Disable Android AutoCompleteTextView after user selects item from drop down

Question

I'm using Android's AutoCompleteTextView with a CursorAdapter to add autocomplete to an app. In the view's onItemClickListener() (i.e. when the user touches one of the autocompleted drop down items) I retrieve the text and place it in the EditText so that the user can modify it if they need to.

However, when I call setText() on the TextView the autocomplete behavior is triggered and the dropdown shows again. I'd like to only show the dropdown if the user types new text with the keyboard. Is there a way to do this?

I am doing something similiar HERE!!! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12854336/autocompletetextview-backed-by-cursorloader — Etienne Lawlor, Oct 30 '12 at 19:45

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 08 '11 at 15:08

21

You can use the dismissDropDown() method of the AutoCompleteTextView object. Take a look at the documentation.

answered Nov 08 '11 at 15:08

Franziskus Karsunke

4,948
3
40
54

I want to prevent the drop down from showing until new keys are typed. If I use dismissDropDown() the dropdown will briefly show before getting dismissed. – magneticMonster Nov 08 '11 at 15:21
If you put the method call in the onItemClickListener() it should dismiss the list, when you click on one item. Isn't this what you want? – Franziskus Karsunke Nov 08 '11 at 15:28
@Vucko something is likely putting the focus, and thus the cursor back into the autoCompleteTextBox, causing the list to reappear. – Smitty-Werben-Jager-Manjenson Jun 07 '19 at 19:50
I did solve it in the meanwhile. Don't remember how now though :D – Vucko Jun 08 '19 at 10:30

Ketan Ramani · Answer 2 · 2018-11-22T06:36:26.130

9

When we click on item suggested in AutoCompleteTextView.onTextChanged() is performed before onItemClick So, to avoid this try below code..

autocompletetextview.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence, int i, int i1, int i2) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence charSequence, int i, int i1, int i2) {
        if (autocompletetextview.isPerformingCompletion()) {
            // An item has been selected from the list. Ignore.
        } else {
            // Perform your task here... Like calling web service, Reading data from SQLite database, etc...
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(final Editable editable) {

    }
});

edited Nov 22 '18 at 06:36

answered Aug 17 '18 at 05:55

Ketan Ramani

4,874
37
42

2

YES! this is exactly what I needed. You were right that my app made an API call after a user selected an item in the list, which then re-populated the list and showed it ! That's now fixed, thanks! – Someone Somewhere Oct 23 '18 at 14:07
3

Thanks, `autocompletetextview.isPerformingCompletion()` just saved me. – Cătălin Florescu Dec 12 '18 at 08:50
The best and easiest solution that worked for me. Thanks! – Rafay Ali Oct 17 '19 at 11:37

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 15 '12 at 07:49

7

If you wish to dissmis AutoCompleteTextView's dropdown you should use its post(Runnable r) method. It works for me :)

Here is an example:

mAutoCompleteTextView.post(new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        mAutoCompleteTextView.dismissDropDown();
    }
}

answered Oct 15 '12 at 07:49

Toochka

894
1
9
25

I also added the same snippet in onConfigurationChanged in my activity – Svetoslav Marinov Apr 14 '14 at 07:30
This didn't work for me, the dropdown just appeared again. – Vucko May 21 '18 at 10:40
@Vucko Please check my answer. This trick wasn't working for me also. – CopsOnRoad Jul 03 '18 at 10:00

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 08 '11 at 15:37

4

Answering my own question after a couple hours of hacking at this: It turns out you should implement your own OnItemClickListener and instead rely on the existing click listener to populate the TextView. I had originally implemented the onItemClickListener because it was using the results of Cursor.toString() to populate the text view. To change the output String, you should implement convertToString(Cursor) in your CursorAdapter. The CharSequence that gets returned will be populated in the text view.

Doing this will also prevent the dropdown from showing up again (since setText() triggers the completion behavior but the default onItemClickListener does not).

answered Nov 08 '11 at 15:37

magneticMonster

2,373
6
30
46

What if my adapter extends `BaseAdapter`, not `CursorAdapter`? I do not have such method, but I have the same issue (I override `getFilter` method). – Vadim Kotov Jul 25 '19 at 08:06
Ah, found it: you need to override [Filter.convertResultToString](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Filter.html#convertResultToString(java.lang.Object)) to provide String representation. – Vadim Kotov Jul 25 '19 at 08:19

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 03 '18 at 09:59

1

Different approach. I agreed dismissDropDown() works but in my case, it wasn't working as expected. So, I used:

autoCompleteTextView.setDropDownHeight(0);

And if you want to show the dropdown list again, you an use

autoCompleteTextView.setDropDownHeight(intValue);

answered Jul 03 '18 at 09:59

CopsOnRoad

237,138
77
654
440

Yeah I tried this also but how do I know `intValue`? It's different with each search mate :) – Vucko Jul 04 '18 at 12:45
In my case, I was using a hard coded value. This is like a max value and if you have less items for a particular choice, the height will reduce to make up with your new choices. So, there is like no disadvantage of using a hard coded value. – CopsOnRoad Jul 06 '18 at 09:07
this technically works but you'll see the dropshadow still. It's quite ugly. – John Lord Sep 13 '22 at 17:14

Disable Android AutoCompleteTextView after user selects item from drop down

5 Answers5

Linked