How to find out which view is focused?

Question

I need to find out if any view is focused inside an Activity and what view it is. How to do this?

score 134 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 15 '16 at 16:44

134

Call getCurrentFocus() on the Activity.

edited Sep 15 '16 at 16:44

matiash

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answered Mar 18 '11 at 12:55

Karan

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1

For some reason it returns null after cycling all child views with "next" action. – WindRider Dec 13 '14 at 16:44
10

BTW, getCurrentFocus() is a method of activity, not of view. – ToolmakerSteve Nov 13 '15 at 03:30
3

... so in fragments we can use getActivity().getCurrentFocus().clearFocus() e.g... – Martin Pfeffer Jun 10 '16 at 12:50
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It is possible to [get hosting Activity from a View](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8276634/android-get-hosting-activity-from-a-view) and call `getCurrentFocus()`, but not that reliable. – Eido95 Dec 29 '16 at 12:19
1

kotlin: in fragment - `activity?.currentFocus` – Mohammad Reza Khahani Nov 16 '19 at 11:12
From view: `(v.context as? Activity)?.currentFocus`. – CoolMind Feb 20 '23 at 10:47

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 10 '14 at 11:50

From the source of Activity:

   /**
     * Calls {@link android.view.Window#getCurrentFocus} on the
     * Window of this Activity to return the currently focused view.
     * 
     * @return View The current View with focus or null.
     * 
     * @see #getWindow
     * @see android.view.Window#getCurrentFocus
     */
    public View getCurrentFocus() {
        return mWindow != null ? mWindow.getCurrentFocus() : null;
    }

Haroun Hajem · Answer 3 · 2020-11-16T12:23:12.440

Try this instead, put everything inside a thread and print the id and classname live to logcat. Just put this code inside your Activity, in the onCreate method then look into your logcat to see what is currently focused.

JAVA

  new Thread(() -> {
        int oldId = -1;
        while (true) {
            View newView= this.getCurrentFocus();
            if (newView != null && newView.getId() != oldId) {
                oldId = view.getId();
                String idName = "";
                try {
                   idName = getResources().getResourceEntryName(newView.getId());
                 } catch (Resources.NotFoundException e) {
                   idName = String.valueOf(newView.getId());
                 }
                Log.i(TAG, "Focused Id: \t" + idName + "\tClass: \t" + newView.getClass());
            }
            try {
                Thread.sleep(100);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }).start();

KOTLIN

      Thread(Runnable {
            var oldId = -1
            while (true) {
                val newView: View? = this.currentFocus
                if (newView != null && newView.id != oldId) {
                    oldId = newView.id
                    var idName: String = try {
                        resources.getResourceEntryName(newView.id)
                    } catch (e: Resources.NotFoundException) {
                        newView.id.toString()
                    }
                    Log.i(TAG, "Focused Id: \t" + idName + "\tClass: \t" + newView.javaClass)
                }
                try {
                    Thread.sleep(100)
                } catch (e: InterruptedException) {
                    e.printStackTrace()
                }
            }
        }).start()

Be aware this thread runs in a 100ms cycle so it doesn't overflow the CPU with unnecessary work.

You could extend this code and add a highlight so you can see which item is selected. It should work as long the item is inside the screen. But using the `logcat` is much more secure. — Haroun Hajem, Nov 16 '20 at 12:24

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 23:49

8

if you are in a fragment you can use

getView().findFocus()

answered Mar 21 '18 at 23:49

Pablo Johnson

1,044
15
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score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 03 '14 at 06:10

6

for some reason getCurrentFocus() method isn't available anymore; probably it's deprecated already, here the working alternative:

View focusedView = (View) yourParentView.getFocusedChild();

answered Sep 03 '14 at 06:10

John F

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It is two different methods. getCurrentFocus() is an Activity class method and getFocusedChild() belongs to View class – BoredT Jan 09 '15 at 11:59
2

@BoredT: `getFocusedChild()` is a method on `ViewGroup`. – gnuf Oct 28 '15 at 00:56

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 01 '18 at 09:43

1

ViewGroup has quite convenient method for retrieving focused child:

ViewGroup.getFocusedChild()

answered Aug 01 '18 at 09:43

Ramps

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How to find out which view is focused?

6 Answers6

JAVA

KOTLIN

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