Difference between MultiAutoCompleteTextView and AutoCompleteTextView

Question

Can someone explain the difference between MultiAutoCompleteTextView and AutoCompleteTextView?

Answer 1

AutocompleteTextView only offers suggestions about the whole sentence and MultiAutoCompleteTextView offers suggestions for every token in the sentence. You can specify what is the delimiter between tokens.

String[] words=new String[] {
     "word1", "word2", "word3", "word4", "word5"
 };

MultiAutoCompleteTextView macTv = (MultiAutoCompleteTextView) this.findViewById(R.id.mac_tv);
ArrayAdapter<String> aaStr = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.dropdown_item,words);
macTv.setAdapter(aaStr);
macTv.setTokenizer(new MultiAutoCompleteTextView.CommaTokenizer() );

---

and:

<MultiAutoCompleteTextView 
android:id="@+id/mac_tv"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:completionThreshold="1"
/>

with this example the suggestion comes after every comma.

Answer 2

The choice between using the AutoCompleteTextView or the MultiAutoCompleteTextView comes down to whether or not the user should be allowed to input only "one item" as provided by the adapter, or "multiple items."

So for example, if you were writing an email app, and you wanted the "To:" field to be an autocomplete field, pulling matches from an address book, chances are you want to allow the user to pick multiple recipients for a message, and would make this field a MultiAutoCompleteTextView.

On the other hand, the "From:" field in the same example email app, you would need to enforce only a single selection by the user from their configured email accounts. And so an AutoCompleteTextView would be appropriate here.

Answer 3

Difference between AutoCompleteTextView and MultiAutoCompleteTextView

AutoCompleteTextView Vs MultiAutoCompleteTextView

AutocompleteTextView only offers suggestions about the whole sentence MultiAutoCompleteTextView offers suggestions for every token in the sentence. You can specify what is the delimiter between tokens.

AutoCompleteTextView is used for selecting single Item MultiAutoCompleteTextView is used for for selecting multiple Items by using a delimiter(such as comma) in betwwen them.

the “From:” field in example of email app, you would need to enforce only a single selection by the user from their configured email accounts. If you were writing an email app, and you wanted the “To:” field to be an autocomplete field, getting matches from an address book, chances you want to allow the user to pick multiple recipients for a message, and would make this field a MultiAutoCompleteTextView