How do I add a bullet symbol in TextView?

Question

I have a TextView and I want to add a bullet symbol in my text through XML. Is it possible?

score 435 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 29 '15 at 07:32

435

You have to use the right character encoding to accomplish this effect. You could try with •

Update

Just to clarify: use setText("\u2022 Bullet"); to add the bullet programmatically. 0x2022 = 8226

edited Dec 29 '15 at 07:32

GreenROBO

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answered Aug 07 '10 at 07:56

Benny Skogberg

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1

[This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encodings_in_HTML#XML_character_references) helped me. – Vikas Jan 17 '11 at 05:15
4

This is the right answer. More correct than pasting the bullet in. – Kyle Clegg Mar 23 '12 at 21:51
2

@Benny, This is not working if I set text programmatically. textView.setText("• hello"); – Ashish Dwivedi Apr 23 '14 at 05:27
@DwivediJi No, but the question was how to add it in XML. If you have a new question - feel free to ask :-) – Benny Skogberg Apr 23 '14 at 05:48
29

Just to clarify: use `setText("\u2022 Bullet");` to add the bullet programmatically. `0x2022 = 8226` – Diederik Aug 21 '14 at 06:48
· by using this I got a smaller size bullet – Akhil Dad Feb 05 '16 at 09:55
149

Here are character code to these different style of bullets: `• = \u2022, ● = \u25CF, ○ = \u25CB, ▪ = \u25AA, ■ = \u25A0, □ = \u25A1, ► = \u25BA` – quent Jul 10 '16 at 00:01
For Android: **In XML>>>** `•` and **In Java>>>** `\u2022` – sud007 Dec 23 '16 at 11:13
• vs • in XML, which one to use and why? – Ken Ratanachai S. Mar 16 '17 at 04:46

score 73 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 04 '16 at 06:23

73

This worked for me:

<string name="text_with_bullet">Text with a \u2022</string>

edited Mar 04 '16 at 06:23

Sagar Maiyad

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answered Jul 29 '13 at 23:59

jackbijou

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score 31 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 12:02

31

Copy paste: •. I've done it with other weird characters, such as ◄ and ►.

Edit: here's an example. The two Buttons at the bottom have android:text="◄" and "►".

answered Aug 07 '10 at 12:02

Felix

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The problem is when line wraps. It will not indent a 2nd line – Bostone Sep 21 '10 at 21:36
4

just use a linear layout with orientation horizontal, first textview with "Icon and Space" second :=) the text, => all intended – cV2 Aug 15 '11 at 16:10

score 19 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 17 '10 at 22:53

Prolly a better solution out there somewhere, but this is what I did.

<TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        >
        <TableRow>    
            <TextView
                android:layout_column="1"
                android:text="•"></TextView>
            <TextView
                android:layout_column="2"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:text="First line"></TextView>
        </TableRow>
        <TableRow>    
            <TextView
                android:layout_column="1"
                android:text="•"></TextView>
            <TextView
                android:layout_column="2"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:text="Second line"></TextView>
        </TableRow>
  </TableLayout>

It works like you want, but a workaround really.

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 14 '19 at 17:51

11

You may try BulletSpan as described in Android docs.

SpannableString string = new SpannableString("Text with\nBullet point");
string.setSpan(new BulletSpan(40, color, 20), 10, 22, Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);

answered Mar 14 '19 at 17:51

Faisal Naseer

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4

What about using bulletRadius property on before API 28? – ibrahimyilmaz Sep 09 '19 at 18:39
any method to set bullet size? – Usman Rana Dec 13 '21 at 05:17
@UsmanRana yes you can try replacing 20 i.e. the third argument in the BulletSpan constructor with your preferred size, which represent radius. BulletSpan(int gapWidth, int color, int bulletRadius) – Faisal Naseer Dec 16 '21 at 05:23

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 21 '16 at 12:06

This is how i ended up doing it.

 <LinearLayout
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="horizontal">

            <View
                android:layout_width="20dp"
                android:layout_height="20dp"
                android:background="@drawable/circle"
                android:drawableStart="@drawable/ic_bullet_point" />

            <TextView
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
                android:text="Your text"
                android:textColor="#000000"
                android:textSize="14sp" />
        </LinearLayout>

and the code for drawbale/circle.xml is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:innerRadius="0dp"
  android:shape="ring"
  android:thickness="5dp"
  android:useLevel="false">

 <solid android:color="@color/black1" />

</shape>

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 29 '22 at 06:21

5

With Unicode we can do it easily, but if want to change color of bullet, I tried with colored bullet image and set it as drawableStart and it worked

<TextView     
    android:text="Hello bullet"
    android:drawableStart="@drawable/bulleticon" >
</TextView>

edited Apr 29 '22 at 06:21

Ryan M

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answered Jul 06 '16 at 08:10

Aditya Vyas-Lakhan

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score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 25 '20 at 12:10

Another best way to add bullet in any text view is stated below two steps:

First, create a drawable

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="oval">

    <!--set color of the bullet-->
   <solid 
       android:color="#666666"/> //set color of bullet

    <!--set size of the bullet-->
   <size 
       android:width="120dp"
        android:height="120dp"/>
</shape>

Then add this drawable in textview and set its pedding by using below properties

android:drawableStart="@drawable/bullet"
android:drawablePadding="10dp"

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 16 '16 at 12:03

Since android doesnt support <ol>, <ul> or <li> html elements, I had to do it like this

<string name="names"><![CDATA[<p><h2>List of Names:</h2></p><p>&#8226;name1<br />&#8226;name2<br /></p>]]></string>

if you want to maintain custom space then use </pre> tag

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 05 '21 at 08:36

(almost) all of the options are about using html tags.

you can use drawables for your TextView if it has only one line of text.

something like this:

<TextView
            android:id="@+id/tv_with_bullet"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="50dp"
            app:drawableStartCompat="@drawable/ic_desired_bullet_icon" />

and add your desired bullet drawable in SVG. it literally takes no space and makes you free of adding complicated string literals. you can also download the SVG file for a bullet point in here

How do I add a bullet symbol in TextView?

10 Answers10

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