Capitalize every word in Edit text while typing

Question

I want to capitilze every word in edit text while typing.

My XML:-

<com.project.edittext.AutoFitEditText
                android:id="@+id/txt_name"
                style="@style/scan_text_fields_white_bg"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:digits="@string/validation_accept_all_except_special_char"
                android:fontFamily="sans-serif"
                android:imeOptions="flagNoExtractUi|actionDone"
                android:inputType="textNoSuggestions|textCapWords"
                android:maxLength="50"
                android:paddingBottom="3dp"
                android:paddingLeft="12dp"
                android:paddingRight="0dp"
                android:paddingTop="0dp"
                android:singleLine="true"
                android:textColor="@color/orange"
                />

Now I am using

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

But problem is it is not working in some device. Ex LG tablet. So I decided to do this programatically.

So I am using following codes.

public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub                   
                String mNameStr=s.toString();
                String finalStr="";
                if(!mNameStr.equals("")) {
                    String[] strArray = mNameStr.split("[\\s']");
                    if (strArray.length > 0) {
                        for (int i = 0; i < strArray.length; i++) {
                            finalStr+=capitalize(strArray[i]);
                        }
                        Logger.d("finalStr==> ", finalStr);
                    }
                }
                mName.setText(finalStr.toString());
            }



private String capitalize(final String line) {
        return Character.toUpperCase(line.charAt(0)) + line.substring(1);
    }

Here my app getting crash. I found the problem while debugging. Problem is the onTextChanged is not getting stopped. So that it execute continuously. Anyone help me to resolve my problem. I want to capitalize every word. Please suggest any solutions.

Answer 1

The reason your code freezes is that the onChangeListener is triggered as soon as you setText.

You'll have to find a way to stop trigering if the text is the same.

For this you can use a temp string to store the prev value and compare each time the event triggers. This will keep the flow to be consistent and not looping.

String prevString = "";

---

In afterTextChanged

String mNameStr = s.toString();
String finalStr = "";
if (!mNameStr.equals("")) {
 String[] strArray = mNameStr.split("[\\s']");
 if (strArray.length > 0) {
  int i = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < strArray.length - 1; i++) {
   finalStr += capitalize(strArray[i]) + " ";
  }
  finalStr += capitalize(strArray[i]);
  Log.d("finalStr==> ", finalStr);
 }
}
if (!finalStr.equals(prevString)) {
 prevString = finalStr;
 editText.setText(finalStr.toString());
 editText.setSelection(finalStr.length());
}

---

An optimization to your code is to only capitalize the sentence if the last entered letter is after a space. You can see it implemented here.

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) {
            String string = s.toString();
            Log.d("STRING", string + " " + prevString);
            if (string.equals(prevString)) {
                return;
            } else if (string.length() == 0)
                return;
            // 1st character
            else if (string.length() == 1) {
                prevString = string.toUpperCase();
                editText.setText(string.toUpperCase());
                editText.setSelection(string.length());
            }
            // if the last entered character is after a space 
            else if (string.length() > 0 && string.charAt(string.length() - 2) == ' ') {
                string = string.substring(0, string.length() - 1) + Character.toUpperCase(string.charAt(string.length() - 1));
                prevString = string;
                editText.setText(string);
                editText.setSelection(string.length());
            }
        }
    });

However, there is a down-side to the above method. This will not consider the case where in you change the cursor position and enter text.

PS: you can use getSelectionEnd() method and enhance the above method

Answer 2

You can use any one of the following (in your .xml file), depending on what you need...

android:inputType="textCapCharacters"

android:inputType="textCapSentences"

android:inputType="textCapWords"

This is deprecated so don't use this android:capitalize="characters"