How make android edittext hint center and left cursor

Question

How set hint text in the center of EditText and set cursor in the left part of EditText? And when i start input text it start from the center EditText?

Now i have

<LinearLayout
                android:orientation="horizontal"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:background="@drawable/line_white"
                android:layout_marginBottom="25dp"
                android:paddingBottom="16dp"
                android:gravity="center_horizontal">

                <EditText
                    android:id="@+id/loginEmailField"
                    android:layout_width="match_parent"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:autoText="false"
                    android:ems="10"
                    android:hint="Choose an email adress"
                    android:inputType="textEmailAddress"
                    android:paddingLeft="2dp"
                    android:singleLine="false"
                    android:textColor="#ffffff"
                    android:textColorHint="#9377ab"
                    android:textSize="19sp"
                    android:textStyle="bold"
                    android:background="#00000000"
                    android:layout_marginRight="2dp"
                    android:gravity="center"/>
            </LinearLayout>

Answer 1

I also faced to the same problem and think of 2 possible variants:

1. Pretty simple
Cursor in the middle of the hint looks little unpleasantly.
So i just remove hint whet editText gets focus and set it back otherwise:

editText.setOnFocusChangeListener(new View.OnFocusChangeListener() {
    @Override
    public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus) {
        editText.setHint(hasFocus ? "" : "My hint");
    }
});

2. Some hardcode
In this case:
if editText is empty:
- set text to hint
- set textColor to hintColor
- disable text selecting
- set selection before text (setSelection(0))

if user enters any symbol
- replace hint with ""
- set textColor back to textColor
- enable text selecting

Steps:
2.1 Add TextWatcher

editText.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) { // empty }

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

    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) { 
        processChangedText(s); 
    }
});

2.2 Set on focus change listener:

editText.setOnFocusChangeListener(new View.OnFocusChangeListener() {
    @Override
    public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus) {
       if (hasFocus) {
           processChangedText(editText.getText());
       }
    }
});

2.3 And a little magic inside method processChangedText(Editable s)

private void processChangedText(Editable s) {
    String str = s.toString();
    final int colorHint = ContextCompat.getColor(getActivity(), R.color.color_hint);
    final int colorText = ContextCompat.getColor(getActivity(), R.color.color_text);

    String hint = getString(R.string.login_login_edit_hint);
    if (str.equals(hint)) {
        editText.setTextColor(colorHint);
        enableCursorMove(editText, false);
        editText.setSelection(0);
        return;
    } else {
        editText.setTextColor(colorText);
        enableCursorMove(editText, true);
    }
    if (str.isEmpty()) {
        editText.setText(hint);
    } else if (str.contains(hint)) {
        editText.setText(str.replace(hint, ""));
    } else if (str.length() == 1) {
        editText.setSelection(1);
    }
}

2.4 Enabler/disabler cursor move method (probably not a good choice, it's better to create own EditText overriding onSelectionChanged method)

private void enableCursorMove(EditText editText, boolean enable) {
    editText.setOnTouchListener(enable ? null : new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            editText.setSelection(0);
            return true;
        }
    });
}

P.S. I really advise you to use first variant, it's quite simple and looks pretty good.

Answer 2

thats a bit of a stupid issue, i know.. easiest way to solve this is (and keep centered text) is using this simple hack:

        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) {
            if (s != null && s.toString().length() > 0){
                editText.setGravity(Gravity.CENTER);
            }else{
                editText.setGravity(Gravity.START);
            }
        }
    });