java - Getting weird text back with EditText.toString() method in Android project. Why?

Question

I appear to have a fundamental gap in my understanding of an EditText object. I have an Activity+Layout with a single EditText object. After I type a few characters into the EditText object and hit the Enter key, I retrieve the text in my onKey() listener. When I use the toString() method to retrieve the text I get back a weird string like:

android.widget.EditText@43749ff0

Despite the fact the EditText.mText property does show the string I entered, "123" during my tests. Why is toString() returning a different result and what appears to be some kind of "uninitalize" value? How do I get the desired string currently in the mText property and what is that strange value?

-- roschler

Answer 1

Passing glance at the API suggests you should use the getText() method. toString() is a general method that applies to Object and all its subclasses (i.e., everything that isn't a primitive, to my knowledge). It's often overridden to supply more useful strings, but by default, it reports something just like what you posted - a sparse description and the object's hashcode. To be clear, the API defines toString() as:

getClass().getName() + '@' + Integer.toHexString(hashCode())