Numeric soft keyboard missing minus sign in Android 8.0, Samsung A5

[RLScott]

I have an app that has been in use for years. One German customer sent me a screenshot of the numeric soft keyboard as it appears in my app when entering a number in an EditText. The attached image shows what it looks like after he upgraded his Samsung Galaxy A5 20 F to Android 8.0. It is supposed to have buttons for a minus sign and the decimal point for entering real numbers. My layout is specified programmatically with:

edtxt.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER |
InputType.TYPE_NUMBER_FLAG_DECIMAL |
InputType.TYPE_NUMBER_FLAG_SIGNED);

The same problem occurs in other places where the layout is defined in XML, in which case the EditText is specified with:

android:inputType="number|numberSigned|numberDecimal"

This works properly on all the devices that I have, and apparently it worked OK on this customer's device too until he upgraded the OS. Is there anything I can do to correct this in the app, or is this strictly a Samsung problem? If anyone has access to the same device with Android 8.0 please let me know if the numeric soft keyboard has this problem on your device too.

 

[Martynasa]

I have an app that has been in use for years. One German customer sent me a screenshot of the numeric soft keyboard as it appears in my app when entering a number in an EditText. The attached image shows what it looks like after he upgraded his Samsung Galaxy A5 20 F to Android 8.0. It is supposed to have buttons for a minus sign and the decimal point for entering real numbers. My layout is specified programmatically with:

edtxt.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_NUMBER |
InputType.TYPE_NUMBER_FLAG_DECIMAL |
InputType.TYPE_NUMBER_FLAG_SIGNED);

The same problem occurs in other places where the layout is defined in XML, in which case the EditText is specified with:

android:inputType="number|numberSigned|numberDecimal"

This works properly on all the devices that I have, and apparently it worked OK on this customer's device too until he upgraded the OS. Is there anything I can do to correct this in the app, or is this strictly a Samsung problem? If anyone has access to the same device with Android 8.0 please let me know if the numeric soft keyboard has this problem on your device too.

Hi - I have Samsung A5 (2017) and can confirm that decimal and minus signs went missing in all numeric keyboards after latest Oreo update - it was working before. This is a Samsung A5 specific bug - it works with Note 8 Oreo device.
As a workaround I temporarily use InputType.TYPE_CLASS_PHONE type for device models that start with 'SM-A520'

 

[RLScott]

Thank you so much, Martynasa. Your workaround looks like a good one.

 

[Martynasa]

Thank you so much, Martynasa. Your workaround looks like a good one.

No problem