SelectableText Widget

The SelectableText widget is a Flutter widget that displays a piece of text and allows the user to select and copy the text. It’s a read-only text widget that supports text selection, similar to the Text widget, but with the added functionality of text selection. A Text that the user may pick and copy is shown using the SelectableText widget in Flutter. It offers a method of displaying static text with text selection and clipboard copying supported right out of the box.

Here are some key features of the SelectableText widget:

• Text display: Displays a piece of text.
• Text selection: Allows users to select text using a long press or double tap.
• Copy to clipboard: Allows users to copy the selected text to the clipboard.
• Customizable: Can be customized with various properties, such as text style, font size, color, and more.
• Read-only: The text cannot be edited by the user. It will be only readable

When and Where to Use Selectable Text:

• Displaying terms and conditions or privacy policies
• Showing code snippets or examples
• Displaying text that users may want to share or copy

A simple example of using the SelectableText widget:

SelectableText(
  'This is some selectable text You Can Copy .',
  style: TextStyle(fontSize: 20),
  cursorColor: Colors.green,
)

Comparison of SelectableText and Text widgets in Flutter :

SelectableText:

• Allows text selection and copying
• Supports cursor and text selection handles
• Can be used for displaying text that users may want to copy
• Has a cursor color property to customize the cursor color
• Has a selectionControls property to customize the selection handles

Text Widget:

• Does not allow text selection or copying by default
• Can be made selectable using the selectable property
• Does not support cursor and text selection handles
• Suitable for displaying text that doesn’t need to be copied
• Has a wider range of styling options, such as textAlign, overflow, and softWrap

Code Comparison:

SelectableText(
  'Selectable text', // The text displayed by the widget, which users can select and copy.
  cursorColor: Colors.blue, // Sets the color of the text cursor when selecting text.
)

Text(
  'Non-selectable text', // The text displayed by the widget, which is static and cannot be selected.
  style: TextStyle(
    fontSize: 20, // Sets the font size of the text.
  ),
)