How do I insert a line break in a String to show on an Android TextView widget?

Question

When I set a textView's string manually like below it works.

<TextView
         android:id="@+id/textView1"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"
         android:text="line 1 \n line 2"/>

However, when I try to show a String on this textView it doesn't go to a new line.

String sample = "line 1 \n line 2";
textView1.setText(sample);

Note: Actually I am getting the String from a SQLite database. But that shouldn't make a difference right? Beacause it's still a String!

sample = cursor.getString(DBAdapter.COL_sample);
textView1.setText(sample);

So, now my TextView shows "\n" or "\r\n" character instead of a line break.

Works for me in both cases... Have you seen [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5382490/how-to-add-a-line-break-in-an-android-textview?rq=1)? — Onik, Apr 20 '14 at 01:06

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

Ah so now since you say it's from the SQLite database, that's the issue there.

You can refer to the answer by Blundell here.

The issue is that SQLite will escape your new line characters so when you retrieve it again, it will come out as \\\n or equivalent in which you will need to unescape to display properly (so remove the extra slash so it is just \n.

So depending on what new line characters are being saved into your database, you will need to handle accordingly.

So using the linked answer, you could do something like this (will depend on the number of backslashes and other characters you need to do):

textView1.setText(sample.replaceAll("\\\\n", "\n"));

If you need to do it in multiple places create a function for this.

Thanks a lot man! Solved my problem. Today I learnt: I should always post questions with as much detail as possible — AspiringDeveloper, Apr 20 '14 at 02:42

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 20 '14 at 01:06

2

You can try

sample = sample.replace("\\\n", System.getProperty("line.separator"));

answered Apr 20 '14 at 01:06

Fareya

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 20 '14 at 01:03

1

It does work when you extract to the strings.xml file (you can quickly do this with the cmd + 1 button).

This is a fix, and you will be properly abstracting your strings as a bonus.

answered Apr 20 '14 at 01:03

Booger

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Sorry but I am a total newbie and I don't know what you're talking about. Can you provide more detailed instructions on how to solve this problem? – AspiringDeveloper Apr 20 '14 at 01:04
Highlight the string. Press cmd+1. Then select the extract String option for the ide to do this for you. You will understand after it is done. Check the res folder. – Booger Apr 20 '14 at 04:32

How do I insert a line break in a String to show on an Android TextView widget?

3 Answers3