How to Change Input Type of EditText Programmatically in Android?

EditText in Android UI or applications is an input field, that is used to give input text to the application. This input text can be of multiple types like text (Characters), number (Integers), etc. These fields can be used to take text input from the users to perform any desired operation. Let us say, a login activity in our application comprises two inputs namely an email id and a numerical pin. So we need to create two EditText fields for taking the two inputs. This is how a general login activity page is assumed. However, we can create a similar activity using a single EditText and use it twice for taking two same or different types of input. The first input can be stored inside a variable upon a button click. At the same time, this click will clear the EditText. Now second input can be given and stored in another variable on button click. In this way, we shall get both the inputs using a single EditText. This is when both the inputs are of the same type. The problem arises when both input types are different, let us say, the first input is a string and the second is some numeric value. So in this article, we will show you how you could change the EditText input type programmatically using a simple Android app demonstration. Follow the below instructions once you launch the IDE.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Working with the activity_main.xml file

Navigate to the app > res > layout > activity_main.xml and add the below code to that file. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file. We have created an EditText and two Buttons. These two non-functional buttons would invoke the EditText input type accordingly when clicked.

<RelativeLayout 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/edit_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="50sp"/>

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/textBtn"
        android:layout_above="@id/numBtn"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:text="text"/>

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/numBtn"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:text="number"/>

</RelativeLayout>

Step 3: Working with the MainActivity.kt file

Go to the MainActivity.kt file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.kt file. The EditText and Buttons are declared into the main code. Here, the two functions are given the functionality that when clicked, EditText will change its input type. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import android.text.InputType
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.EditText

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // Declaring and initializing the EditText
          // and Buttons from the layout file 
        val mEditText = findViewById<EditText>(R.id.edit_text)
        val mTextBtn = findViewById<Button>(R.id.textBtn)
        val mNumBtn = findViewById<Button>(R.id.numBtn)

        // When this button is clicked, the 
          // EditText input type will change to Text
        mTextBtn.setOnClickListener {
            mEditText.inputType = InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT
        }

        // When this button is clicked, the 
          // EditText input type will change to Numbers
        mNumBtn.setOnClickListener {
            mEditText.inputType = InputType.TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER
        }
    }
}

Output:

You can see in the output that when these buttons are clicked, the input type changes.