How to force EditText to start text with capital letter?

Question

I have an EditText and I need the text in it (when user types in) to be started with capital letter.

score 169 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '14 at 18:34

169

Be careful if you add both android:capitalize="sentences" and android:inputType="text", as the latter seems to have priority over the first and the input will not be capitalized.

There's a specific inputType for automatically capitalizing the first letter:

android:inputType="textCapSentences"

See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/TextView.html#attr_android:inputType

edited Mar 20 '14 at 18:34

Display Name

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answered Oct 24 '11 at 11:00

Maragues

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Nice tip! I had both and it worked as expected on a Nexus One and a Galaxy Nexus. But on an HTC Sense device, the words were not capitalized. android:inputType was the trick. – BoD Sep 14 '12 at 12:45
10

Word of warning: since in my case the field was going to be a person's name, I set android:inputType="textPersonName". This did not work as expected: I had to use android:inputType="textCapWords" to get each word of the name to capitalize. – Jeff G Nov 15 '12 at 10:37
2

android:capitalize="sentences" should not use this tag bcuz it is deprecated – pioneerBhawna Nov 22 '13 at 14:06
What if android:inputType="textMultiLine"? – KRP May 23 '14 at 07:14
14

Then use `android:inputType="textMultiLine|textCapSentences"` – 4mnes7y Nov 18 '14 at 16:06
Its not working with google material **om.google.android.material.textfield.TextInputEditText** – Arbaz.in Aug 27 '19 at 09:38

DeadlyChambers · Answer 2 · 2020-03-02T22:39:14.287

24

The options for android:capitalize are

android:inputType="none", which won't automatically capitalize anything.

android:inputType="sentences", Which will capitalize the first word of each sentence.

android:inputType="words", Which Will Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word.

android:inputType="characters", WHICH WILL CAPITALIZE EVERY CHARACTER.

Apparently it has been changed to inputType instead of capitalize

edited Mar 02 '20 at 22:39

answered Aug 10 '12 at 15:00

DeadlyChambers

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This method is deprecated. – h8pathak Feb 25 '16 at 12:08
@h8pathak inputType should be used in favor of this method. – Joel Dean Aug 16 '16 at 17:25
you can use android:inputType="textCapWords" – Sadique Khan Sep 15 '22 at 15:35
@SadiqueKhan would you mind adding to the answer with an edit? I answered this 10 years ago. I would hope that the syntax has changed a bit. – DeadlyChambers Sep 15 '22 at 22:59
see my answer below – Sadique Khan Sep 18 '22 at 04:05

score 18 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 14 '14 at 08:30

18

Use

android:inputType="textPersonName|textCapWords"

as using only "textPersonName" is not enough so name's first letters would be capitalized.

Similarly with postal addresses:

android:inputType="textPostalAddress|textCapSentences"

answered Aug 14 '14 at 08:30

ViliusK

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Doesn't work good with names like "da Silva" or "von Anhalt". – jeff Apr 24 '18 at 09:03

score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 30 '15 at 10:41

8

Try this way,

testEditText.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT | InputType.TYPE_TEXT_FLAG_CAP_WORDS);

or android:inputType="textCapSentences" will only work If your device keyboard Auto Capitalize Setting enabled.

edited Jun 30 '15 at 10:41

IntelliJ Amiya

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answered Mar 11 '14 at 09:48

Lakshmanan

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accepted answer is great but I was looking for coding answer, this works. tx – Boris Gafurov Apr 18 '16 at 17:31

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 30 '15 at 10:42

8

Add this in your XML

 android:inputType="textCapWords"

android:inputType="textCapSentences" will work for sentences. However, I needed to capitalize every word in a full name field.

edited Jun 30 '15 at 10:42

IntelliJ Amiya

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answered May 29 '14 at 12:05

mukulg

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 09 '13 at 10:31

3

In the layout xml, add android:inputType=textCapSentences

answered Jan 09 '13 at 10:31

Mickey Tin

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 19 '15 at 10:07

You used the word "Enforce". So try this. Just pass your edittext as argument.

public static void setCapitalizeTextWatcher(final EditText editText) {
    final TextWatcher textWatcher = new TextWatcher() {

        int mStart = 0;

        @Override
        public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {

        }

        @Override
        public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
            mStart = start + count;
        }

        @Override
        public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
             String input = s.toString();
            String capitalizedText;
            if (input.length() < 1)
                capitalizedText = input;
            else
                capitalizedText = input.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + input.substring(1);
            if (!capitalizedText.equals(editText.getText().toString())) {
                editText.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
                    @Override
                    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {

                    }

                    @Override
                    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {

                    }

                    @Override
                    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
                        editText.setSelection(mStart);
                        editText.removeTextChangedListener(this);
                    }
                });
                editText.setText(capitalizedText);
            }
        }
    };

    editText.addTextChangedListener(textWatcher);
}

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 20:52

2

In case of password which starts from upper case it will be:

android:inputType="textPassword|textCapSentences"

answered Sep 16 '18 at 20:52

Krzysztof Cieśliński

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 30 '19 at 11:52

2

in case you ran into the annoying case of setting android:inputType=textCapSentences then ending up with one-liner EditText, here's the solution:

    android:inputType="textCapSentences|textMultiLine"

answered Jan 30 '19 at 11:52

awsleiman

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 12 '11 at 10:15

2

In the layout xml, add android:capitalize="sentences"

answered Sep 12 '11 at 10:15

MByD

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 18 '14 at 06:25

1

Paste this in your edittext (xml):

  android:capitalize="sentences"

answered Mar 18 '14 at 06:25

Pihu

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score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Jun 18 '16 at 11:14

1

edittext.setFilters(new InputFilter[] {new InputFilter.AllCaps()});

edited Jun 18 '16 at 11:14

Pang

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answered Mar 16 '16 at 07:31

SAndroidD

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While this code snippet may solve the question, [including an explanation](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/114762/explaining-entirely-code-based-answers) really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. Please also try not to crowd your code with explanatory comments, this reduces the readability of both the code and the explanations! – Box Box Box Box Jun 18 '16 at 11:27

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 18 '22 at 04:06

Adding input type in edit text as textCapSentences which will make first letter of the sentence capital

        <EditText
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:textSize="18sp"
        android:padding="10dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:inputType="textCapSentences"
        android:hint="Name"/>

How to force EditText to start text with capital letter?

13 Answers13

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