How to restrict user from typing special characters in Search view Android?

Question

I have to restrict users from typing Special Characters in the Search view.

I have already defined the input type as textPersonName, but the users should not be able to type any Special Characters in the first place.

When I tried to cast it to an EditText. It throws an exception, as below:

  val filter: InputFilter = object : InputFilter {
            override fun filter(
                source: CharSequence,
                start: Int,
                end: Int,
                dest: Spanned?,
                dstart: Int,
                dend: Int
            ): CharSequence? {
                for (i in start until end) {
                    if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(source[i])) {
                        return ""
                    }
                }
                return null
            }
        }
        var etSearch = searchview_filter as EditText
        etSearch.filters = arrayOf(filter)
    

E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: com.sbi.investtap, PID: 12227
    java.lang.ClassCastException: androidx.appcompat.widget.SearchView cannot be cast to android.widget.EditText

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21828323/how-can-restrict-my-edittext-input-to-some-special-character-like-backslash-t — Abdullah Jubayer, Jun 08 '22 at 09:54
check this answer. it may help you [link](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21828323/how-can-restrict-my-edittext-input-to-some-special-character-like-backslash-t) — Abdullah Jubayer, Jun 08 '22 at 09:58

Bhoomika Patel · Answer 1 · 2022-06-08T10:52:12.247

1

This may help you, you need to check your input when users typing data. You need to set your validation inside filter.

InputFilter filter = new InputFilter() {
    public CharSequence filter(CharSequence source, int start, int end,
            Spanned dest, int dstart, int dend) {
        for (int i = start; i < end; i++) {
            if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(source.charAt(i))) {
                return "";
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
};

fetch editText from searchview like this; No need to change edittext's id, because it is default android id of Search EditText.

var etSearch = searchview_filter.findViewById(R.id.search_src_text) as EditText
etSearch.filters = arrayOf(filter)

edited Jun 08 '22 at 10:52

answered Jun 08 '22 at 09:42

Bhoomika Patel

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No, setFilters() function is not available for the searchView. – Sweta Jain Jun 08 '22 at 10:04
@SwetaJain, need to get edittext from searchview. then apply this filter on that edit text. – Bhoomika Patel Jun 08 '22 at 10:05
can you explain that with code? – Sweta Jain Jun 08 '22 at 10:07
@SwetaJain check edited answer – Bhoomika Patel Jun 08 '22 at 10:12
It fails with an exception. E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main Process: com.sbi.investtap, PID: 12227 java.lang.ClassCastException: androidx.appcompat.widget.SearchView cannot be cast to android.widget.EditText – Sweta Jain Jun 08 '22 at 10:23
you are doing some mistake here.. set your searchview name on place of 'yourSearchView'... all others details will be same. dont change id, its default android id. – Bhoomika Patel Jun 08 '22 at 10:26
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/245414/discussion-between-sweta-jain-and-bhoomika-patel). – Sweta Jain Jun 08 '22 at 10:32
thanks I got your point . – Sweta Jain Jun 08 '22 at 10:47
@SwetaJain glad that this helps you. can you please accept answer if you found it helpful. – Bhoomika Patel Jun 08 '22 at 10:48

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 08 '22 at 10:50

This is how you may achieve this in Kotlin:

InputFilter filter = new InputFilter() {
    public CharSequence filter(CharSequence source, int start, int end,
            Spanned dest, int dstart, int dend) {
        for (int i = start; i < end; i++) {
            if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(source.charAt(i))) {
                return "";
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
};


   var etSearch = searchview_filter.findViewById(R.id.search_src_text) as EditText
        etSearch.filters = arrayOf(filter)

How to restrict user from typing special characters in Search view Android?

2 Answers2