How to Highlight Text in Android TextView

Highlighting text in an Android TextView is a common requirement for many apps, allowing developers to emphasize specific words or phrases, improve user experience, and add visual appeal. Whether you want to highlight selected text, specific keywords, or create a clickable highlighted span, there are several effective methods to achieve this.

Highlighting Text with Background Color

One of the simplest ways to highlight text is by changing its background color. This is particularly useful for drawing attention to specific sections of text. You can achieve this using SpannableString and BackgroundColorSpan.

SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("This is a highlighted text.");
spannableString.setSpan(new BackgroundColorSpan(Color.YELLOW), 10, 23, Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
textView.setText(spannableString);

This code snippet highlights the words “highlighted text” with a yellow background. You can customize the start and end positions, as well as the color, to suit your needs.

android clickable textview highlight

Highlighting Text with Custom Colors

Beyond background highlighting, you can also change the text color itself. This offers greater flexibility for visually distinguishing different parts of the text.

SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("This is colored text.");
spannableString.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE), 10, 17, Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
textView.setText(spannableString);

This example highlights the word “colored” in blue. Experiment with different colors to achieve the desired visual effect. highlight text special android provides more specialized techniques for custom text highlighting in Android.

Highlighting Text on User Interaction

For interactive highlighting, such as highlighting text on a long press or click, you can use ClickableSpan. This allows you to define actions that occur when the highlighted text is clicked.

SpannableString spannableString = new SpannableString("Click here!");
ClickableSpan clickableSpan = new ClickableSpan() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        // Perform action on click
    }
};
spannableString.setSpan(clickableSpan, 0, 10, Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
textView.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance());
textView.setText(spannableString);

This code makes the entire text “Click here!” clickable, and you can define the action to perform within the onClick method. highlighting words thêm màu provides further insights into adding color to highlighted words.

Working with Different Spans

Android provides various other spans for styling text, such as UnderlineSpan, StyleSpan, and StrikethroughSpan. You can combine these spans to create complex formatting and achieve the precise highlighting effect you need. textview highlight on touch android support explores highlighting text on touch events.

how to highlight background text in textview

Conclusion

Highlighting text in Android TextViews offers developers powerful tools to enhance the user interface and create engaging experiences. From simple background color changes to interactive clickable spans, understanding how to use SpannableString and various spans opens up a world of possibilities for customizing and highlighting text. Whether you’re working with static text or responding to user interaction, mastering these techniques allows you to present information effectively and elevate the overall visual appeal of your Android applications.

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