Multiple hints or multiple style for the same hint in edittext

Question

How to add to an EditText component another hint that will react as an hint, but with different as the default hint.

For example: field name is city, so I would like the primary hint in black to be displayed as "city" and in light blue I would like it to be dislayed as "tap to select a city".

Are there any ready-to-go components or xml attributes for it? Is this a case where I need Java code and implement onfocus and show/hide another TextView that will react as label?

---

I got this as strings.xml:

<string name="fld_fullname">
    <![CDATA[
        <font color="#8B8B8B">City</font> <font color="#BABABA">tap to change</font>
    ]]>
</string>

and this in Java code:

etCity.setHint(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.fld_city)));

Now, how can I take the color from colors.xml? Might I use placeholders or is there a better way? Asking for best practice...

Answer 1

There is only one hint attribute to EditText although you can add multi-colored hint programmatically like this

myEditView.setHint(Html.fromHtml("city - <font color='blue'>tap to select a city</font>."));

EDIT: if you are taking values from string.xml and color.xml then do following:

myEditView.setHint(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.hint1)+" <font color='"+getResources().getColor(R.color.hintColor)+"'>"+getString(R.string.hint2)+"</font>."));