Android multi line textedit height grows too much

Question

I want to have two multi line textedits, which both grow as more stuff get typed in.

This is what I have got so far:

<RelativeLayout ...>
    // Some other stuff

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/content_layer"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:background="@drawable/bg_lists_repeat"
        android:layout_below="@id/title_bar"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/multi_line_text_view"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:visibility="gone"/>


        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/multi_line_edit_text"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:visibility="gone"
            android:scrollbars="vertical"
            android:inputType="textCapSentences|textMultiLine"/>

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/multi_line_text_view_2"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:visibility="gone"/>

        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/multi_line_edit_text_2"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:visibility="gone"
            android:scrollbars="vertical"
            android:inputType="textCapSentences|textMultiLine"/>

    </LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

There are some problems though:

1. EditText grows and grows infinitely if you just press enter
   • would be nice if the EditText grows only until all space is taken of the view and no more further
2. When selecting words in EditText the Action Bar at the top for copying / pasting / cutting is not always shown especially if you select something at the bottom of the EditText or if the EditText is big

How can I address those issues?

EDIT

I don't want to set a maximum of lines, since we have different screen sizes and therefore a hard coded number is not really a good solution.

Answer 1

TRY:

android:maxLines="5" 

or

your_text_view.setMaxLines(5);

EDIT:

or you can hook up addTextChangedListener() to your edit text:

your_edit_text.addTextChangedListener(this);  
@Override
public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
@Override
public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count,
        int after) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub

}
@Override
public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    //Here you can take necessary action if the edit text grows beyond some height
}

Answer 2

Try this :

 <EditText
            android:id="@+id/multi_line_edit_text"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:visibility="gone"
            android:scrollbars="vertical"
            android:maxLines="5"
            android:inputType="textCapSentences|textMultiLine"/>