Validation allow only number and characters in edit text in android

Question

In my application I have to validate the EditText. It should only allow character, digits, underscores, and hyphens.

Here is my code:

edittext.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
                                        
    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub                              
    }
                                        
    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }
                                        
    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        // validation codes here
                                
        location_name=s.toString();
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),location_name, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();                
        
        if (location_name.matches(".*[^a-z^0-9].*")) {
            location_name = location_name.replaceAll("[^a-z^0-9]", "");
            s.append(location_name);
            s.clear();
            Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Only lowercase letters and numbers are allowed!",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }                                   
    }

});     
                                    
location.add(location_name);

When I enter input into EditText, the application is force closed.

Answer 1

Instead of using your "manual" checking method, there is something very easy in Android:

InputFilter filter = new InputFilter() { 
    public CharSequence filter(CharSequence source, int start,
                               int end, Spanned dest, int dstart, int dend) { 

        for (int i = start;i < end;i++) { 
            if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(source.charAt(i)) && 
                !Character.toString(source.charAt(i)).equals("_") && 
                !Character.toString(source.charAt(i)).equals("-")) 
            { 
                return ""; 
            } 
        } 
        return null; 
    } 
}; 

edittext.setFilters(new InputFilter[] { filter }); 

Or another approach: set the allowed characters in the XML where you are creating your EditText:

<EditText 
  android:inputType="text" 
  android:digits="0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,*,qwertzuiopasdfghjklyxcvbnm,_,-" 
  android:hint="Only letters, digits, _ and - allowed" />