How can I show ellipses on my TextView if it is greater than the 1 line?

Question

I have the following Layout which does not work:

<LinearLayout 
    android:orientation="horizontal" 
    android:layout_width="match_parent" 
    android:id="@+id/experienceLayout" 
    android:background="#ffffff" 
    android:layout_height="match_parent" 
    android:paddingLeft="6dp" 
    android:paddingRight="6dp" 
    android:paddingBottom="6dp" 
    android:paddingTop="6dp">

    <TextView 
        android:layout_weight="1" 
        android:id="@+id/experienceLabel" 
        android:text="Experience" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:textColor="#000000" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:textStyle="bold">
    </TextView>

    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/experienceTextView" 
        android:text="TextView" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:textColor="#000000" 
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:ellipsize="end" 
        android:lines="1" 
        android:maxLines="1" 
        android:singleLine="true" 
        android:fadeScrollbars="false">
    </TextView>

</LinearLayout>

Solution 1

This is a common problem. Try using the following:

android:scrollHorizontally="true"
android:ellipsize="end" 
android:maxLines="1"

.............. the scrollHorizontally is the "special sauce" that makes it work.

Solution 2

This will also make a single line with ellipsise

 android:singleLine="true"

Solution 3

Use this

android:ellipsize="end"  
android:singleLine="true"

---

Don't use this without fully aware of what output comes

android:ellipsize="end"  
android:maxLines="1"

When you use maxlines = 1 it will some time truncate most of the characters.

Solution 4

The way it worked for me on multiple devices / APIs was programmatically like this (where tv is your TextView):

    if (tv.getLineCount() > 1) {
        int lineEndIndex = tv.getLayout().getLineEnd(0);
        String text = tv.getText().subSequence(0, lineEndIndex - 3) + "\u2026";
        tv.setText(text);
    }

Solution 5

So all the answers above cater to the requirement that only 1 line and then the ellipsis should appear. However if you want the ellipsis to appear after certain lines of text, then you should use the following:

android:ellipsize="end"
android:maxLines="2"
android:singleLine="false"

With this the ellipsis will appear only after 2 lines. Note: Its important to have singleLine as false.

View more solutions

Comments

[Sebastian Contreras]

Strange... I tried android:scrollHorizontally="true" but it didn't work, I had to use the deprecated attribute android:singleLine="true".

[Oliver Pearmain]

This is deprecated apparently

[bpiec]

This one better breaks long words.

[Mariano Zorrilla]

This is the most helpful answer of all... works on every single API and can be easily convert it as a Utils library.

[Chris Stillwell]

You should use the ellipsis character \u2026 instead of the three . characters

[Marilia]

You are right @ChrisStillwell and I do use the ellipsis character in my code. I've edited the answer, thank you. :)

[Rishabh Dutt Sharma]

yes scrollHorizontally is the actual key to ...

[filthy_wizard]

scrollHorizontally? obviously i don't want a horizontal scroll effect.

[BonanzaDriver]

@user1232726: Yes, "scroll horizontally." As a matter of common sense, take a look at the date of the question and the date of the responses ... goes without saying that neither might be currently relavant (before commenting).

[Jaydev]

android:maxLines="1"

[Spikatrix]

@grebulon It is deprecated. At least now.

[Vaishnav Mhetre]

Using ellipsize with maxLines might crash the app - Report from Android Studio intellisense

[Pierre]

The default value is false according to the documentation: developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/…

[Chen Li Yong]

@VaishnavMhetre I just implement the solution above and has no crash at all.

[jegadeesh]

Works without scrollHorizontally property.

[cesards]

Not true. Documentation doesn't say anything about deprecation: developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/…

[Reaz Murshed]

@cesards Interesting. This document says that it is - developer.android.com/reference/android/R.attr.html#singleLi‌​ne

[Neckster]

@cesards, According to Android in Code documentation: This (android:singleLine) attribute is deprecated. Use maxLines instead to change the layout of a static text, and use the textMultiLine flag in the inputType attribute instead for editable text views (if both singleLine and inputType are supplied, the inputType flags will override the value of singleLine).