Limit text length of EditText in Android

Question

What's the best way to limit the text length of an EditText in Android?

Is there a way to do this via xml?

Answer 1

Due to goto10's observation, I put together the following code to protected against loosing other filters with setting the max length:

/**
 * This sets the maximum length in characters of an EditText view. Since the
 * max length must be done with a filter, this method gets the current
 * filters. If there is already a length filter in the view, it will replace
 * it, otherwise, it will add the max length filter preserving the other
 * 
 * @param view
 * @param length
 */
public static void setMaxLength(EditText view, int length) {
    InputFilter curFilters[];
    InputFilter.LengthFilter lengthFilter;
    int idx;

    lengthFilter = new InputFilter.LengthFilter(length);

    curFilters = view.getFilters();
    if (curFilters != null) {
        for (idx = 0; idx < curFilters.length; idx++) {
            if (curFilters[idx] instanceof InputFilter.LengthFilter) {
                curFilters[idx] = lengthFilter;
                return;
            }
        }

        // since the length filter was not part of the list, but
        // there are filters, then add the length filter
        InputFilter newFilters[] = new InputFilter[curFilters.length + 1];
        System.arraycopy(curFilters, 0, newFilters, 0, curFilters.length);
        newFilters[curFilters.length] = lengthFilter;
        view.setFilters(newFilters);
    } else {
        view.setFilters(new InputFilter[] { lengthFilter });
    }
}

Answer 2

EditText editText = new EditText(this);
int maxLength = 3;    
editText.setFilters(new InputFilter[] {new InputFilter.LengthFilter(maxLength)});

Answer 3

it simple way in xml:

android:maxLength="4"

if u require to set 4 character in xml edit-text so,use this

<EditText
    android:id="@+id/edtUserCode"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:maxLength="4"
    android:hint="Enter user code" />

Answer 4

Documentation

Example

android:maxLength="10"

Answer 5

//Set Length filter. Restricting to 10 characters only
editText.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{new InputFilter.LengthFilter(MAX_LENGTH)});

//Allowing only upper case characters
editText.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{new InputFilter.AllCaps()});

//Attaching multiple filters
editText.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{new InputFilter.LengthFilter(MAX_LENGTH), new InputFilter.AllCaps()});

Answer 6

TextView tv = new TextView(this);
tv.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{ new InputFilter.LengthFilter(250) });