Allow multi-line in EditText view in Android?

Question

How to allow multi-line in Android's EditText view?

Leonardo Sibela · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-20 05:30:20Z

1377

By default all the EditText widgets in Android are multi-lined.

Here is some sample code:

<EditText
    android:inputType="textMultiLine" <!-- Multiline input -->
    android:lines="8" <!-- Total Lines prior display -->
    android:minLines="6" <!-- Minimum lines -->
    android:gravity="top|start" <!-- Cursor Position -->
    android:maxLines="10" <!-- Maximum Lines -->
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" <!-- Height determined by content -->
    android:layout_width="match_parent" <!-- Fill entire width -->
    android:scrollbars="vertical" <!-- Vertical Scroll Bar -->
/>

edited Sep 20, 2021 at 5:30

Leonardo Sibela

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answered Nov 20, 2010 at 16:19

Shardul

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6 Comments

user484691 Over a year ago

Is there a way to have inputType set to textMultiLine and imeOptions to actionSend? I see an Enter key on the S4 keyboard instead of send when I set inputType to textMultiLine and imeOptions to actionSend.

TOMKA Over a year ago

For "textMultiLine and imeOptions" see stackoverflow.com/questions/5014219/…

ono Over a year ago

One thing to note, adding an inputType negates at least the lines and minLines attributes. I had inputType="phone" and the lines attributes had no effect

Chisko Over a year ago

Do not use this. Causes an IndexOutOfBoundsException as soon as you type something because of android:inputType="textMultiLine"

sourav pandit Over a year ago

if using AppCompactTextView need this line android:inputType="textMultiLine"

|

AskNilesh · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-24 11:44:13Z

331

You may find it better to use:

<EditText 
...
android:inputType="textMultiLine"
/>

This is because android:singleLine is deprecated.

edited Oct 24, 2018 at 11:44

AskNilesh

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answered Nov 20, 2010 at 17:02

Knossos

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4 Comments

Knossos Over a year ago

Sharduls answer should certainly work on modern Apis. Since they removed the deprecated singleLine part of their answer (a long time ago). Regarding the question itself, that is the most important part of their answer.

Chisko Over a year ago

Do not use this. Causes an IndexOutOfBoundsException as soon as you type something. Multiline now is the default.

Knossos Over a year ago

@Chisko An XML attribute wouldn't cause an IndexOutOfBoundsException. I can't remember when the default inputType changed (did it even?), but it is probably best to keep this in for backwards compatibility reasons.

Chisko Over a year ago

@Knossos well, as strange as it is for you it is for me. I literally copy-pasted the code and crashed every time with every possible combination of several parameters until I removed that. Go figure.

DaveNOTDavid · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-19 11:50:04Z

48

This works for me, actually these 2 attributes are important: inputType and lines. Besides, you may need a scrollbar, the code below shows how to make one:

 <EditText
        android:id="@+id/addr_edittext"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="top|left"
        android:inputType="textEmailAddress|textMultiLine"
        android:lines="20"
        android:minLines="5"
        android:scrollHorizontally="false"
        android:scrollbars="vertical" />

edited Jun 19, 2017 at 11:50

DaveNOTDavid

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answered Oct 12, 2012 at 8:16

acoustic

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Comments

4 revs, 3 users 68% · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-19 18:25:28Z

30

This is how I applied the code snippet below and it's working fine. Hope, this would help somebody.

<EditText 
    android:id="@+id/EditText02"
    android:gravity="top|left" 
    android:inputType="textMultiLine"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:lines="5" 
    android:scrollHorizontally="false" 
/>

Cheers! ...Thanks.

edited Jun 19, 2019 at 18:25

community wiki

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Nandagopal T

Comments

milan · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-20 16:10:53Z

11

EditText has singleLine property. You can set in the XML or by calling setSingleLine(false); http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/TextView.html#setSingleLine%28%29

answered Nov 20, 2010 at 16:10

milan

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Comments

michoprogrammer · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-24 14:14:40Z

11

Try this, add these lines to your edit text view, i'll add mine. make sure you understand it

android:overScrollMode="always"
android:scrollbarStyle="insideInset"
android:scrollbars="vertical"

<EditText
    android:inputType="textMultiLine"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@+id/editText_newprom_description"
    android:padding="10dp"
    android:lines="5"
    android:overScrollMode="always"
    android:scrollbarStyle="insideInset"
    android:minLines="5"
    android:gravity="top|left"
    android:scrollbars="vertical"
    android:layout_marginBottom="20dp"/>

and on your java class make on click listner to this edit text as follows, i'll add mine, chane names according to yours.

