Android: How can I validate EditText input?

Solution 1:

Why don't you use TextWatcher ?

Since you have a number of EditText boxes to be validated, I think the following shall suit you :

1. Your activity implements android.text.TextWatcher interface
2. You add TextChanged listeners to you EditText boxes

txt1.addTextChangedListener(this);
txt2.addTextChangedListener(this);
txt3.addTextChangedListener(this);

3. Of the overridden methods, you could use the afterTextChanged(Editable s) method as follows

@Override
public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
    // validation code goes here
}

The Editable s doesn't really help to find which EditText box's text is being changed. But you could directly check the contents of the EditText boxes like

String txt1String = txt1.getText().toString();
// Validate txt1String

in the same method. I hope I'm clear and if I am, it helps! :)

EDIT: For a cleaner approach refer to Christopher Perry's answer below.

Solution 2:

TextWatcher is a bit verbose for my taste, so I made something a bit easier to swallow:

public abstract class TextValidator implements TextWatcher {
    private final TextView textView;

    public TextValidator(TextView textView) {
        this.textView = textView;
    }

    public abstract void validate(TextView textView, String text);

    @Override
    final public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        String text = textView.getText().toString();
        validate(textView, text);
    }

    @Override
    final public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) { /* Don't care */ }

    @Override
    final public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) { /* Don't care */ }
}

Just use it like this:

editText.addTextChangedListener(new TextValidator(editText) {
    @Override public void validate(TextView textView, String text) {
       /* Validation code here */
    }
});