Hide Android soft keyboard and only allow digits on EditText

Question

I have a custom keyboard and don't want to show the Android softkeyboard. this can be achieved by the following code (How to hide Android soft keyboard on EditText):

editText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);

However the EditText should only allow digits. this can be achieved by:

editText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER);

I can't seem to find a way to combine both functionalities. setting the inputtype to TYPE_NULL will allow non-numeric characters when using hardware keyboards and setting the inputtype to TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER causes the soft keyboard to pop up.

This code may help you `input.setRawInputType(Configuration.KEYBOARD_12KEY);` — Suraj Palwe, Mar 03 '15 at 13:05
I tried it but it still shows the android softkeyboard on phones. — Wirling, Mar 04 '15 at 07:55

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '15 at 15:26

The answer from airowe guided me in the right direction. This solution didn't seem to work for Android 2.3.X devices (the soft keyboard would still pop up). So I tweaked it a bit. I ended up using the following code:

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(editText.getWindowToken(), 0); //hide keyboard

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB)
{
   editText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER);
}
else
{
   editText.setRawInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);
}

This would probably allow pre-honeycomb tablets to enter text. However I think this is negligible.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 04 '15 at 20:42

Instead of

editText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_NULL);

use

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(fieldController.getFieldComponent().getWindowToken(), 0); //hide keyboard

to hide the keyboard.

Then, you can set the input type to what you want.

i.e.

editText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER);

Hide Android soft keyboard and only allow digits on EditText

2 Answers2