EditText description;
description = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.editText_newprom_description);

description.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {

                view.getParent().requestDisallowInterceptTouchEvent(true);
                switch (motionEvent.getAction() & MotionEvent.ACTION_MASK){
                    case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                        view.getParent().requestDisallowInterceptTouchEvent(false);
                        break;
                }

                return false;
            }

        });

this works fine for me

edited May 24, 2016 at 14:14

michoprogrammer

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answered May 22, 2015 at 7:02

Chathura Jayanath

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1 Comment

Esdras Lopez Over a year ago

Thanks you! This is how I made an edit text scrollable within a scrollable view.

sourav pandit · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-17 11:38:54Z

if some one is using AppCompatEditText then you need to set inputType="textMultiLine" here is the code you can copy

   <androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatEditText
        android:padding="@dimen/_8sdp"
        android:id="@+id/etNote"
        android:minLines="6"
        android:singleLine="false"
        android:lines="8"
        android:scrollbars="vertical"
        android:background="@drawable/rounded_border"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="@dimen/_25sdp"
        android:layout_marginTop="32dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="@dimen/_25sdp"
        android:autofillHints=""

        android:gravity="start|top"
        android:inputType="textMultiLine"
         />

for background

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <shape android:shape="rectangle" 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
   <corners android:radius="@dimen/_5sdp"/>
   <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#C8C8C8"/>
   </shape>

Yıldırım · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-06 14:19:55Z

7

android:inputType="textMultiLine"

This code line work for me. Add this code you edittext in your xml file.

answered Apr 6, 2019 at 14:19

Yıldırım

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Comments

Dinith · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-28 09:36:37Z

6

Just add this android:inputType="textMultiLine" in XML file on relevant field.

answered Jan 28, 2020 at 9:36

Dinith

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Comments

Cynichniy Bandera · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-05 15:46:11Z

5

All of these are nice but will not work in case you have your edittext inside upper level scroll view :) Perhaps most common example is "Settings" view that has so many items that the they go beyond of visible area. In this case you put them all into scroll view to make settings scrollable. In case that you need multiline scrollable edit text in your settings, its scroll will not work.

edited Feb 5, 2014 at 15:46

answered May 17, 2013 at 14:57

Cynichniy Bandera

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Comments

Oleg Bozhko · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-24 10:54:39Z

5

To disable number of lines that was previously assigned in theme use xml attribute: android:lines="@null"

answered Jan 24, 2017 at 10:54

Oleg Bozhko

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Comments

Yogesh Sarvaiya · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-19 06:35:08Z

5

 <EditText
           android:id="@id/editText" //id of editText
           android:gravity="start"   // Where to start Typing
           android:inputType="textMultiLine" // multiline
           android:imeOptions="actionDone" // Keyboard done button
           android:minLines="5" // Min Line of editText
           android:hint="@string/Enter Data" // Hint in editText
           android:layout_width="match_parent" //width editText
           android:layout_height="wrap_content" //height editText
           />

edited Jan 19, 2018 at 6:35

answered Jan 19, 2018 at 6:27

Yogesh Sarvaiya

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Comments

Allison · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-20 06:32:52Z

3

I learned this from http://www.pcsalt.com/android/edittext-with-single-line-line-wrapping-and-done-action-in-android/, though I don't like the website myself. If you want multiline BUT want to retain the enter button as a post button, set the listview's "horizontally scrolling" to false.

android:scrollHorizontally="false"

If it doesn't work in xml, doing it programmatically weirdly works.

listView.setHorizontallyScrolling(false);

edited Dec 20, 2016 at 6:32

Allison

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answered Dec 21, 2015 at 23:49

Daniel Handojo

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Comments

instanceof · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-11 08:37:31Z

1

Another neat thing to do is to use android:minHeight along with android:layout_height="wrap_content". This way you can set the size of the edit when it's empty, and when the user inputs stuff, it stretches according to how much the user inputs, including multiple lines.

answered Jul 11, 2017 at 8:37

instanceof

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Comments

Kapil Parmar · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-16 08:14:24Z

1

<EditText
                android:hint="Address"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_weight="1"
                android:inputType="textMultiLine|textNoSuggestions"
                android:id="@+id/edittxtAddress"
                android:layout_marginLeft="@dimen/textsize2"
                android:textColor="@android:color/white"
                android:scrollbars="vertical"
                android:minLines="2"
            android:textStyle="normal" />

and in Activity to remove "\n" is user press nextline

String editStr= edittxtAddress.getText().toString().trim();

 MyString= editStr.replaceAll("\n"," ");

answered Dec 16, 2017 at 8:14

Kapil Parmar

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