Simple ListView Adapter and list item select

When you are using a listview in your applications many a times you will write your own adapter to display item. But if your list is very simple showing a list of strings, you can use inbuilt adapters like ArrayAdapter, SimpleCursorAdapter etc.

ArrayAdapter

Let us look at an example

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
 <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  
     android:orientation="vertical"   
     android:layout_width="fill_parent"  
     android:layout_height="fill_parent" >  
      <ListView   
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"   
          android:id="@+id/listView1"   
          android:layout_width="match_parent"  
          android:layout_margin="20dp">  
     </ListView>  
 </LinearLayout>  

And add these lines to the onCreate method of the activity.

     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);  
     setContentView(R.layout.main);  
     String []s = new String[] {"Lorem","Ipsum","dolor","sit","amet"};  
     ListView lv = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.listView1);  
     lv.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,s));  

                 
So constructor of ArrayAdapter just needs the array to be displayed in the list, the context i.e. activity and the textview resource id.  Now our listview looks like this

If you want to change the appearance of your list, you can define your own list view as shown. Add another xml file with just a textview . Do not use any layout.

Let your tv.xml in layout folder look like this.

 <TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  

    android:text="TextView" 

    android:id="@+id/textView1"  
    android:background="#0489B1"  
    android:textColor="#000000"  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"  
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"    
    android:layout_margin="20dp"  
    android:padding="5dp"></TextView>  

Now use this as layout in arrayadpter

 lv.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.tv,s));





Next step will be write a listener to the list. You should attach an OnItemClickListener to this listview.

  lv.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {  
   @Override  
   public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> arg0, View arg1, int arg2,  
    long arg3) {  
    ListView lv = (ListView) arg0;  
    TextView tv = (TextView) lv.getChildAt(arg2);  
    String s = tv.getText().toString();  
    Toast.makeText(SamplesActivity.this, "Clicked item is"+s, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();    
   } });  

Instead of Toasting, you can perform any required processing. 

What if you want to use the list for selecting one of the items? Again the simplest way to use this is to use android.R.layout.simple_list_item_single_choice

       lv.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_single_choice,s));
        lv.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);   
Now our list lets us select exactly one item

How do you find out which item is selected from the listview? 
Let us use a button, on click of which we will display the selected item of the list.

Modified main.xml is

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
 <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  
  android:background="#0489B1"   
 android:layout_width="fill_parent"  
  android:layout_height="fill_parent"   
 android:orientation="vertical">  
  <ListView  
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"  
  android:id="@+id/listView1"  
  android:layout_width="match_parent"   
 android:divider="#00ffffff"  
  android:dividerHeight="10dp"   
 android:layout_margin="20dp">  
 </ListView>  
  <Button android:text="OK"   
 android:id="@+id/button1"  
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"   
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"   
  android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal">  
 </Button>  
  </LinearLayout>  

Let us add the button and onclicklistener to it.

     btn =(Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);  
     btn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {   
            @Override  
            public void onClick(View v) {  
                 int p = lv.getCheckedItemPosition(); 

                 if(p!=ListView.INVALID_POSITION) {
                    String s = ((TextView) lv.getChildAt(p)).getText().toString();

                    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Selected item is " + s, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                }else{
                    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Nothing Selected..", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                }   
           }  
     });  

      

 

Listview with multiple selection

Finally let us see how to select multiple elements from the list. 

First of all, change the list mode multiple select


lv.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_MULTIPLE);
 


We should also modify our adapter as

 lv.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_multiple_choice, s));
     
Then we should use lv.setCheckedItemPositions() which returns a sparse boolean array. The array elements are true if that item is selected

 btn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {    
   @Override  
   public void onClick(View v) {  
        SparseBooleanArray sp = lv.getCheckedItemPositions();  
        StringBuffer str = new StringBuffer();  
        for(int i=0;i<sp.size();i++){  
               if(sp.valueAt(i)==true){  
                     String s = ((TextView) lv.getChildAt(i)).getText().toString();  
                     str = str.append(" "+s);  
               }  
        }    
        Toast.makeText(SamplesActivity.this, "Selected items are "+str.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();    
   }  
  });  

 
And, our multi select list is ready!