters.length);
newFilters[editFilters.length] = new InputFilter.AllCaps();  
editText.setFilters(newFilters);

Houcine · Answer 4 · 2012-12-04T15:21:27.540

6

Just use String.toUpperCase() method.

example :

String str = "blablabla";
editText.setText(str.toUpperCase()); // it will give : BLABLABLA

EDIT :

add this attribute to you EditText Tag in your layout xml :

 android:textAllCaps="true"

OR:

If you want whatever the user types to be uppercase you could implement a TextWatcher and use the EditText addTextChangedListener to add it, an on the onTextChange method take the user input and replace it with the same text in uppercase.

editText.addTextChangedListener(upperCaseTextWatcher);

final TextWatcher upperCaseTextWatcher = new TextWatcher() {

public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence, int i, int i1, int i2) {
}

public void onTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence, int i, int i1, int i2) {
    editText.setText(editText.getText().toString().toUpperCase());
    editText.setSelection(editText.getText().toString().length());
}

public void afterTextChanged(Editable editable) {
}

};

edited Dec 04 '12 at 15:21

answered Dec 04 '12 at 15:16

Houcine

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Nahh son. Like I said I already did this. I need the input to be capitals, not just the string once they are done. – clavio Dec 04 '12 at 15:17
you mean that you want that the letters should be in upperCase when writing from keyboard ?? – Houcine Dec 04 '12 at 15:18
Yes, I need the letter to be capitalized the second they type it. – clavio Dec 04 '12 at 15:20
1

onTextChanged() implementation, Isn't this infinite loop ? – umesh Dec 18 '18 at 01:42

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:35

6

You can try this:

android:inputType="textCapCharacters"

It worked for me. =)

answered Oct 25 '16 at 11:35

Douglas Santos

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score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 13 '19 at 08:59

3

To capitalize the first word of each sentence use :

android:inputType="textCapSentences"

To Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word use :

android:inputType="textCapWords"

To Capitalize every Character use :

android:inputType="textCapCharacters"

edited Mar 13 '19 at 08:59

tomerpacific

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answered Mar 13 '19 at 08:10

indrajeet jyoti

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 25 '21 at 12:24

All you have to do is set the correct input type for the EditText view:

editText.inputType == InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_CAP_CHARACTERS

As an alternative you can use an InputFilter. Here I have created a Kotlin extension:

fun EditText.allCaps() {
    val newFilters = this.filters.copyOf(this.filters.size + 1)

    newFilters[newFilters.size - 1] = InputFilter.AllCaps()

    this.filters = newFilters
}

I prefer to use both of this methods. Please note that InputFilter works also for hardware keyboard, on the other hand InputType will be effective only for soft keyboard.

This answer is a good addition to accepted answer. The solution from accepted answer (using InputType) does make characters upper-cased on soft keyboard, but it's possible for user to switch back to lower case and eventually input lower-cased character. Using both solutions (InputType + InputFilter) works great, - all characters are upper-cased. — Myroslav, Apr 22 '21 at 07:32

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 04 '12 at 15:25

0

This would work

    inputs[i] = new EditText(this);
    inputs[i].setWidth(376);
    inputs[i].setInputType(0x00001001);
    tFields.addView(inputs[i]);

0x00001001 corresponds to "textCapCharacters constant.

answered Dec 04 '12 at 15:25

Robin Chander

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Please avoid using [magic numbers](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/47882/what-is-a-magic-number-and-why-is-it-bad). I suggest you to edit your answer to revert my down vote. – mr5 Oct 01 '15 at 02:02

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 18 '14 at 06:26

0

try using this single line of code in your xml:

android:capitalize="sentences"

answered Mar 18 '14 at 06:26

Pihu

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 07 '17 at 16:32

For some reason adding the xml did not work on my device.

I found that a Text Filter works for to uppercase, like this

    EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editTextId);

    InputFilter toUpperCaseFilter = new InputFilter() {
        public CharSequence filter(CharSequence source, int start, int end,
                                   Spanned dest, int dstart, int dend) {

            StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

            for (int i = start; i < end; i++) {
                Character character = source.charAt(i);
                character = Character.toUpperCase(character); // THIS IS UPPER CASING
                stringBuilder.append(character);

            }
            return stringBuilder.toString();
        }

    };

    editText.setFilters(new InputFilter[] { toUpperCaseFilter });

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Nov 10 '22 at 06:41

Most of people have already answered about how to capitalize the editTexts. I have same requirement in my current project but with slight change. I need to make it uppercase if it's lowercase i.e., user typed 'a' then it need to be changed to 'A'.

AddTextChangeListener comes to the rescue. Someone has already covered it above but it falls in infinite loop and app crashes. There is just small modification required to make it work. so let's start.

Kotlin:

val watcher: TextWatcher = object : TextWatcher {
    override fun beforeTextChanged(s: CharSequence, start: Int, count: Int, after: Int) {

    }

    override fun onTextChanged(s: CharSequence, start: Int, before: Int, count: Int) {
        editText.removeTextChangedListener(this)
        editText.setText(s.toString().toUpperCase())
        editText.setEditTextSelection(editText.text.length)// Required to make cursor go to last index otherwise it would always point to start index
        editText.addTextChangedListener(this)
    }

    override fun afterTextChanged(s: Editable) {}
}

editText.addTextChangedListener(watcher)

How to capitalize every letter in an Android EditText?

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