What is the recommended way to make a numeric TextField in JavaFX?

Solution 1:

Very old thread, but this seems neater and strips out non-numeric characters if pasted.

// force the field to be numeric only
textField.textProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<String>() {
    @Override
    public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends String> observable, String oldValue, 
        String newValue) {
        if (!newValue.matches("\\d*")) {
            textField.setText(newValue.replaceAll("[^\\d]", ""));
        }
    }
});

Solution 2:

javafx.scene.control.TextFormatter

Updated Apr 2016

This answer was created some years ago and the original answer is largely obsolete now.

Since Java 8u40, Java has a TextFormatter which is usually best for enforcing input of specific formats such as numerics on JavaFX TextFields:

• Java 8 U40 TextFormatter (JavaFX) to restrict user input only for decimal number
• String with numbers and letters to double javafx

See also other answers to this question which specifically mention TextFormatter.

Original Answer

There are some examples of this in this gist, I have duplicated one of the examples below:

// helper text field subclass which restricts text input to a given range of natural int numbers
// and exposes the current numeric int value of the edit box as a value property.
class IntField extends TextField {
  final private IntegerProperty value;
  final private int minValue;
  final private int maxValue;
 
  // expose an integer value property for the text field.
  public int  getValue()                 { return value.getValue(); }
  public void setValue(int newValue)     { value.setValue(newValue); }
  public IntegerProperty valueProperty() { return value; }
    
  IntField(int minValue, int maxValue, int initialValue) {
    if (minValue > maxValue) 
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        "IntField min value " + minValue + " greater than max value " + maxValue
      );
    if (!((minValue <= initialValue) && (initialValue <= maxValue))) 
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        "IntField initialValue " + initialValue + " not between " + minValue + " and " + maxValue
      );
 
    // initialize the field values.
    this.minValue = minValue;
    this.maxValue = maxValue;
    value = new SimpleIntegerProperty(initialValue);
    setText(initialValue + "");
 
    final IntField intField = this;
 
    // make sure the value property is clamped to the required range
    // and update the field's text to be in sync with the value.
    value.addListener(new ChangeListener<Number>() {
      @Override public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Number> observableValue, Number oldValue, Number newValue) {
        if (newValue == null) {
          intField.setText("");
        } else {
          if (newValue.intValue() < intField.minValue) {
            value.setValue(intField.minValue);
            return;
          }
 
          if (newValue.intValue() > intField.maxValue) {
            value.setValue(intField.maxValue);
            return;
          }
 
          if (newValue.intValue() == 0 && (textProperty().get() == null || "".equals(textProperty().get()))) {
            // no action required, text property is already blank, we don't need to set it to 0.
          } else {
            intField.setText(newValue.toString());
          }
        }
      }
    });
 
    // restrict key input to numerals.
    this.addEventFilter(KeyEvent.KEY_TYPED, new EventHandler<KeyEvent>() {
      @Override public void handle(KeyEvent keyEvent) {
        if(intField.minValue<0) {
                if (!"-0123456789".contains(keyEvent.getCharacter())) {
                    keyEvent.consume();
                }
            }
            else {
                if (!"0123456789".contains(keyEvent.getCharacter())) {
                    keyEvent.consume();
                }
            }
      }
    });
      
    // ensure any entered values lie inside the required range.
    this.textProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<String>() {
      @Override public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends String> observableValue, String oldValue, String newValue) {
        if (newValue == null || "".equals(newValue) || (intField.minValue<0 && "-".equals(newValue))) {
          value.setValue(0);
          return;
        }
 
        final int intValue = Integer.parseInt(newValue);
 
        if (intField.minValue > intValue || intValue > intField.maxValue) {
          textProperty().setValue(oldValue);
        }
          
        value.set(Integer.parseInt(textProperty().get()));
      }
    });
  }
}

Solution 3:

I know this is a rather old thread, but for future readers here is another solution I found quite intuitive:

public class NumberTextField extends TextField
{

    @Override
    public void replaceText(int start, int end, String text)
    {
        if (validate(text))
        {
            super.replaceText(start, end, text);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void replaceSelection(String text)
    {
        if (validate(text))
        {
            super.replaceSelection(text);
        }
    }

    private boolean validate(String text)
    {
        return text.matches("[0-9]*");
    }
}

Edit: Thanks none_ and SCBoy for your suggested improvements.