How do I enable standard copy paste for a TextView in Android?

Question

I want to enable standard copy paste for a TextView (the same as for EditText). How can I do it?

I tried using a non-editable EditText but it didn't work well (sometimes it became editable or the copy paste overlay was not shown). And it's probably not a good approach generally.

Need a working solution starting at API 7.

Is [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3605155/android-copy-and-paste-with-textview) what you are looking for? — Jermin Bazazian, Apr 30 '12 at 15:21
It's similar, but not the same because I want to copy all the text. But it looks the same. The problem is that the answer there only works starting at API 11 and I need something which works from API 7. — User, Apr 30 '12 at 15:23
`ClipboardManager` is available since API 1 (look at [here](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/ClipboardManager.html) ). How about long press, with a popup to copy to clipboard? — Jermin Bazazian, Apr 30 '12 at 15:40

score 263 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 03 '18 at 06:04

263

Try android:textIsSelectable.

i.e., android:textIsSelectable="true"

edited Apr 03 '18 at 06:04

Shailendra Madda

19,210
15
86
129

answered Apr 30 '12 at 15:45

CommonsWare

954,112
185
2,315
2,367

1

Can one do it for EditTextPreference? – powder366 Mar 09 '13 at 13:17
1

@powder366: I would think that `EditTextPreference` already supports copy/paste. It certainly seems to in the Settings app. – CommonsWare Mar 09 '13 at 13:26
Actually it seems to be a bug. Shows up on my Samsung 4.2.2 device. Nexus7 and Nexus10 works. https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=26008 – powder366 Mar 09 '13 at 14:17
Just a note on this, if your text view is initially hidden and you are showing it programatically using setVisibility, then you need to use textView.setTextIsSelectable(true) to make this work. It won't work via xml in that case. – Praveen Singh Nov 04 '17 at 19:20

score 64 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 20 '17 at 16:06

64

To enable the standard copy/paste for TextView, U can choose one of the following:

Change in layout file: add below property to your TextView

android:textIsSelectable="true"
In your Java class write this line to set it programmatically. myTextView.setTextIsSelectable(true);

And long press on the TextView you can see copy/paste action bar.

edited Feb 20 '17 at 16:06

Oguz Ozcan

1,664
19
26

answered Mar 05 '14 at 07:29

RamiReddy

1,049
9
10

1

i do so. as i click on texts the toolbar with "copy" and "select al"l buttons open. but after i click them nothing happen. what can i do? – Mina Dahesh May 05 '16 at 06:36
2

This solution is better than the one marked correct with the green checkmark. – Adam Hurwitz Jul 01 '16 at 17:34

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 11 '12 at 16:43

26

This works for copy pre-Honeycomb:

import android.text.ClipboardManager;

textView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        ClipboardManager cm = (ClipboardManager)context.getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
        cm.setText(textView.getText());
        Toast.makeText(context, "Copied to clipboard", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
});

edited Nov 11 '12 at 16:43

JJD

47,369
53
194
328

answered Aug 21 '12 at 11:46

User

31,017
39
128
219

4

A good strategy would be to use this along with CommonsWare's answer. Since adding `android:textIsSelectable` lives in the layout, it will just get ignored on lower API levels. Then use Ixx's solution within an if statement that checks to see if the API level is below 11. Best of both worlds. The nice thing about `android:textIsSelectable` is that it gives you the platform's text selection action bar, and has a nice native feeling. – ejf Sep 11 '12 at 00:15
1

The method setText(CharSequence) from the type ClipboardManager is deprecated – S.M_Emamian Jan 10 '15 at 19:49
1

Yes, well, this answer is from more than 2 years ago. Feel free to edit or add a new one. – User Jan 10 '15 at 19:51

Agilanbu · Answer 4 · 2018-11-12T12:45:34.090

In xml textview paste this code

android:textIsSelectable="true"

Then in java file,

 final TextView txtcopypaste = findViewById(R.id.txtcopypaste); // my textview
    txtcopypaste.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { // set onclick listener to my textview
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {
            ClipboardManager cm = (ClipboardManager)getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
            cm.setText(txtcopypaste.getText().toString());              
            Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Copied :)", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
    });

Requirement : Need to copy and paste the text which is in the textview.

OutCome : Using textview , once i clicked the textview. Its automatically copied the text which is in the textview.

Note: While importing clipboardmanager try to prefer

Please prefer text clipboard manager

import android.text.ClipboardManager; // prefer this

try to avoid content clipboard manager

import android.content.ClipboardManager; // Not this

score 12 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 14 '14 at 02:47

Requires API 11, Updated Code, previous method is deprecated

Solution for theme full screen without ActionBar

Extend TextView and in constructor paste following code

this.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener() {

            @Override
            public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
                ClipboardManager cManager = (ClipboardManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
                ClipData cData = ClipData.newPlainText("text", getText());
                cManager.setPrimaryClip(cData);
                Util.toast(mContext, string.text_copyed);
                return true;
            }
        });

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 23 '15 at 09:09

4

use theme

@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen

or

@android:style/Theme.WithActionBar

set TextView in xml
```
android:textIsSelectable="true"
```
see result

edited Nov 23 '15 at 09:09

Bowdzone

3,747
11
40
50

answered Nov 23 '15 at 08:33

Michael Mao

392
2
8

narcis dpr · Answer 7 · 2021-02-21T10:45:10.637

if someone wants to go the extra mile and do the select and copy to the clipboard with one click :

 phone.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
                        @Override
                        public void onClick(View view) {
                            ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
                            ClipData clip = ClipData.newPlainText("PhoneNumber", phone.getText());
                            clipboard.setPrimaryClip(clip);

                        }
                    });

phone is the TextView and phone.Text is the Text that will be copied to the clipboard.

score -1 · Answer 8 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

this is better:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
final android.content.ClipboardManager clipboardManager = (android.content.ClipboardManager) context
        .getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
final android.content.ClipData clipData = android.content.ClipData
        .newPlainText("text label", "text to clip");
clipboardManager.setPrimaryClip(clipData);
} else {
final android.text.ClipboardManager clipboardManager = (android.text.ClipboardManager) context
        .getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
clipboardManager.setText("text to clip");
}

score -2 · Answer 9 · edited Mar 08 '18 at 13:09

-2

For an EditText, in manifest inside the activity use android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize"

edited Mar 08 '18 at 13:09

Xenolion

10,831
6
27
45

answered Mar 06 '15 at 12:22

rajeesh

909
10
11

How do I enable standard copy paste for a TextView in Android?

9 Answers9

Linked

Related