How to add a line break in an Android TextView?

Question

I am trying to add a line break in the TextView.

I tried suggested \n but that does nothing. Here is how I set my texts.

TextView txtSubTitle = (TextView)findViewById(r.id.txtSubTitle);
txtSubTitle.setText(Html.fromHtml(getResources().getString(R.string.sample_string)));

This is my String: <string name="sample_string">some test line 1 \n some test line 2</string>

It should show like so:

some test line 1
some test line 2

But it shows like so: some test line 1 some test line 2.

Am I missing something?

my Subtitle get to up to 6-9 lines already and it does wrap the text to the next line but if i want to break it it does not break. — dropsOfJupiter, Mar 21 '11 at 19:36
you should post your solution as an answer and accept it, so people can upvote! — bigstones, Mar 21 '11 at 20:28
I created a small sample project to illustrate the various ways to encode linebreaks, and their side-effects. Spoiler: `\n` is indeed the best way. https://github.com/paour/StringResourceTest — Pierre-Luc Paour, Mar 21 '17 at 10:27
The solution is very simple, just remove that `Html.fromHtml()` function and simply use `txtSubTitle.setText(getResources().getString(R.string.sample_string))`. — Bugs Happen, May 01 '19 at 04:53

score 245 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 27 '17 at 09:44

245

\n works for me, like this:

<TextView android:text="First line\nNext line"

edited Aug 27 '17 at 09:44

Yuliia Ashomok

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answered Aug 19 '11 at 23:06

RonN

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\r\n it's a line break for windows, and \n is a line break for linux – Guilherme Torres Castro Oct 07 '12 at 17:14
its not working for me – AndroidRaji Oct 10 '12 at 10:24
1

Misleading for not mentioning the other change you made which was adding quotes around the string. – Patrick Mar 26 '15 at 18:51
also not that the xml preview will ignore the line break but the an emulator/device will not – Joe Maher Oct 31 '16 at 23:40
\n works but the line immediately following the newline is indented slightly for some reason. Anyone know what's causing this? – stephen_liu Dec 18 '16 at 18:19
re: indent -- looks like this was my problem http://stackoverflow.com/a/11098201/522415 – stephen_liu Dec 18 '16 at 18:32
2

'\r' actually shows as 'r' in text. So, as others suggested, '\n' does the trick. – Miha Markic May 10 '17 at 12:30
The solution is not "'\n' works for me". It is "you need to remove that `Html.fromHtml() ` and you are good to go" – Bugs Happen May 01 '19 at 04:55

score 108 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 09 '19 at 17:16

108

ok figured it out:

<string name="sample_string"><![CDATA[some test line 1 <br />some test line 2]]></string>

so wrap in CDATA is necessary and breaks added inside as html tags

edited Feb 09 '19 at 17:16

Ali Khaki

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answered Mar 21 '11 at 22:33

dropsOfJupiter

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Use this one in a string resource Like "Hi! First line! This is the second line" – RexSplode Mar 20 '17 at 10:55
6

This requires using `Html.fromHtml()`, which is a bit much for a simple linebreak, and is not well supported by translation providers. – Pierre-Luc Paour Mar 21 '17 at 10:20
Come on man, seriously? You could not find the problem in his question? – Bugs Happen May 01 '19 at 04:55
Got a literal `
` in my text. But this worked: `Line\nAnother Line` – vesperto Jul 27 '21 at 17:58

score 78 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 12 '21 at 22:29

78

Android version 1.6 does not recognize \r\n. Instead, use: System.getProperty("line.separator")

String s = "Line 1"
           + System.getProperty("line.separator")
           + "Line 2"
           + System.getProperty("line.separator");

edited Nov 12 '21 at 22:29

moffeltje

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answered May 12 '12 at 18:09

Eric JOYÉ

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Upvote! This worked for me! If you just want to add a line break in the form: textView.setText(string1+System.getProperty ("line.separator")+string2); then it works a treat, thank you! – Twice Circled Dec 27 '12 at 13:46
WAT? Is there an Android version running Windows? – maaartinus Apr 20 '14 at 01:12
4

