TextView setTextColor() not working

Question

I programmatically create a list (no a ListView, just adding them to the parent) of such elements:

    <LinearLayout android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_weight="1">
    <TextView android:id="@+id/filiale_name"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
    <TextView android:id="@+id/lagerstand_text"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:textSize="10sp" android:textColor="@color/red"/>
</LinearLayout>

Also, I have defined some colors in values/colors.xml. As you see, the TextView with id "lagerstand_text" has set it's color to red by default. That works.

When creating the elements in Java, I do

lagerstandText.setText("bla");

and for some elements also I do

lagerstandText.setTextColor(R.color.red);

and other colors. While the elements on which I don't call setTextColor() are red, all others are grey, no matter which color I chose (even if it's the same red again).

Why is that?

score 236 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 30 '16 at 11:50

236

The documentation is not very verbose about this, but you cannot use just the R.color integer when calling setTextColor. You need to call getResources().getColor(R.color.YOURCOLOR) to set a color properly.

Use the following to set color of your text programmatically:

textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.YOURCOLOR));

Starting with the support library 23 you have to use the following code, because getColor is deprecated:

textView.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(context, R.color.YOURCOLOR));

edited Aug 30 '16 at 11:50

Jens Bollenbacher

3
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answered May 30 '11 at 14:09

Sunil Kumar Sahoo

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Ok, that works. The API documentation could be a bit more verbose in this case... – didi_X8 May 30 '11 at 14:31
13

also u can use Color. ( here red green black blue yellow and other) setTextColor(Color.RED) – Peter May 30 '11 at 14:51
Thanks for the info... but this getResources() makes me pass a chain of contexts. There should be some better way to accessing global resources. – Umair Sep 14 '12 at 07:25
@Umair Use a static variable on your Application class. – Arif Amirani Apr 26 '13 at 21:23
@Kontinuity, I read that keeping the context in static variable is big source of memory leakage. – Umair Apr 28 '13 at 18:04
@Umair http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2002288/static-way-to-get-context-on-android – Arif Amirani Apr 29 '13 at 04:35
Its working for me if i use R.color.green. But not working if i use android.R.color.white. Any idea why? – abhijit.mitkar Dec 04 '14 at 15:29
getColor(R.color.YOURCOLOR) has been deprecated in v23. See this [link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31590714/getcolorint-id-deprecated-on-android-6-0-marshmallow-api-23) for the new way – themichaelscott Jan 14 '16 at 08:29

score 35 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 20 '18 at 17:43

35

So, there are many ways to achieve this task.

1.

int color = Integer.parseInt("bdbdbd", 16)+0xFF000000;
textview.setTextColor(color);

2.

textView.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.some_color));

3.

textView.setTextColor(0xffbdbdbd);

4.

textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#bdbdbd"));

5.

textView.setTextColor(Color.argb(a_int, r_int, g_int, b_int));

edited Dec 20 '18 at 17:43

tomDev

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answered Apr 30 '13 at 11:34

duggu

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Is there any way to find out if a particular color value is going to make the text disappear? – Christopher Masser Dec 02 '13 at 12:50
I'm adjusting the brightness of the color before using setTextColor(color). In some unknown cases the TextView simply disappears on the device (independent of the background). I want to write a test function to check if "color" is a valid color value before using it in setTextColor(color). – Christopher Masser Dec 02 '13 at 15:27
@ChristopherMasser not trying anything what u said ?? – duggu Dec 03 '13 at 04:24

sneha v · Answer 3 · 2017-08-19T16:46:38.417

4

1.standard color u prefer please go with below .

textview.setTextColor(Color.select_color)

2.here want to use custwom color add it in color.xml file

textview.setTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.textbody));

or

textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#000000"));

or

subText.setTextColor(Color.rgb(255,192,0));

edited Aug 19 '17 at 16:46

answered Aug 19 '17 at 16:28

sneha v

41
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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 29 '16 at 16:00

2

For future reference, you can use the follow:

String color = getString(Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(R.color.my_color)));
my_textView.setTextColor(Color.parseColor(color));

This way you can make use of your Color Resources.

answered Sep 29 '16 at 16:00

Chad Mx

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 19 '22 at 08:53

1

textView.setTextColor(Color.RED);

edited Feb 19 '22 at 08:53

Suraj Rao

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answered Feb 19 '22 at 08:46

Sayan Mazumder

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What makes your answer different from the one posted by other members? – Abhishek Dutt Feb 25 '22 at 05:30

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 05 '16 at 09:52

The integer id for a particular color(defined in xml layout) defined in R class cannot be passed as a parameter to setTextColor() method of View class. You must obtain the parameter of the setTextColor() by the following line of code :

int para=getResources().getColor(R.color.your_color,null);
view.setTextColor(para,null);

The method getColor(int id) has been depreciated...instead use getColor(int id,Resources.Theme theme) as in the line of code above.

The `second parameter( theme )` can be null

TextView setTextColor() not working

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