How to remove all listeners added with addTextChangedListener

I have a ListView where each row has an EditText control. I want to add a TextChangedListener to each row; one that contains extra data which says which row the EditText was in. The problem is that as getView gets called, multiple TextWatchers are added; because the convertView already having a TextWatcher (and one that points to a different row).

MyTextWatcher watcher = new MyTextWatcher(currentQuestion);
EditText text = (EditText)convertView.findViewById(R.id.responseText);
text.addTextChangedListener(watcher);

MyTextWatcher is my class that implements TextWatcher; and handles the text events. CurrentQuestion lets me know which row I'm acting upon. When I type in the box; multiple instances of TextWatcher are called.

Is there any way to remove the TextWatchers before adding the new one? I see the removeTextChangedListener method, but that requires a specific TextWatcher to be passed in, and I don't know how to get the pointer to the TextWatcher that is already there.

Solution 1:

There is no way to do this using current EditText interface directly. I see two possible solutions:

Redesign your application so you always know what TextWatcher are added to particular EditText instance.
Extend EditText and add possibility to clear all watchers.

Here is an example of second approach - ExtendedEditText:

public class ExtendedEditText extends EditText
{   
    private ArrayList<TextWatcher> mListeners = null;

    public ExtendedEditText(Context ctx)
    {
        super(ctx);
    }

    public ExtendedEditText(Context ctx, AttributeSet attrs)
    {
        super(ctx, attrs);
    }

    public ExtendedEditText(Context ctx, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle)
    {       
        super(ctx, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    @Override
    public void addTextChangedListener(TextWatcher watcher)
    {       
        if (mListeners == null) 
        {
            mListeners = new ArrayList<TextWatcher>();
        }
        mListeners.add(watcher);

        super.addTextChangedListener(watcher);
    }

    @Override
    public void removeTextChangedListener(TextWatcher watcher)
    {       
        if (mListeners != null) 
        {
            int i = mListeners.indexOf(watcher);
            if (i >= 0) 
            {
                mListeners.remove(i);
            }
        }

        super.removeTextChangedListener(watcher);
    }

    public void clearTextChangedListeners()
    {
        if(mListeners != null)
        {
            for(TextWatcher watcher : mListeners)
            {
                super.removeTextChangedListener(watcher);
            }

            mListeners.clear();
            mListeners = null;
        }
    }
}

And here is how you can use ExtendedEditText in xml layouts:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical" 
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <ua.inazaruk.HelloWorld.ExtendedEditText 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:text="header"
        android:gravity="center" /> 

</LinearLayout>

Solution 2:

You can remove TextWatcher from your EditText. First of all I suggest you to move TextWatcher declaration outside the the editText.addTextChangedListener(...):

protected TextWatcher yourTextWatcher = new TextWatcher() {

    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        // your logic here
    }

    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
        // your logic here
    }

    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
       // your logic here
    }
};

After that you will be able to set TextWather little bit simpler:

editText.addTextChangedListener(yourTextWatcher);

Than you can remove TextWatcher like this:

editText.removeTextChangedListener(yourTextWatcher);

and set another if you want.

Solution 3:

I also spent a lot of time finding the solution and finally ended up solving with the help of tag like below. It would remove previous TextWatcher instances by getting references from tag of the convertView. It perfectly solves the problem. In your CustomAdapter file, set a new inner class like below:

private static class ViewHolder {

        private TextChangedListener textChangedListener;
        private EditText productQuantity;

        public EditText getProductQuantity() {
            return productQuantity;
        }    

        public TextChangedListener getTextChangedListener() {
            return textChangedListener;
        }

        public void setTextChangedListener(TextChangedListener textChangedListener) {
            this.textChangedListener = textChangedListener;
        }
    }

Then in your overrided public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) method implement the logic like below:

@Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

     EditText productQuantity;
    TextChangedListener textChangedListener;

    if(convertView==null) {
        LayoutInflater mInflater = (LayoutInflater)
                context.getSystemService(Activity.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        convertView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.cart_offer_item, parent, false);

        productQuantity=(EditText)convertView.findViewById(R.id.productQuantity);
        addTextChangedListener(viewHolder, position);
        convertView.setTag(viewHolder);
    }
    else
    {
        ViewHolder viewHolder=(ViewHolder)convertView.getTag();
        productQuantity=viewHolder.getProductQuantity();
        removeTextChangedListener(viewHolder);
        addTextChangedListener(viewHolder, position);
    }

    return convertView;
}



private void removeTextChangedListener(ViewHolder viewHolder)
{
    TextChangedListener textChangedListener=viewHolder.getTextChangedListener();
    EditText productQuantity=viewHolder.getProductQuantity();
    productQuantity.removeTextChangedListener(textChangedListener);
}

private void addTextChangedListener(ViewHolder viewHolder, int position)
{
    TextChangedListener textChangedListener=new TextChangedListener(position);
    EditText productQuantity=viewHolder.getProductQuantity();
    productQuantity.addTextChangedListener(textChangedListener);
    viewHolder.setTextChangedListener(textChangedListener);
}

Then implement TextWatcher class as below:

private class TextChangedListener implements TextWatcher
{
    private int position;
    TextChangedListener(int position)
    {
        this.position=position;
    }
    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
    }
    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
    Log.d("check", "text changed in EditText");

    }
}

It would remove previous TextWatcher instances by getting references from tag of the convertView

How to remove all listeners added with addTextChangedListener

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

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