How to Underline Text of Button in Android?

Question

I have a button which is transparent and has an icon and text.

I want to underline the text of the button but i have not been able to do this.

Below is my xml code:

<Button      android:id="@+id/parkButton"      android:layout_width="wrap_content"      android:layout_height="wrap_content"      android:drawableStart="@drawable/park"      android:text="@string/button_name"      android:background="@android:color/transparent"      android:textColor="@android:color/black"/> 

And the String file has:

<resources>     <string name="button_name"><u>Parking Areas</u></string> </resources> 

This approach works in TextView, but not in Button. Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Code only

Java:

Button button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.park); button.setPaintFlags(button.getPaintFlags() | Paint.UNDERLINE_TEXT_FLAG); 

Kotlin:

val button = findViewById<Button>(R.id.park); button.paintFlags = button.paintFlags or Paint.UNDERLINE_TEXT_FLAG 

Resource string with static text (xml only)

If you have a static text in your resources you could also use the following approach in your strings.xml:

<string name="underlined_text"><u>I\'m underlined</u></string> 

Resource string with dynamic text (xml + code)

If you're using dynamic text but don't like the first approach (which isn't the best imho either), you could also use following:

strings.xml

<string name="underlined_dynamic_text"><u>%s</u></string> 

Java:

button.setText(getString(R.string.underlined_dynamic_text, "I'm underlined"); 

Kotlin:

button.text = getString(R.string.underlined_dynamic_text, "I'm underlined")