How to add a line break in an Android TextView?

Question

I am trying to add a line break in the TextView.

I tried suggested \n but that does nothing. Here is how I set my texts.

TextView txtSubTitle = (TextView)findViewById(r.id.txtSubTitle);
txtSubTitle.setText(Html.fromHtml(getResources().getString(R.string.sample_string)));

This is my String: <string name="sample_string">some test line 1 \n some test line 2</string>

It should show like so:

some test line 1
some test line 2

But it shows like so: some test line 1 some test line 2.

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

Android version 1.6 does not recognize \r\n. Instead, use: System.getProperty("line.separator")

String s = "Line 1"
           + System.getProperty("line.separator")
           + "Line 2"
           + System.getProperty("line.separator");

Answer 2

I would recommend querying the line.separator property, and using that whenever you want to add a line break.

Here is some sample code:

TextView calloutContent = new TextView(getApplicationContext());
calloutContent.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
calloutContent.setSingleLine(false);
calloutContent.setLines(2);
calloutContent.setText(" line 1" + System.getProperty ("line.separator")+"  line2" );

Answer 3

As I know in the previous version of android studio uses separate lines " \n " code. But new one (4.1.2) uses "<br/" to separate lines. For example - Old one:

<string name="string_name">Sample text 1 \n Sample text 2 </string>

New one:

<string name="string_name">Sample text 1 <br/> Sample text 2 </string>

Answer 4

There are two ways around this. If you use your string as a raw string, you need to use the newline character. If you use it as html, e.g. by parsing it with Html.fromString, the second variant is better.

1) Newline character \n

<string name="sample">This\nis a sample</string>

2) Html newline tag <br> or <br />

<string name="sample">This<br>is a sample</string>

Answer 5

I feel like a more complete answer is needed to describe how this works more thoroughly.

Firstly, if you need advanced formatting, check the manual on how to use HTML in string resources.
Then you can use <br/>, etc. However, this requires setting the text using code.

If it's just plain text, there are many ways to escape a newline character (LF) in static string resources.

Enclosing the string in double quotes

The cleanest way is to enclose the string in double quotes.
This will make it so whitespace is interpreted exactly as it appears, not collapsed.
Then you can simply use newline normally in this method (don't use indentation).

<string name="str1">"Line 1.
Line 2.
Line 3."</string>

Note that some characters require special escaping in this mode (such as \").

The escape sequences below also work in quoted mode.

When using a single-line in XML to represent multi-line strings

The most elegant way to escape the newline in XML is with its code point (10 or 0xA in hex) by using its XML/HTML entity 
 or 
. This is the XML way to escape any character.
However, this seems to work only in quoted mode.

Another method is to simply use \n, though it negatively affects legibility, in my opinion (since it's not a special escape sequence in XML, Android Studio doesn't highlight it).

<string name="str1">"Line 1.&#xA;Line 2.&#10;Line 3."</string>
<string name="str1">"Line 1.\nLine 2.\nLine 3."</string>
<string name="str1">Line 1.\nLine 2.\nLine 3.</string>

Do not include a newline or any whitespace after any of these escape sequences, since that will be interpreted as extra space.

Answer 6

In my case, I solved this problem by adding the following:

android:inputType="textMultiLine"

Answer 7

ok figured it out:

<string name="sample_string"><![CDATA[some test line 1 <br />some test line 2]]></string>

so wrap in CDATA is necessary and breaks added inside as html tags

Answer 8

Maybe you are able to put the lf into the text, but it doesn't display? Make sure you have enough height for the control. For example:

Correct:

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

May be wrong:

android:layout_height="10dp"

Answer 9

I'm reading my text from a file, so I took a slightly different approach, since adding \n to the file resulted in \n appearing in the text.

    final TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.warm_up_view);
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.warm_up_file));
    while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
      sb.append(scanner.nextLine());
      sb.append("\n");
    }

    textView.setText(sb.toString());

Answer 10

\n was not working for me. I was able to fix the issue by changing the xml to text and building the textview text property like below.

android:text="Line 1
Line 2
Line 3

DoubleSpace"

Hopefully This helps those who have said that \n did not work for them.

Answer 11

The most easy way to do it is to go to values/strings (in your resource folder)

Declare a string there:

    <string name="example_string">Line 1\Line2\Line n</string>

And in your specific xml file just call the string like

    <TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/example_string" />

Answer 12

\n works for me, like this:

<TextView android:text="First line\nNext line"

Answer 13

As Html.fromHtml deprecated I simply I used this code to get String2 in next line.

textView.setText(fromHtml("String1 <br/> String2"));

.

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
    public static Spanned fromHtml(String html){
        Spanned result;
        if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
            result = Html.fromHtml(html,Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY);
        } else {
            result = Html.fromHtml(html);
        }
        return result;
    }

Answer 14

You could also use the String-Editor of Android Studio, it automatically generates line brakes and stuff like that...

Answer 15

I found another method: Is necessary to add the "android:maxWidth="40dp"" attribute. Of course, it may not work perfectly, but it gives a line break.

Answer 16

very easy : use "\n"

    String aString1 = "abcd";
    String aString2 = "1234";
    mSomeTextView.setText(aString1 + "\n" + aString2);

\n corresponds to ASCII char 0xA, which is 'LF' or line feed

\r corresponds to ASCII char 0xD, which is 'CR' or carriage return

this dates back from the very first typewriters, where you could choose to do only a line feed (and type just a line lower), or a line feed + carriage return (which also moves to the beginning of a line)

on Android / java the \n corresponds to a carriage return + line feed, as you would otherwise just 'overwrite' the same line

Answer 17

Try to double-check your localizations. Possible, you trying to edit one file (localization), but actually program using another, just like in my case. The default system language is russian, while I trying to edit english localization.

In my case, working solution is to use "\n" as line separator:

    <string name="string_one">line one.
    \nline two;
    \nline three.</string>

Answer 18

Used Android Studio 0.8.9. The only way worked for me is using \n. Neither wrapping with CDATA nor <br> or <br /> worked.

Answer 19

This worked for me

android:text="First \n Second"

Answer 20

Tried all the above, did some research of my own resulting in the following solution for rendering linefeed escape chars:

string = string.replace("\\\n", System.getProperty("line.separator"));

1. Using the replace method you need to filter escaped linefeeds (e.g. '\\n')

2. Only then each instance of line feed '\n' escape chars gets rendered into the actual linefeed

For this example I used a Google Apps Scripting noSQL database (ScriptDb) with JSON formatted data.

Cheers :D

Answer 21

This worked for me, maybe someone will find out this helpful:

TextView textField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview1);
textField.setText("First line of text" + System.getProperty("line.separator") + "Linija 2");

Answer 22

I use the following:

YOUR_TEXTVIEW.setText("Got some text \n another line");

Answer 23

Linebreaks (\n) only work if you put your string resource value in quotes like this:

<string name="sample_string">"some test line 1 \n some test line 2"</string>

It won't do linebreaks if you put it without quotes like this:

<string name="sample_string">some test line 1 \n some test line 2</string>

yes, it's that easy.

Answer 24

Also you can add "<br/>" instead of \n.

It's HTML escaped code for <br/>

And then you can add text to TexView:

articleTextView.setText(Html.fromHtml(textForTextView));

Answer 25

If you're using XML to declare your TextView use android:singleLine = "false" or in Java, use txtSubTitle.setSingleLine(false);