Android TextView

We'll learn about Android Textview Widget in this tutorial. We will also learn about the various attributes used to

configure the Textview widget's basic class.

We can define the widget for Android Textview as below –

"Android Textview is user interface element that shows texts to the user and optionally allow them to edit it.However, Text editing is disabled by default. We need to configure the basic class by adding some attributes tomake it editable."

Below are the different attributes of android Textview widget that are commonly used to customise the Textview. However, for a complete list of Textview attributes, you can check the android official documentation website.Here we list some of the attributes we commonly need.

S. No.	XML Attributes	Description
1	android:id	This is unique id of the Textview to uniquely identify the Textview.
2	android:height	This is used to provide the height to the Textview.
3	android:width	Use to set width of the TextView.
4	android:text	Use to set the text of the Textview.
5	android:textAllCaps	Use this attribute when you want to show text in capital letters. It takes true or false value only. Default is false.
6	android:textColor	Use to set the color of the text.
7	android:textSize	Use to set the size of the text.
8	android:textStyle	Use to set the style of the text. For example, bold, italic.
9	android:typeface	Use to set typeface of the text. For example, normal, sans, serif, monospace.
10	android:autolink	Use this attribute when you want to automatically detect urls or emails and show it as clickable link.
11	android:autotext	If it is set, it means Textview has a textual input method and automatically corrects some common spelling errors.
12	android:capitalize	If it is set, it means Textview has a textual input method and should automatically capitalize what the user types.
13	android:hint	Hint to be shown when there is no text in the Textview.
14	android:inputType	This is used to define what are the types of data can be entered by the user for this Textview. For example, Phone, Password, Number, Date, Time etc.
15	android:lines	If you want to set height of the Textview by number of lines, you can do it using this attribute. For example, android:lines=”2”, it means height of Textview will be 2 lines.
16	android:ellipsize	This attribute causes the text, longer than the view, to be ellipsized at the end.
17	android:ems	Makes the Textview be exactly this many ems wide.
18	android:gravity	This is used to align the text (by x-axis, y-axis or both) within this Textview.
19	android:maxHeight	Use to set the maximum height of the Textview
20	android:minHeight	Use to set the minimum height of the Textview.
21	android:maxLength	Use to set the maximum character length of the Textview.
22	android:maxLines	Use to set the maximum lines Textview can have.
23	android:minLines	Use to set the minimum lines Textview can have.
24	android:maxWidth	Use to set the maximum width Textview can have.
25	android:minWidth	Use to set the minimum width Textview can have
26	android:cursorVisible	This is used to make cursor visible or invisible. Default is false.
27	android:drawableBottom	Use this attribute when you want to show any drawable(images etc.) below the text.
28	android:drawableEnd	Use this attribute when you want to show any drawable(images etc.) to end of the text.
29	android:drawableLeft	Use this attribute when you want to show any drawable(images etc.) to left of the text.
30	android:drawablePadding	Use this attribute when you want to add padding to the drawable(images etc.).
31	android:drawableRight	Use this attribute when you want to show any drawable(images etc.) to right of the text.
32	android:drawableStart	Use this attribute when you want to show any drawable(images etc.) to start of the text.
33	android:drawableTop	Use this attribute when you want to show any drawable(images etc.) to top of the text.

In next, you will learn how to use Android Textview. Follow the steps below to create android project.

After that, we will use TextView in it.

S. No.	Steps
1	Open Android Studio.
2	Go to File => New => New Project. Write application name as TextView. Then, click next button.
3	Select minimum SDK you need. However, we have selected 17 as minimum SDK. Then, click next button
4	Then, select Empty Activity => click next => click finish.
5	If you have followed above process correctly, you will get a newly created project successfully. However, you can also visit tutorial to Create New Project to know steps in detail.

After creating a project. Open res/layout/activity_main.xml file. Add below code into it.

 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout 
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" 
android:layout_width="match_parent" 
android:layout_height="match_parent" 
tools:context=".MainActivity"> 

<TextView 
android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Hello World!" 
app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Now, we will see MainActivity java file. Right now we don't make any changes. We just see it How our Java file look.

Open src/main/java/com.ukacademe.textview/MainActivity.java file. Then, add below code into it.


package com.ukacademe.textview;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }
}

Code inside main/AndroidManifest.xml file is as below.

 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.ukacademe.textview"> 
<application android:allowBackup="true" 
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher" 
android:label="@string/app_name" 
android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round" 
android:supportsRtl="true" 
android:theme="@style/AppTheme"> <activity 
android:name=".MainActivity"> 
<intent-filter> 
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /> 
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> 
</intent-filter> 
</activity> 
</application> 
</manifest>

Finally, when you run the app, you will get output as shown below.

Different Attributes of Android TextView

TextView in Xml File

TextView in Java File

AndroidManifest.xml file

Output

Course Topic