EditText and InputFilter cause repeating text

Use the following code:

EditText input = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.inputText);
   input.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
         for( int i = start;i<s.toString().length(); i++ ) {
             if( !Character.isLetter(s.charAt( i ) ) ) {
                input.setText("");
             }
         }

    }

    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count,
            int after) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }
   });

If you want the valid text to remain in the EditText:

---

 input.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {

    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count,
            int after) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
         for( int i = 0;i<s.toString().length(); i++ ) {
             if( !Character.isLetter(s.charAt( i ) ) ) {                    
                s.replace(i, i+1,"");               
             }
         }
    }
   });

Bingo, I found the problem!

When I use android:cursorVisible="false" on the EditText the start and dstart parameters don't match up correctly.

The start parameter is still always 0 for me, but the dstart parameter is also always 0 so it works out as long as I use .replaceAll(). This is contrary to what this post says so I don't quite understand why but at least I can build something that works now!

Fix for repeating text, work on all Android Versions:

public static InputFilter getOnlyCharactersFilter() {
    return getCustomInputFilter(true, false, false);
}

public static InputFilter getCharactersAndDigitsFilter() {
    return getCustomInputFilter(true, true, false);
}

public static InputFilter getCustomInputFilter(final boolean allowCharacters, final boolean allowDigits, final boolean allowSpaceChar) {
    return new InputFilter() {
        @Override
        public CharSequence filter(CharSequence source, int start, int end, Spanned dest, int dstart, int dend) {
            boolean keepOriginal = true;
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(end - start);
            for (int i = start; i < end; i++) {
                char c = source.charAt(i);
                if (isCharAllowed(c)) {
                    sb.append(c);
                } else {
                    keepOriginal = false;
                }
            }
            if (keepOriginal) {
                return null;
            } else {
                if (source instanceof Spanned) {
                    SpannableString sp = new SpannableString(sb);
                    TextUtils.copySpansFrom((Spanned) source, start, sb.length(), null, sp, 0);
                    return sp;
                } else {
                    return sb;
                }
            }
        }

        private boolean isCharAllowed(char c) {
            if (Character.isLetter(c) && allowCharacters) {
                return true;
            }
            if (Character.isDigit(c) && allowDigits) {
                return true;
            }
            if (Character.isSpaceChar(c) && allowSpaceChar) {
                return true;
            }
            return false;
        }
    };
}

Now you can use this filer like:

 //Accept Characters Only
edit_text.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{getOnlyCharactersFilter()});

//Accept Digits and Characters
edit_text.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{getCharactersAndDigitsFilter()});

//Accept Digits and Characters and SpaceBar
edit_text.setFilters(new InputFilter[]{getCustomInputFilter(true,true,true)});