TextEditingValue selection bug

Is there an existing issue for this?

I have searched the existing issues
I have read the guide to filing a bug

Steps to reproduce

Create a TextFormField.
Add TextController.
Add a custom button with GestureDetector above the TextFormField via Stack.
onTap: () => _textController.text = '';
TextFormField is cleared.
Try to input some text

Expected results

You can input the text.

Actual results

Focus is still on the TextFormField, but input no longer works, until I tap to the TextFormField once more.

It works though if I change to _textController.clear();

The reason behind is https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/services/TextEditingValue/TextEditingValue.html
Selection remains the same, while text now is empty string and length is 0.

Code sample

OutlinedLabeledTextField code fragment:

           Stack(
            children: [
              TextFormField(
                controller: widget.textController,
                enabled: !widget.isLocked,
                initialValue: widget.initialValue,
                textCapitalization: widget.textCapitalization,
                inputFormatters: widget.inputFormatters,
                keyboardType: widget.keyboardType,
                textInputAction: widget.textInputAction,
                onChanged: widget.onChanged,
                onFieldSubmitted: widget.onSubmitted,
                maxLines: widget.maxLines,
                ),
              ),
              SizedBox(
                height: 44,
                child: Align(
                  alignment: Alignment.centerRight,
                  child: Builder(
                    builder: (context) {
                      if (widget.hasEraseButton) {
                        return Padding(
                          padding: const EdgeInsets.only(right: 12),
                          child: GestureDetector(
                            onTap: widget.onErase,
                            child: Assets.icons.clearFill.svg(package: Strings.packageName),
                          ),
                        );
                      }
                      return const SizedBox.shrink();
                    },
                  ),
                ),
              ),
            ],
          ),

Screenshots or Video

video_2023-06-21_16-13-17.mp4

Logs

?

Flutter Doctor output

Doctor output

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.10.5, on macOS 13.0.1 22A400 darwin-arm64, locale ru-RU)
    • Flutter version 3.10.5 on channel stable at /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/flutter/3.3.10/flutter
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision 796c8ef792 (8 days ago), 2023-06-13 15:51:02 -0700
    • Engine revision 45f6e00911
    • Dart version 3.0.5
    • DevTools version 2.23.1

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 33.0.1)
    • Android SDK at /Users/svmolchan1/Library/Android/sdk
    • Platform android-33, build-tools 33.0.1
    • Java binary at: /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jre/Contents/Home/bin/java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.13+0-b1751.21-8125866)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 14.3.1)
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • Build 14E300c
    • CocoaPods version 1.11.3

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
    • Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome

[✓] Android Studio (version 2021.3)
    • Android Studio at /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents
    • Flutter plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
    • Dart plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6351-dart
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.13+0-b1751.21-8125866)

[✓] VS Code (version 1.79.2)
    • VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
    • Flutter extension version 3.66.0

[✓] Connected device (3 available)
    • M2101K9AG (mobile) • cc706425 • android-arm64  • Android 13 (API 33)
    • macOS (desktop)    • macos    • darwin-arm64   • macOS 13.0.1 22A400 darwin-arm64
    • Chrome (web)       • chrome   • web-javascript • Google Chrome 109.0.5414.119

[✓] Network resources
    • All expected network resources are available.

• No issues found!

This is working as expected (although not quite intuitive). The text field does not know where to insert the text you just entered if you set the selection to (-1, -1). Consider setting the selection to const TextSelection.collapsed(offset: 0) instead.

You may log the error to the console "attempting to insert text with the selection set to (-1, -1)", so it's easier to spot the problem.
You may use setter on the "text" property to reset the selection, if the user inputs an empty string.

@subzero911

@subzero911 Thanks for the feedback.
You may file a new proposal request highlighting the points you made, that'll help to properly track the issue.
If the solution helps to resolve your issue, you may close this one.

@LongCatIsLooong

I'm not quite happy with this solution, an existing behaviour is not intuitive as @LongCatIsLooong said above.
I proposed two considerations, how you can improve the developer's experience.
Why to close this one, if it's directly related to the problem?

I believe it should be documented somewhere that one should use _textController.clear() instead of _textController.text = ''. This is because in my case, while the software keyboard ( it is basicly a touch screen app ) functioned correctly, the hardware keyboard did not.

Using the TextEditingController.text setter should be discouraged in the documentation.

@victorsanni

Assigning @victorsanni to make a docs improvement here.

@LongCatIsLooong

Actually, I'm unable to reproduce this bug. I believe the various platform embedders no longer allow -1 selection (did you make that change @LongCatIsLooong?), so they send it back as 0, and the bug no longer happens. Previously, I think this behavior was inconsistent among the different platforms.

I tried the code below on Android and iOS with both hardware and software keyboards, and on Linux, and Mac with a hardware keyboard, and I never saw the bug.

@victorsanni's PR may still go through to make the docs more clear, otherwise I think this issue should be closed, unless anyone else is still seeing this bug.

Code

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({Key? key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatelessWidget {
  MyHomePage({Key? key, required this.title}) : super(key: key);

  final String title;

  final TextEditingController controller = TextEditingController();

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text(title),
      ),
      body: Center(
        child: Column(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
          children: <Widget>[
            TextField(
              controller: controller,
              decoration: InputDecoration(
                suffixIcon: IconButton(
                  onPressed: () {
                    controller.text = '';
                  },
                  icon: const Icon(Icons.phonelink_erase),
                ),
              ),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Update documentation to discourage using the TextEditingController.te…

@LongCatIsLooong

I talked to @LongCatIsLooong and he was not aware of a deliberate change to how any of these embedders handle -1 selection. However, I think we should still close this issue when #146151 is merged. If anyone can still reproduce this, please leave a comment explaning how and I'll be happy to reopen this and take a look.

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. If you are still experiencing a similar issue, please open a new bug, including the output of flutter doctor -v and a minimal reproduction of the issue.

Update documentation to discourage using the TextEditingController.te…

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TextEditingValue selection bug #129272

Is there an existing issue for this?

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TextEditingValue selection bug #129272

Description

Is there an existing issue for this?

Steps to reproduce

Expected results

Actual results

Code sample

Screenshots or Video

Logs

Flutter Doctor output

Activity

LongCatIsLooong commented on Jun 21, 2023

subzero911 commented on Jun 22, 2023

darshankawar commented on Jun 22, 2023

subzero911 commented on Jun 22, 2023

maRci002 commented on Jun 23, 2023

LongCatIsLooong commented on Jun 23, 2023

justinmc commented on Apr 3, 2024

justinmc commented on Apr 3, 2024

justinmc commented on Apr 4, 2024

github-actions commented on Apr 19, 2024

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