android edittext onchange listener

prongs picture prongs · Jun 21, 2012 · Viewed 244.7k times · Source

I know a little bit about TextWatcher but that fires on every character you enter. I want a listener that fires whenever the user finishes editing. Is it possible? Also in TextWatcher I get an instance of Editable but I need an instance of EditText. How do I get that?

EDIT

Answer

Cata picture Cata · Jun 21, 2012

First, you can see if the user finished editing the text if the EditText loses focus or if the user presses the done button (this depends on your implementation and on what fits the best for you). Second, you can't get an EditText instance within the TextWatcher only if you have declared the EditText as an instance object. Even though you shouldn't edit the EditText within the TextWatcher because it is not safe.

EDIT:

To be able to get the EditText instance into your TextWatcher implementation, you should try something like this:

public class YourClass extends Activity {

    private EditText yourEditText;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        yourEditText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.yourEditTextId);

        yourEditText.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

            public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {

                // you can call or do what you want with your EditText here

                // yourEditText... 
            }

            public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {}

            public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {}
        });
    }
}

Note that the above sample might have some errors but I just wanted to show you an example.