java - How to set a SpannableString to an EditText in an Android Material TextInputLayout?

Question

I can't find a way to set the text of an EditText in a Material TextInputLayout to a SpannableString and have the styling actually show up on screen. I've tried every combination of EditText inside a TextInputLayout, e.g.:

1. AppCompatEditText
2. EditText
3. TextInputEditText

with every way to create a SpannableString, e.g.:

1. HtmlCompat.fromHtml(string, HtmlCompat.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT)
2. SpannableString(string).setSpan(...)
3. TextUtils.stringOrSpannedString(string)

with every way to set the text of an EditText, e.g.:

1. edittext.setText(spannedString)
2. edittext.setText(spannedString, TextView.BufferType.SPANNABLE)
3. edittext.append(spannedString)

The crazy thing is they all work when the EditText is not inside a Material TextInputLayout, so it must be a problem with that. More information: the SpannableString is respected when you set the hint or placeholder text on the TextInputLayout, just not the text of the EditText inside it. I looked through the TextInputLayout source code, but didn't see anything wrong. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Answer 1

I figured it out right when I was going to give up. You can get the Editable object from the EditText and then apply the Span to it. Here's how:

mEditText.text.setSpan(...)

Surprisingly easy when you know where to look.