Why can I not use a method to set text for a generic EditText?

Question

In a couple of places in my code, I've used a method to set the text of a view instead of directly setting it. What I mean is that rather than doing:

editText.setText(myString);

I've used a method as follows:

public void setText(EditText editText, String myString) {
     editText.setText(myString);
}

(Obviously this looks a little superfluous; I used this so I could check properties of the string that may have some impact on how I set the text in some cases.)

Using a method this way does not seem to set the text. Why is this?

Thanks!

this is because it would be setting text to the variable that is passed not the one declared , variable = editext — Rat-a-tat-a-tat Ratatouille, Mar 20 '14 at 12:23
I thought that what is passed to the method is a reference to that editText and as such any action performed on that reference should affect the originally declared variable? — public static void, Mar 20 '14 at 12:25
I don't see anything wrong with the code you posted, the problem must be somewhere else. What exactly ist going wrong? — Xaver Kapeller, Mar 20 '14 at 12:28
Hmm, just did another test and it seems you're right. I think that the variable I'm trying to input is null for some reason. — public static void, Mar 20 '14 at 12:31
@Rat-a-tat-a-tatRatatouille You should take a look at [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/40480/is-java-pass-by-reference). — Alexis Leclerc, Mar 20 '14 at 12:42
@AlexisLeclerc yes thats correct, java is based on pass by reference, but then i just wrote the comment cz the variable names are the same. — Rat-a-tat-a-tat Ratatouille, Mar 20 '14 at 12:46
@Rat-a-tat-a-tatRatatouille Java is not pass-by-reference... And even if the above code has variables with the same name, it has the desired behaviour. — Alexis Leclerc, Mar 20 '14 at 13:03

Sivakumar Purushothaman · Answer 1 · 2014-03-20T12:32:46.200

1

Get the Id of the element and then do set . For example

 EditText editText=(EditText)findViewById(R.id.edittext_from_example);
 edtiText.setText("String");

Further more, if you want you can write seperate methods

it doesnt know to which editText to set the string.

edited Mar 20 '14 at 12:32

answered Mar 20 '14 at 12:27

Sivakumar Purushothaman

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How is this related to `why?` – Keerthivasan Mar 20 '14 at 12:28
I've done that. Thanks for trying to help but this isn't the cause of the problem. – public static void Mar 20 '14 at 12:33
@publicstaticvoid you are sending two parameter know Have you initialized and it. without initialization or proper declaration we cannot able to set the value.... – Sivakumar Purushothaman Mar 20 '14 at 12:37
I've definitely initialized the edit text. If I had not, it would throw a null pointer exception. However, I think you're correct in that the string is not initialized. – public static void Mar 20 '14 at 12:40
I've fixed it now thanks. Was some weird (and pretty stupid) onResume behaviour. – public static void Mar 20 '14 at 14:28

Why can I not use a method to set text for a generic EditText?

1 Answers1