For anyone using Xamarin this is the equivalent: Java.Lang.JavaSystem.LineSeparator() – Steve Apr 23 '15 at 16:42
3

Why not simply System.lineSeparator() ? – George Z. Dec 23 '18 at 14:59

score 67 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 07 '12 at 02:13

67

Linebreaks (\n) only work if you put your string resource value in quotes like this:

<string name="sample_string">"some test line 1 \n some test line 2"</string>

It won't do linebreaks if you put it without quotes like this:

<string name="sample_string">some test line 1 \n some test line 2</string>

yes, it's that easy.

edited Mar 07 '12 at 02:13

Verbeia

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answered Mar 07 '12 at 00:02

dy_

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i just wanted to add that this quote-stuff also works fine with special characters in string resources or with languages like greek or russian... (if you encounter any problems) – dy_ Jun 19 '12 at 10:09
1

Thanks, I think using quotes is a better solution to maintain readability for long multi-line texts `"some test line 1 some test line 2 line 3" ` – xinthink Apr 28 '15 at 00:38
1

Using quotes has other side-effects, such as making spaces always significant (without quotes, multiple spaces in a row, such as in indents, are collapsed). – Pierre-Luc Paour Mar 21 '17 at 10:22

score 36 · Answer 5 · edited May 03 '14 at 01:32

36

Tried all the above, did some research of my own resulting in the following solution for rendering linefeed escape chars:

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

Using the replace method you need to filter escaped linefeeds (e.g. '\\n')
Only then each instance of line feed '\n' escape chars gets rendered into the actual linefeed

For this example I used a Google Apps Scripting noSQL database (ScriptDb) with JSON formatted data.

Cheers :D

edited May 03 '14 at 01:32

demongolem

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answered Apr 29 '13 at 19:57

Robert

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text.replace("\\n", System.getProperty("line.separator")) – Mussa Sep 19 '18 at 11:02

score 28 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 25 '20 at 12:17

28

There are two ways around this. If you use your string as a raw string, you need to use the newline character. If you use it as html, e.g. by parsing it with Html.fromString, the second variant is better.

1) Newline character `\n`

<string name="sample">This\nis a sample</string>

2) Html newline tag ` ` or ` `

<string name="sample">This<br>is a sample</string>

edited Oct 25 '20 at 12:17

David Passmore

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answered Mar 25 '14 at 14:37

poitroae

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I didn't downvote it but I think your code is wrong you need " " instead of"
" it won't work since < is a reserved symbol. – JPM Dec 04 '14 at 22:30
`
`, ``, `` and `` tags are allowed in string resources without escape, and are correctly applied by `TextView.setText(resId)`. They are stripped if using `Context.getString(resId)`, unless wrapped in a `CDATA` section. – Pierre-Luc Paour Mar 21 '17 at 10:25

score 17 · Answer 7 · edited May 06 '14 at 06:09

17

This worked for me

android:text="First \n Second"

edited May 06 '14 at 06:09

Swayam

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answered Dec 23 '13 at 07:17

Aniruddha

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Your example looks like it includes the text in a layout resource, which is a big no-no (impossible to localize). – Pierre-Luc Paour Mar 21 '17 at 10:23

score 16 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 27 '13 at 23:09

16

This worked for me, maybe someone will find out this helpful:

TextView textField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview1);
textField.setText("First line of text" + System.getProperty("line.separator") + "Linija 2");

answered Dec 27 '13 at 23:09

Zeljko Ivanovic

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score 13 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 21 '11 at 19:26

