Text Clock is a UI widget in android which is used to display the current time in android applications. This widget displays the current time in a simple text view. The text clock widget displays a time in 12 and 24 hours format. In this article, we will take a look at How to use the TextClock widget on android. A sample video is given below to get an idea about what we are going to do in this article.
Note: This Android article covered in both Java and Kotlin languages.
Step by Step Implementation
Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio
To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio.
Step 2: Working with the activity_main.xml file
Navigate to app > res > layout > activity_main.xml and add the code below. Comments are added in the code to get to know in detail.
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RelativeLayout android:id="@+id/idRLContainer" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:orientation="vertical" tools:context=".MainActivity"> <!--on below line we are creating a text for our app--> <TextView android:id="@+id/idTVHeading" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_above="@id/idTCClock" android:layout_centerInParent="true" android:layout_margin="20dp" android:gravity="center" android:padding="10dp" android:text="Text Clock in Android" android:textAlignment="center" android:textColor="@color/black" android:textSize="20sp" android:textStyle="bold" /> <!--on below line we are creating a text clock--> <TextClock android:id="@+id/idTCClock" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_centerInParent="true" android:layout_margin="20dp" android:gravity="center" android:padding="10dp" android:textAlignment="center" android:textColor="@color/black" android:textSize="20sp" android:textStyle="bold" /> </RelativeLayout> |
Step 3: Working with the MainActivity file
Navigate to app > java > your app’s package name > MainActivity file and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in detail.
Kotlin
package com.gtappdevelopers.kotlingfgproject import android.os.Bundleimport android.widget.TextClockimport androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() { // on below line we are creating a variable. lateinit var clockTC: TextClock override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) // on below line we are initializing our variables. clockTC = findViewById(R.id.idTCClock) // on below line we are setting 12 hour // format for our text clock clockTC.format12Hour = "hh:mm:ss a" }} |
Java
package com.gtappdevelopers.googlemapsroutes; import android.os.Build;import android.os.Bundle;import android.widget.TextClock;import androidx.annotation.RequiresApi;import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity; public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity { // on below line we are creating variables. private TextClock clockTC; @RequiresApi(api = Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1) @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); // on below line we are initializing our variables. clockTC = findViewById(R.id.idTCClock); // on below line we are setting 12 hour // format for our text clock clockTC.setFormat12Hour("hh:mm:ss a"); }} |
Now run your application to see the output of it.
Output:
