android on Text Change Listener

Question

I have a situation, where there are two fields. field1 and field2. All I want to do is empty field2 when field1 is changed and vice versa. So at the end only one field has content on it.

field1 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.field1);
field2 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.field2);

field1.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

   public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {}

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

   public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,
     int before, int count) {
      field2.setText("");
   }
  });

field2.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

   public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {}

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

   public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,
     int before, int count) {
     field1.setText("");
   }
  });

It works fine if I attach addTextChangedListener to field1 only, but when I do it for both fields the app crashes. Obviously because they try to change each other indefinitely. Once field1 changes it clears field2 at this moment field2 is changed so it will clear field1 and so on...

Can someone suggest any solution?

Answer 1

You can add a check to only clear when the text in the field is not empty (i.e when the length is different than 0).

field1.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

   @Override
   public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {}

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

   @Override    
   public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,
     int before, int count) {
      if(s.length() != 0)
        field2.setText("");
   }
  });

field2.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

   @Override
   public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {}

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

   @Override
   public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,
     int before, int count) {
      if(s.length() != 0)
         field1.setText("");
   }
  });

Documentation for TextWatcher here.

Also please respect naming conventions.

Answer 2

In Kotlin simply use KTX extension function: (It uses TextWatcher)

yourEditText.doOnTextChanged { text, start, count, after -> 
        // action which will be invoked when the text is changing
    }

import core-KTX:

implementation "androidx.core:core-ktx:1.2.0"

Answer 3

I know this is old but someone might come across this again someday.

I had a similar problem where I would call setText on a EditText and onTextChanged would be called when I didn't want it to. My first solution was to write some code after calling setText() to undo the damage done by the listener. But that wasn't very elegant. After doing some research and testing I discovered that using getText().clear() clears the text in much the same way as setText(""), but since it isn't setting the text the listener isn't called, so that solved my problem. I switched all my setText("") calls to getText().clear() and I didn't need the bandages anymore, so maybe that will solve your problem too.

Try this:

Field1 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.field1);
Field2 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.field2);

Field1.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

   public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {}

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

   public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,
     int before, int count) {
      Field2.getText().clear();
   }
  });

Field2.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

   public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {}

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

   public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start,
     int before, int count) {
     Field1.getText().clear();
   }
  });

Answer 4

If you are using Kotlin for Android development then you can add TextChangedListener() using this code:

myTextField.addTextChangedListener(object : TextWatcher{
        override fun afterTextChanged(s: Editable?) {}

        override fun beforeTextChanged(s: CharSequence?, start: Int, count: Int, after: Int) {}

        override fun onTextChanged(s: CharSequence?, start: Int, before: Int, count: Int) {}
    })