Select all text inside EditText when it gets focus

Question

You can try in your main.xml file:

android:selectAllOnFocus="true"

Or, in Java, use

editText.setSelectAllOnFocus(true);

editText.setSelectAllOnFocus(true);

This works if you want to do it programatically.

EditText dummy = ... 

// android.view.View.OnFocusChangeListener
dummy.setOnFocusChangeListener(new OnFocusChangeListener(){
    public void onFocusChange(View v, boolean hasFocus){
        if (hasFocus) && (isDummyText())
            ((EditText)v).selectAll();
    }
});

I know you've found a solution, but really the proper way to do what you're asking is to just use the android:hint attribute in your EditText. This text shows up when the box is empty and not focused, but disappears upon selecting the EditText box.

Managed it by calling focus and selection on program

{
editabletext.requestFocus();
editabletext.selectAll();
}

Why don't you try android:hint="hint" to provide the hint to the user..!!

The "hint" will automatically disappear when the user clicks on the edittextbox. its the proper and best solution.