How to prevent deleting the first character of edit text in Android

Question

This is one of my Edit text in the application

<EditText
        android:id="@+id/etFolder"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="/pictures"
        android:ems="10" >

When it appear at first time it comes with "/pictures"

User can change the text and enter another word. but how to prevent deleting "/" of Edit text.

user can delete all other text but should not allow to delete first character.

How can I achieve this behavior ?

Answer 1

Kotlin example. You can do like this:

editText.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) {
            if (editText.length() < 5 || !editText.text.startsWith("+998 ")) {
                editText.setText("+998 ")
                editText.setSelection(editText.length());
            }
        }
    })

Answer 2

Based on ralphgabb's answer, this overcomes the problem of the caret ending up in the middle of the prefix when you do a rapid delete:

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 editable) {

        String prefix = "+63";

        int count = (editable == null) ? 0 : editable.toString().length();
        if (count < prefix.length()) {

            editText.setText(prefix);

            /*
             * This line ensure when you do a rapid delete (by holding down the
             * backspace button), the caret does not end up in the middle of the
             * prefix.
             */
            int selectionIndex = Math.max(count + 1, prefix.length());

            editText.setSelection(selectionIndex);
        }
    }
});