5/24/2016 androidEditTextvsTextViewStackOverflow

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EditTextvsTextView

IreadtheAPI'sandseethatTextViewisasuperclasstoEditText,butIhaveashortandsimplequestion:Generallyspeaking,EditTextisused
whenthetextdisplayedissbujecttochange,whetherit'sfromtheuserortheapp.TextViewisusedwhenthetextdisplayedistobe
constant/sameforever.Isthiscorrect?

Thanks!

android androidedittext textview

askedMay8'14at2:14
user2927724
82 1 6

Yes,thatiscorrect.OftenyouwillevenleaveEditTextblankwithjustahint,andlettheuserfilloutthe
entiretext.DyrborgMay8'14at2:20

IuseaTextViewwhenthetextissubjecttochange.EditViewifexpectinguserinput.Ofinterest,everything
isaviewsosometimesIuseaTextViewwithanonClickeventasabuttonwhentheneedswarrant(small
buttonsthatneedtolookconsistentacrossversions,simulatingacomboortogglebutton).Ijustapplythe
samegradientthatIuseonmybuttonsandtheylookthesame.GravitoidMay8'14at13:39

6Answers

Ifyouhavedoneanyjavaprojectsbefore,Isee Textview and EditText arejustsameas

JLabel and JtextField .IfyouwanttoaskusertoenterusernameyouwillsetanTextViewwith
("username"textinthat,likeyouwoulddothesameforJLabel).Andthenyoumakeatextbox
appearforusertoentertheusernamethattextboxis EditText .EditTextiswhereusergivetheir
inputsfortheprogram.

UsercannotchangesomethinginTextViewbutprogramcan(Afteruserinputcorrectusername
youcansettextforanotherTextViewbytheprogramsayingthat"Detailscorrect"ifyouwantthat
youhavetowriteitinyourprogramcode.Usercan'tmakeitappear).Usercaninputanyuser
name,But"username"textfieldor TextView willremainunchangeas"username"justlikeina
normallogininterface.

answeredMay10'14at4:54
SMK
155 10

EditTextisusedforuserinput.

TextViewisusedtodisplaytextandisnoteditablebytheuser.TextViewcanbeupdated
programaticallyatanytime.

answeredMay8'14at2:25
Garret
689 5 16

Thenamesofthemareprettyselfexplanatory.TextViewisthewidgetusedwhenyouwantthe
usertoViewtheText(suchasalabel,etc)andEditTextusedwhenyouwanttheusertobeable
toeditthetext.Thetextineitherwidgetcanbesetprogrammaticallyorviaxmlusingthe
android:text parameter.

Thedocumentationprettymuchsumsitup:

EditTextisathinveneeroverTextViewthatconfiguresitselftobeeditable.

answeredMay8'14at4:53
ajacian81
4,372 7 31 54

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23531599/edittextvstextview 1/2
5/24/2016 androidEditTextvsTextViewStackOverflow

EditTextisusedwhenyouexpectaninputfromtheuser.EditTextprovidesthebehaviorforuser
input(displaykeyboard,paste,positionindicator,etc).

Ifyourappischangingthecontenttodisplay,youcanjustresetthetextfortheTextView.The
userhowevercannotmesswithit.

answeredMay8'14at2:21
EduardoBonet
307 3 8

TextViewisjustlikeLabeltagofHTMLontheotherhandEdittextisinputtype.

SimpletellingTextViewiscan'tchangablebytheuser.Useronlyentervalue.

answeredMar24'15at19:54
Ssingh
13 2

1 that'sabadcomparisonanHTMLlabelismuchmoreitalwaysbelongstoaformelement(ifyouclick
onalabel,thelinkedelementisfocused)...AlexanderMar24'15at20:12

EditTextisInputType/Fieldforinputtingtext

TextViewisTextFieldforshowingtext

answeredMay29'15at8:52
GiorgiTsiklauri
57 1 9

Notcorrect,fromTextViewDocumentation: Displaystexttotheuserandoptionallyallowsthemtoeditit.
[link]developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/TextView.htmlsilva96Aug26'15at18:30

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23531599/edittextvstextview 2/2