android how to make text in an edittext exactly fixed lines

Question

I want to allow use to enter just 5 lines, I tried this

Answer 1

You cannot do that using any XML attributes.

maxlines represents the maximum height of the EditText and not the number of input lines.

You can however implement your own code to check for the number of lines.

The following is not my own code, but is taken from this answer.

mEditText.setOnKeyListener(new View.OnKeyListener() {

        @Override
        public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {

            // if enter is pressed start calculating
            if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER
                    && event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_UP) {

                // get EditText text
                String text = ((EditText) v).getText().toString();

                // find how many rows it cointains
                editTextRowCount = text.split("\\n").length;

                // user has input more than limited - lets do something
                // about that
                if (editTextRowCount >= 7) {

                    // find the last break
                    int lastBreakIndex = text.lastIndexOf("\n");

                    // compose new text
                    String newText = text.substring(0, lastBreakIndex);

                    // add new text - delete old one and append new one
                    // (append because I want the cursor to be at the end)
                    ((EditText) v).setText("");
                    ((EditText) v).append(newText);

                }
            }

            return false;
        }