How to get string width on Android?

If you just need the width you can use:

float width = paint.measureText(string);

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Paint.html#measureText(java.lang.String)

You can use the getTextBounds(String text, int start, int end, Rect bounds) method of a Paint object. You can either use the paint object supplied by a TextView or build one yourself with your desired text appearance.

Using a Textview you Can do the following:

Rect bounds = new Rect();
Paint textPaint = textView.getPaint();
textPaint.getTextBounds(text, 0, text.length(), bounds);
int height = bounds.height();
int width = bounds.width();

There are two different width measures for a text. One is the number of pixels which has been drawn in the width, the other is the number of 'pixels' the cursor should be advanced after drawing the text.

paint.measureText and paint.getTextWidths returns the number of pixels (in float) which the cursor should be advanced after drawing the given string. For the number of pixels painted use paint.getTextBounds as mentioned in other answer. I believe this is called the 'Advance' of the font.

For some fonts these two measurements differ (alot), for instance the font Black Chancery have letters which extend past the other letters (overlapping) - see the capital 'L'. Use paint.getTextBounds as mentioned in other answer to get pixels painted.

I have measured width in this way:

String str ="Hiren Patel";

Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setTextSize(20);
Typeface typeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "Helvetica.ttf");
paint.setTypeface(typeface);
paint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
Rect result = new Rect();
paint.getTextBounds(str, 0, str.length(), result);

Log.i("Text dimensions", "Width: "+result.width());

This would help you.