How to get line count of textview before rendering?

Question

How can I get the number of lines a string will take up in a TextView before it is rendered.

A ViewTreeObserver will not work because those are only fired after it is rendered.

Answer 1

The accepted answer doesn't work when a whole word is placed on the next line in order to avoid breaking the word:

|hello   | |world!  | 

The only way to be 100% sure about the number of lines is to use the same text flow engine that TextView uses. Since TextView doesn't share its re-flow logic here's a custom string processor which splits text into multiple lines each of which fits the given width. It also does its best to not break the words unless the whole word does not fit:

public List<String> splitWordsIntoStringsThatFit(String source, float maxWidthPx, Paint paint) {     ArrayList<String> result = new ArrayList<>();      ArrayList<String> currentLine = new ArrayList<>();      String[] sources = source.split("\\s");     for(String chunk : sources) {         if(paint.measureText(chunk) < maxWidthPx) {             processFitChunk(maxWidthPx, paint, result, currentLine, chunk);         } else {             //the chunk is too big, split it.             List<String> splitChunk = splitIntoStringsThatFit(chunk, maxWidthPx, paint);             for(String chunkChunk : splitChunk) {                 processFitChunk(maxWidthPx, paint, result, currentLine, chunkChunk);             }         }     }      if(! currentLine.isEmpty()) {         result.add(TextUtils.join(" ", currentLine));     }     return result; }  /**  * Splits a string to multiple strings each of which does not exceed the width  * of maxWidthPx.  */ private List<String> splitIntoStringsThatFit(String source, float maxWidthPx, Paint paint) {     if(TextUtils.isEmpty(source) || paint.measureText(source) <= maxWidthPx) {         return Arrays.asList(source);     }      ArrayList<String> result = new ArrayList<>();     int start = 0;     for(int i = 1; i <= source.length(); i++) {         String substr = source.substring(start, i);         if(paint.measureText(substr) >= maxWidthPx) {             //this one doesn't fit, take the previous one which fits             String fits = source.substring(start, i - 1);             result.add(fits);             start = i - 1;         }         if (i == source.length()) {             String fits = source.substring(start, i);             result.add(fits);         }     }      return result; }  /**  * Processes the chunk which does not exceed maxWidth.  */ private void processFitChunk(float maxWidth, Paint paint, ArrayList<String> result, ArrayList<String> currentLine, String chunk) {     currentLine.add(chunk);     String currentLineStr = TextUtils.join(" ", currentLine);     if (paint.measureText(currentLineStr) >= maxWidth) {         //remove chunk         currentLine.remove(currentLine.size() - 1);         result.add(TextUtils.join(" ", currentLine));         currentLine.clear();         //ok because chunk fits         currentLine.add(chunk);     } } 

Here's a part of a unit test:

    String text = "Hello this is a very long and meanless chunk: abcdefghijkonetuhosnahrc.pgraoneuhnotehurc.pgansohtunsaohtu. Hope you like it!";     Paint paint = new Paint();     paint.setTextSize(30);     paint.setTypeface(Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD);      List<String> strings = splitWordsIntoStringsThatFit(text, 50, paint);     assertEquals(3, strings.size());     assertEquals("Hello this is a very long and meanless chunk:", strings.get(0));     assertEquals("abcdefghijkonetuhosnahrc.pgraoneuhnotehurc.pganso", strings.get(1));     assertEquals("htunsaohtu. Hope you like it!", strings.get(2)); 

Now one can be 100% sure about the line count in TextView without a need to render it:

TextView textView = ...         //text view must be of fixed width  Paint paint = new Paint(); paint.setTextSize(yourTextViewTextSizePx); paint.setTypeface(yourTextViewTypeface);  float textViewWidthPx = ...;  List<String> strings = splitWordsIntoStringsThatFit(yourText, textViewWidthPx, paint); textView.setText(TextUtils.join("\n", strings);  int lineCount = strings.size();        //will be the same as textView.getLineCount() 

Answer 2

final Rect bounds = new Rect(); final Paint paint = new Paint(); paint.setTextSize(currentTextSize); paint.getTextBounds(testString, 0, testString.length(), bounds); 

Now divide the width of text with the width of your TextView to get the total number of lines.

final int numLines = (int) Math.ceil((float) bounds.width() / currentSize); 

currentSize : Expected size of the view in which the text will be rendered. The size should not go beyond the screen width.