Live editing of users input

By tagging android, I think you are discussing about android editText, is so you can do it by listening the TextChangedListener,

EDITED: for backspace

editText.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
            int len=0;
            @Override
            public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) { 
                String str = editText.getText().toString(); 
                 if(str.length()==4&& len <str.length()){//len check for backspace 
                    editText.append("-");
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence arg0, int arg1, int arg2, int arg3) {

             String str = editText.getText().toString(); 
              len = str.length();
            }

            @Override
            public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {  
            }


        }); 

to solve this issue, i write a class "AutoAddTextWatcher" :

1. Auto insert text into EditText.
2. insert text into EditText at positions you are setted.
3. delete text in EditText at positions you are setted, when text length bigger than 1.

code snippet :

mEditText_birthday.addTextChangedListener(new AutoAddTextWatcher(mEditText_birthday,
            "/",
            new TextWatcher() {},
            4, 6));

AutoAddTextWatcher class

import android.text.Editable;
import android.text.TextWatcher;
import android.widget.EditText;


/**
 * Created by henry.chuang on 2016/5/12.
 */
public class AutoAddTextWatcher implements TextWatcher {
    private CharSequence mBeforeTextChanged;
    private TextWatcher mTextWatcher;
    private int[] mArray_pos;
    private EditText mEditText;
    private String mAppentText;

    public AutoAddTextWatcher(EditText editText, String appendText, int... position){
        this.mEditText = editText;
        this.mAppentText = appendText;
        this.mArray_pos = position.clone();
    }
    public AutoAddTextWatcher(EditText editText, String appendText, TextWatcher textWatcher, int... position){
        this(editText, appendText, position);
        this.mTextWatcher = textWatcher;
    }

    @Override
    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count, int after) {
        mBeforeTextChanged = s.toString();

        if(mTextWatcher != null)
            mTextWatcher.beforeTextChanged(s, start, count, after);

    }

    @Override
    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
        for (int i = 0; i < mArray_pos.length; i++) {
            if(((mBeforeTextChanged.length() - mAppentText.length() * i) == (mArray_pos[i] - 1) &&
                    (s.length() - mAppentText.length() * i) == mArray_pos[i])){
                mEditText.append(mAppentText);

                break;
            }

            if(((mBeforeTextChanged.length() - mAppentText.length() * i) == mArray_pos[i] &&
                    (s.length() - mAppentText.length() * i) == (mArray_pos[i] + 1))){
                int idx_start = mArray_pos[i] + mAppentText.length() * i;
                int idx_end = Math.min(idx_start + mAppentText.length(), s.length());

                String sub = mEditText.getText().toString().substring(idx_start,  idx_end);

                if(!sub.equals(mAppentText)){
                    mEditText.getText().insert(s.length() - 1, mAppentText);
                }

                break;
            }

            if(mAppentText.length() > 1 &&
                    (mBeforeTextChanged.length() - mAppentText.length() * i) == (mArray_pos[i] + mAppentText.length()) &&
                    (s.length() - mAppentText.length() * i) == (mArray_pos[i] + mAppentText.length() - 1)){
                int idx_start = mArray_pos[i] + mAppentText.length() * i;
                int idx_end = Math.min(idx_start + mAppentText.length(), s.length());

                mEditText.getText().delete(idx_start, idx_end);

                break;
            }

        }

        if(mTextWatcher != null)
            mTextWatcher.onTextChanged(s, start, before, count);

    }

    @Override
    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        if(mTextWatcher != null)
            mTextWatcher.afterTextChanged(s);

    }

}

complete demo source :
https://github.com/henrychuangtw/AutoInsertEditText