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If you're using XML to declare your TextView use android:singleLine = "false" or in Java, use txtSubTitle.setSingleLine(false);

answered Mar 21 '11 at 19:26

strange quark

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no that did not work. Does it have anything to do with Html.fromHtml() and string resources? – dropsOfJupiter Mar 21 '11 at 19:40
@dropsOfJupiter : have you looked at what the Html.fromHtml() call is returning? I'd be curious to assign it to a String and look at it in the debugger. – slund Mar 21 '11 at 20:28

score 11 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 24 '14 at 04:31

11

Used Android Studio 0.8.9. The only way worked for me is using \n. Neither wrapping with CDATA nor   or   worked.

answered Sep 24 '14 at 04:31

Maxim Berezovsky

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score 9 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 12:32

9

I use the following:

YOUR_TEXTVIEW.setText("Got some text \n another line");

answered Oct 24 '13 at 12:32

Carlo Matulessy

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score 8 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 02 '16 at 20:27

very easy : use "\n"

    String aString1 = "abcd";
    String aString2 = "1234";
    mSomeTextView.setText(aString1 + "\n" + aString2);

\n corresponds to ASCII char 0xA, which is 'LF' or line feed

\r corresponds to ASCII char 0xD, which is 'CR' or carriage return

this dates back from the very first typewriters, where you could choose to do only a line feed (and type just a line lower), or a line feed + carriage return (which also moves to the beginning of a line)

on Android / java the \n corresponds to a carriage return + line feed, as you would otherwise just 'overwrite' the same line

score 7 · Answer 13 · answered Jan 21 '21 at 14:29

As I know in the previous version of android studio uses separate lines " \n " code. But new one (4.1.2) uses "<br/" to separate lines. For example - Old one:

<string name="string_name">Sample text 1 \n Sample text 2 </string>

New one:

<string name="string_name">Sample text 1 <br/> Sample text 2 </string>

score 6 · Answer 14 · answered Feb 15 '16 at 17:01

Try to double-check your localizations. Possible, you trying to edit one file (localization), but actually program using another, just like in my case. The default system language is russian, while I trying to edit english localization.

In my case, working solution is to use "\n" as line separator:

    <string name="string_one">line one.
    \nline two;
    \nline three.</string>

score 6 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 19 '11 at 09:45

6

Also you can add " " instead of \n.

It's HTML escaped code for

And then you can add text to TexView:

articleTextView.setText(Html.fromHtml(textForTextView));

answered Jul 19 '11 at 09:45

mobiledev Alex

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nea, dont' think so. Android will actually print that nonesense. I tried. It works well in HTML but not here, especially when you are doing Html.fromHTML("my string from xml file") – dropsOfJupiter Jul 25 '11 at 18:57
@drops - Don't forget toString ==> `Html.fromHtml(textForTextView).toString()` --- And then you can do: `articleTextView.setText(Html.fromHtml("text before break
text after break").toString());` -------- In other words just use `
` directly inside `fromHtml()` – Peter Ajtai Nov 17 '11 at 23:57
` ` should suffice to make sure the style information is not stripped. (based on the official documentation) – jpmcosta Oct 02 '13 at 16:46

score 3 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 15 '17 at 10:25

3

You could also use the String-Editor of Android Studio, it automatically generates line brakes and stuff like that...

answered Jan 15 '17 at 10:25

Tim

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score 2 · Answer 17 · answered Jun 29 '17 at 03:06

As Html.fromHtml deprecated I simply I used this code to get String2 in next line.

textView.setText(fromHtml("String1 <br/> String2"));

.

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
    public static Spanned fromHtml(String html){
        Spanned result;
        if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
            result = Html.fromHtml(html,Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY);
        } else {
            result = Html.fromHtml(html);
        }
        return result;
    }

score 2 · Answer 18 · answered Aug 30 '17 at 20:23

The most easy way to do it is to go to values/strings (in your resource folder)

Declare a string there:

    <string name="example_string">Line 1\Line2\Line n</string>

And in your specific xml file just call the string like

    <TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/example_string" />

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 11:52

1

I found another method: Is necessary to add the "android:maxWidth="40dp"" attribute. Of course, it may not work perfectly, but it gives a line break.

answered Jul 27 '16 at 11:52

Master

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score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 01 '18 at 21:44

