How to change the color of a specific character in a string in java / android?

Question

I have a String.

String text= //Some String That I know
String textToBeColored = //Some Letter User enters at run time

How can I change the color of a specific letter that user enters at run time in my String.

I have searched and i found something useful, `txt.setText(Html.fromHtml("your content");` — BST Kaal, Aug 05 '14 at 12:06
But the problem with this is, i must know the letter that is need to be colored. — BST Kaal, Aug 05 '14 at 12:06
M trying to do this in my android code. where i need to change the color of that specific letter while setting the text to a `TextView` — BST Kaal, Aug 05 '14 at 12:08
possible duplicate of [Change text color of one word in a TextView](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7221930/change-text-color-of-one-word-in-a-textview) — Shailendra Madda, Aug 05 '14 at 12:09

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '19 at 21:48

12

I assume that you want something like particular text that user selects to be highlighted in the string. Below should help you do it.

String text = "abcada";
String textToBeColored = "a";

String htmlText = text.replace(textToBeColored,"<font color='#c5c5c5'>"+textToBeColored +"</font>");
// Only letter a would be displayed in a different color.
txtView.setText(Html.fromHtml(htmlText);

edited May 04 '19 at 21:48

nandur

134
10

answered Aug 05 '14 at 12:09

ngrashia

9,869
5
43
58

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '14 at 12:12

2

You can do this with simple way.

SpannableStringBuilder builder = new SpannableStringBuilder();

String red = "user's word is red";
SpannableString redSpannable= new SpannableString(red);
redSpannable.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.RED), 0, red.length(), 0);
builder.append(redSpannable);

mTextView.setText(builder, BufferType.SPANNABLE);

Let me know if any problem.

answered Aug 05 '14 at 12:12

OmerFaruk

292
2
13

Its giving an exception : `java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: setSpan (0 ... 9) ends beyond length 1` – BST Kaal Aug 05 '14 at 12:37
line 4, red.length() should change to red.length() - 1, because the index of array is begin with 0 – kewei xia Sep 02 '18 at 21:03

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 05 '14 at 12:16

TextView TV = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView1); 
    Spannable WordtoSpan = new SpannableString("I this is just a test case");        
    WordtoSpan.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.RED), 4, 10, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
    TV.setText(WordtoSpan);

try this

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 05 '14 at 12:17

You can do this by setSpan on SpannableStringBuilder(Text)

final SpannableStringBuilder sb = new SpannableStringBuilder("text");
final ForegroundColorSpan fcs = new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.rgb(234, 123, 121));  


sb.setSpan(fcs, 0, 4, Spannable.SPAN_INCLUSIVE_INCLUSIVE); 
//0 is starting index
//4 is ending index

You can use sb as string

How to change the color of a specific character in a string in java / android?

4 Answers4