EditText getHint() returns null when using design support library

Question

When using EditText in combination with Design lib\'s (ver 22.2.1) TextInputLayout getting hint programmatically returns null.

I\'m trying to append asterisk \'*\'

Answer 1

Actually the hint moves to the parent view TextInputLayout that surrounds the EditText view:

You can get the hint like this:

android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout parent = (android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout) yourEditText.getParent();
String hint = parent.getHint().toString();

And if you want to add * make it like this:

parent.setHint(parent.getHint() + "*");

Happy codding! :)

Answer 2

This is fixed in design support 23.0.0 but the project has to be compiled for api 23.

build.gradle

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion '23'
    ....
}
dependencies{
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.0.0'
...
}

Setting the hint on the EditText like before:

<android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout
    android:id="@+id/inputField"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <EditText
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:hint="@string/hello_world"
        android:inputType="text"/>

Now adding an extra character to the hint:

TextInputLayout inputField = (TextInputLayout) findViewById(R.id.inputLayout);
String hint = String.format("%s *", inputField.getHint());
inputField.setHint(hint);

Answer 3

Hint is linked with its's parent layout

((TextInputLayout)view.getParent()).getHint()