1

\n was not working for me. I was able to fix the issue by changing the xml to text and building the textview text property like below.

android:text="Line 1
Line 2
Line 3

DoubleSpace"

Hopefully This helps those who have said that \n did not work for them.

answered Mar 01 '18 at 21:44

Josh Greco

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I'm not convinced this is a good solution. There are just hidden `\n` characters in there. – Almo Mar 01 '18 at 22:05

score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Mar 05 '18 at 00:38

I'm reading my text from a file, so I took a slightly different approach, since adding \n to the file resulted in \n appearing in the text.

    final TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.warm_up_view);
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.warm_up_file));
    while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
      sb.append(scanner.nextLine());
      sb.append("\n");
    }

    textView.setText(sb.toString());

score 1 · Answer 22 · edited Jun 22 '19 at 08:20

1

In my case, I solved this problem by adding the following:

android:inputType="textMultiLine"

edited Jun 22 '19 at 08:20

Cato Minor

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answered Jun 22 '19 at 01:32

Elcio Cestari Taira

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Input type is for EditText not TextView – clauziere Feb 28 '20 at 21:46

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Aug 05 '18 at 08:20

0

Maybe you are able to put the lf into the text, but it doesn't display? Make sure you have enough height for the control. For example:

Correct:

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

May be wrong:

android:layout_height="10dp"

answered Aug 05 '18 at 08:20

Jarekczek

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score 0 · Answer 24 · edited Oct 11 '21 at 23:13

0

I would recommend querying the line.separator property, and using that whenever you want to add a line break.

Here is some sample code:

TextView calloutContent = new TextView(getApplicationContext());
calloutContent.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
calloutContent.setSingleLine(false);
calloutContent.setLines(2);
calloutContent.setText(" line 1" + System.getProperty ("line.separator")+"  line2" );

edited Oct 11 '21 at 23:13

Cody Gray - on strike

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answered Feb 16 '20 at 20:42

Bahman Rashidi

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geekley · Answer 25 · 2020-06-29T21:37:01.237

I feel like a more complete answer is needed to describe how this works more thoroughly.

Firstly, if you need advanced formatting, check the manual on how to use HTML in string resources.
Then you can use  , etc. However, this requires setting the text using code.

If it's just plain text, there are many ways to escape a newline character (LF) in static string resources.

Enclosing the string in double quotes

The cleanest way is to enclose the string in double quotes.
This will make it so whitespace is interpreted exactly as it appears, not collapsed.
Then you can simply use newline normally in this method (don't use indentation).

<string name="str1">"Line 1.
Line 2.
Line 3."</string>

Note that some characters require special escaping in this mode (such as \").

The escape sequences below also work in quoted mode.

When using a single-line in XML to represent multi-line strings

The most elegant way to escape the newline in XML is with its code point (10 or 0xA in hex) by using its XML/HTML entity 
 or 
. This is the XML way to escape any character.
However, this seems to work only in quoted mode.

Another method is to simply use \n, though it negatively affects legibility, in my opinion (since it's not a special escape sequence in XML, Android Studio doesn't highlight it).

<string name="str1">"Line 1.&#xA;Line 2.&#10;Line 3."</string>
<string name="str1">"Line 1.\nLine 2.\nLine 3."</string>
<string name="str1">Line 1.\nLine 2.\nLine 3.</string>

Do not include a newline or any whitespace after any of these escape sequences, since that will be interpreted as extra space.

How to add a line break in an Android TextView?

25 Answers25

1) Newline character `\n`

2) Html newline tag `<br>` or `<br />`

Enclosing the string in double quotes

When using a single-line in XML to represent multi-line strings

Linked

Related

How to add a line break in an Android TextView?

25 Answers25

1) Newline character \n

2) Html newline tag <br> or <br />

Enclosing the string in double quotes

When using a single-line in XML to represent multi-line strings

Linked

Related

1) Newline character `\n`

2) Html newline tag `<br>` or `<br />`