Android: select all text on focus on EditField

Question

I'm trying to get Android to select all the text in an EditText field when it gets the focus. I'm using this attribute in the layout (on both fields):

android:selectAllOnFocus="true"

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but to get the cursor to the first editable field (there's also a disabled field before it), I'm using the following commands:

quizStartNum.setFocusable(true);
quizStartNum.requestFocus();

But, while the cursor does move to the desired field when the layout is first displayed, the text doesn't get highlighted; instead the cursor ends up to the left of the text, the default behavior. If I move to the second field by touching it, all the text is selected as desired. Then, if I move back to the first field, again by touching it, the text is also completely selected. I would like to have the behavior right from the start. Is there a way to do this?

I just encountered similar problem. Moreover, I can't show soft keyboard for this EditText using `InputMethodManager#showSoftInput(View, int)` while `InputMethodManager#toggleSoftInputFromWindow(IBinder, int, int)` works fine. — Seblis, Aug 27 '13 at 07:32

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 01 '18 at 22:04

4

If android:selectAllOnFocus="true" does not work, try calling setSelectAllOnFocus(true) on that particular EditText.

If that doesn't work either, this is another workaround from a previous SO post.

EditText dummy = ... 

dummy.setOnFocusChangedListener(new OnFocusChangedListener(){
    public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus){
        if (hasFocus) && (isDummyText())
            ((EditText)v).selectAll();
    }
});

edited Oct 01 '18 at 22:04

Dan Loewenherz

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answered Jun 17 '11 at 22:58

dLobatog

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No luck. android:selectAllOnFocus="true" does not work, setSelectAllOnFocus(true) doesn't work, and the above workaround doesn't work. Here's the code I used to get it to compile: quizStartNum.setOnFocusChangeListener(new View.OnFocusChangeListener() { @Override public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean arg1) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub if (v.hasFocus()) { ((EditText)v).selectAll(); } } }); – Jack BeNimble Jun 18 '11 at 04:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 29 '20 at 19:03

I had a similar issue and android:selectAllOnFocus="true" did not work for me. The reason was that i was programatically requesting focus to the EditText before it was displayed. So if you are doing this for a EditText in an AlertDialog make sure you show it before you request focus to the EditText.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 17 '20 at 08:25

EditText should be focussed after it displayed.

Following workout worked for me,

@Override
public void onViewCreated(@NonNull View view, @Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState);

    // Set Input Methode
    getDialog().getWindow().setSoftInputMode(WindowManager.LayoutParams.SOFT_INPUT_ADJUST_RESIZE);
}

@Override
public void onStart() {
    super.onStart();

    new Handler().post(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            Dialog dialog = getDialog();
            if (dialog != null) {
            // Set Layout 
            dialog.getWindow().setLayout(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

            // Set Cancelable False
            setCancelable(false);

            // Set Focus Here <------------------------
            uiET_myTextView.requestFocus();
            }            
        }
    });
}

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 25 '20 at 21:20

I also noticed that with android:selectAllOnFocus="true" seemed not to work, I used the mouse to select EditText in the emulator, but if I used my finger and touched it, as if on the phone, it worked. If you don't have a touch screen on your computer you may have to install your app on a physical device to test it. Android Studio may not recognize the mouse in this case

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 17 '11 at 22:55

0

Try removing your focus commands. They aren't necessary, Android should focus on the first field automatically?

answered Jun 17 '11 at 22:55

citizen conn

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He wants the second field to be focused as default. – Lukas Knuth Jun 17 '11 at 22:56

score -1 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

-1

I'll refer to this older post.

If you just want your EditText to show a hint (for "what goes in here"), you might want to use the Android's XML-attribute hint (link).

edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

Community

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answered Jun 17 '11 at 22:55

Lukas Knuth

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Android: select all text on focus on EditField

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