Removing the 'box' from the checkbox in Android

Question

I am an entry level software developer, and have found tons of great answers from this site, but I can't seem to find how to hide the 'box' of a checkbox in Android. I just want the check mark to show, when a user selects an option. Here are some of the most recent things I have tried.

chkSortOrder.setBackgroundResource(android.R.color.transparent); chkSortOrder.setBackgroundResource(android.R.drawable.checkbox_off_background);

Both of these still show the box.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3544690/how-do-i-remove-checkbox-border — The Vanilla Thrilla, Apr 17 '13 at 14:46
Thanks, I came across this answer a couple of times, but I can't find a setBorder option in Android. — Jason, Apr 17 '13 at 14:59
I couldn't find anything so I am just using an image of a check and either showing it or not. :^ \ — Jason, Apr 29 '13 at 14:45

score 42 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 18 '19 at 17:46

42

put the following attribute in your checkbox tag in XML.

android:button="@android:color/transparent"

edited Dec 18 '19 at 17:46

duggu

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answered Dec 26 '13 at 03:42

Joseph

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Sure thing - just set the button property within your code. – Alexey Shevelyov Jan 16 '17 at 22:09
2

Works, but a little too well. The complete checkbox image is gone. I think the original poster wants just the CHECK to show (when appropriate) without the box. – SMBiggs May 26 '18 at 22:22

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 18 '19 at 12:17

3

It's quite late but in any case, if it helps anyone. If you wanna set custom background to RadioButton programmatically, then you can set it like this,

checkbox.setButtonDrawable(null);
checkbox.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.your_custom_drawable);

answered Mar 18 '19 at 12:17

Abhishek Kumar

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This does not seem to work in Android 4.0. It does however in 5.0+ – StuStirling Mar 27 '19 at 17:12

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 19 '20 at 11:12

It's 2020! and many things have changed. But if you are struggling with this like me and tried everything here (and other solutions) with no luck, then try this one too. What I've got with other solutions came to this (Emulator, API 16):

Weird behavior! Two drawables, right is my custom box and default one on the left. And then accidentally i added this:

app:buttonCompat="@null"

and the second one is gone finally! Here is the complete definition:

  <CheckBox
        android:id="@+id/cb_fs_ExactSearch"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:button="@null"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:padding="5dp"
        android:text="@string/fs_options_exact"
        android:textColor="@color/textPrimary"
        android:textSize="@dimen/textSmall"
        app:buttonCompat="@null"
        app:drawableRightCompat="@drawable/drw_checkbox" />

You need to set both button and buttonCompat to null.

@HaiHack as you see another checkbox is borned to the left side! — SadeQ digitALLife, Oct 01 '21 at 20:04

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 18 '19 at 10:22

0

I found this error when updating from androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.0.0 to 1.1.0.

None of the other answers were useful to me as setting button attribute to @null or @android:color/transparent doesn't work on Android API Level 20 or lower.

What I did is to change my CheckBox to ToggleButton and set textOn and textOff attributes to an empty string

<ToggleButton
    ...
    android:background="@drawable/custom_selector"
    android:textOff=""
    android:textOn="" />

This way I could update to androidx appCompat 1.1.0

answered Oct 18 '19 at 10:22

Rubén Viguera

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It's a `ToggleButton`, not `CheckBox` (has `on` and `off` states). – CoolMind Nov 26 '19 at 08:41
Asked question is for chekbox not for toggle button. Both are different. – Aditya Patil Jul 13 '21 at 11:43
Before voting down please read the hole answer and do it just if it has sense. I said I CHANGED my CheckBox to a ToggleButton. If you cannot make that change for any bussines requirement that doesn't make this answer incorrect. It just doesn't fit your needs. – Rubén Viguera Jul 30 '21 at 17:07

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 26 '19 at 08:57

You can also toggle between a CheckBox and a TextView. Just make one view visible and another one hidden. This also makes sense because the CheckBox contains paddings around the check mark.

        <FrameLayout
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            >

            <CheckBox
                android:id="@+id/checkbox"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:checkMark="@null"
                android:checked="true"
                android:gravity="center_vertical"
                android:paddingStart="3dp"
                android:paddingLeft="3dp"
                android:text="My text"
                android:textColor="@color/black"
                android:textSize="12sp"
                />

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/label"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:text="My text"
                android:textColor="@color/black"
                android:textSize="12sp"
                />

        </FrameLayout>

Removing the 'box' from the checkbox in Android

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