Question

I’m trying to get some code which will for example change

“^^text^^”

Into something like this

“text“

So I need it to remove the ^^ tokens and add a Spannable Text on the “text” string making it bold.
Right now I have this code.

public void format()
{
    TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.test);

    CharSequence text = null;

    if(textView != null)
    {
         text = textView.getText();
    }

    String token = "^^";

    if(text != null)
    {
        int length = text.length();
        int start = text.toString().indexOf(token) + length;
        int end = text.toString().indexOf(token, start);

        if (start > -1 && end > -1)
        {
            SpannableStringBuilder ssb = new SpannableStringBuilder(text);

            ssb.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(0x000000), start, end, 0);
            ssb.delete(end, end + length);
            ssb.delete(start - length, start);

            text = ssb;
            System.out.println("format");
        }

        System.out.println("works");
    }

    textView.setText(text);
    System.out.println("running");
}

This code gets called in the onCreate which looks like this.

@SuppressLint("NewApi")
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    format();

    setContentView(R.layout.activity_tutorial_basic_file_test);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB)
    {
        getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
    }
}

This is the XML layout file I’m using.

<LinearLayout xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="@drawable/background"
android:orientation="vertical" >

<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_margin="10dp"
    android:text="@string/empty" />

<ScrollView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginBottom="2dp"
    android:layout_marginLeft="2dp"
    android:layout_marginRight="2dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="2dp" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/test"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="@string/test_text"
            android:textColor="#FFFFFF" />
    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

And finally the string I’m using in a resource file.

<string name="test_text">Test string ^^ for ^^ formatter code</string>

What am I doing wrong or how should I do this?

Answer 1

You have several problems here:

1. In onCreate you call format() before setting the content layout. First set layout, then operate on views that are declared inside it, i.e.:

   // First!
   setContentView(R.layout.activity_tutorial_basic_file_test);
   // Second!
   format();
   

2. In format you mistakenly define length as length of the text. Looking at the code, it should definitely be length of token:

   // token length, not text length!
   int length = token.length();
   

3. Remember that providing color values as int values often means you should explicitly set alpha value. If you don’t the alpha is set to 0 (i.e. transparent). You use 0x000000 (transparent black) in ForegroundColorSpan, but it’s more common to set 0xff000000 (opaque black). If that’s the case, change the line to:

   ssb.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(0xff000000), start, end, 0);
   

4. You should set the TextView content to the SpannableStringBuilder directly. This is because TextView automatically sees that it is a Spannable and applies your desired formatting. Whereas setting it to a string representation of the SpannableStringBuilder doesn’t apply formatting at all. So you should replace the line:

   text = ssb;
   

   with:

   textView.setText(sbb);
   

   and delete the latter:

   textView.setText(text);
   

The final code is as follows:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_format_test);
    format();
    // Your custom code was here, deleted for readability
}

public void format() {
    TextView textView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.test);

    CharSequence text = null;

    if (textView != null) {
        text = textView.getText();
    }

    String token = "^^";

    if (text != null) {
        int length = token.length();
        int start = text.toString().indexOf(token) + length;
        int end = text.toString().indexOf(token, start + length);

        if (start > -1 && end > -1) {
            SpannableStringBuilder ssb = new SpannableStringBuilder(text);
            ssb.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(0xff000000), start, end, 0);
            ssb.delete(end, end + length);
            ssb.delete(start - length, start);

            textView.setText(ssb);
            System.out.println("format");
        }

        System.out.println("works");
    }

    System.out.println("running");
}