How to clear the selection in an EditText?

Question

How do you programmatically remove the selection from an EditText? I've tried:

myEditText.setSelection(selectionEnd);

but that just creates a selection of 0 length at the end of the current selection. I've also tried Selection.removeSelection(mySpannable), and it just puts an empty selection at the beginning of the text.

do you want to clear text from edit text – Avi Kumar Jul 18 '12 at 03:58 — Avi Kumar, Jul 18 '12 at 03:58
no, just cancel the text selection highlighting – yuttadhammo Jul 18 '12 at 03:58 — yuttadhammo, Jul 18 '12 at 03:58
Have you got your answer ? – NovusMobile Jan 29 '14 at 12:58 — NovusMobile, Jan 29 '14 at 12:58

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 18 '12 at 03:58

18

Calling myEditText.clearFocus();. I think that's what you need

answered Jul 18 '12 at 03:58

user1417127

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2

This also hides the cursor. What if I want to remove the selection but keep the blinking cursor? – Suragch Jun 17 '17 at 07:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 27 '18 at 04:30

3

To move selection to top:

edit_text.setSelection(0);

To move selection to bottom:

edit_text.setSelection(edit_text.getText().length());

answered Nov 27 '18 at 04:30

live-love

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 18 '12 at 04:23

0

EditText message = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.sendText);
String text = message.getText().toString();
message.setText(null);

answered Jul 18 '12 at 04:23

NagarjunaReddy

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 11 '22 at 11:28

Simulate a tap gesture if you want to keep the textview focused:


public static void clearTextSelection(TextView view) {
        MotionEvent evt = MotionEvent.obtain(0, 0, MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN, -1, -1, 0);
        view.dispatchTouchEvent(evt);
        evt.setAction(MotionEvent.ACTION_UP);
        view.dispatchTouchEvent(evt);
//      evt.setSource(100);
//      if(view.hasSelection()) view.clearFocus();
        evt.recycle();
    }

How to clear the selection in an EditText?

4 Answers4

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