Android Studio - ListView Basic Example

Hello people,

Its been a quite time that there has been no post regarding Android Examples on this blog. So Today we are going to write a very basic program
which is To display a list view in Android . We are going to use Android Studio for this Example too, as most of our previous examples were also in Android Studio.
So before I explain you more about Android Studio without wasting more of your time ,let us dig in the code .


So the very first question in your mind (if you are new in android ) would be what the hell is listview? Is it a collection like in Java?
No sorry it is not related to Collections in Java.

ListView is actually just a group of some items ,which can be scrolled in vertical position .For Example as you go into Settngs of your phone
you see a list of items like Network , Wifi, Bluetooth and many more in a vertical scrollable way.

So from does this ListView came from ? I mean you are wondering who's the father? :D
ListView and GridView are siblings with father Mr. AdapterView ... View is their SirName :p

I mean that both ListView and GridView are subclasses of AdapterView . So i shall not go into more details of their family and let me show a very basic example of
listView . In this example i ll just show a list of items and on clicking any of them u ll get a toast which show their name Thats it . Seems to be easy right ?
Its not too difficult but yes we have to write the whole code . :)

Step 1: Create a New Application

Let us first create a new Application in Android Studio.

Android ListView Example

Android Example

I gave Application name as ListViewExample .You can provide any values to the form Configure your project. and click Next.

Step 2: Select Target Android Device

Select Target Android Device on which output will be shown . For this I choose Phone View.

Step 3: Customize the Activity 

By Default the activity name is MainActivity . If you want to change that you can but rest of the things will be changed accordingly. I gave name as ListViewActivity

Android Example

Step 4: 

 After your Application is created you ll see the screen below with 3 main files :

1.*xxx*Activity.java
2. content_xxx.xml
3. activity_xxx.xml

xxx is will be the name which you choose in step 3.

Android Example

If you are wondering that there are two xml files content_listview.xml and activity_listview.xml and in which I should write the code then I tell you that you can add your widget or container in any xml file as content_list.xml is a part of activity_listview.xml only.

  Activity_listview.xml 

Android Example

Step 5: 

Now you need to add listview in xml file . I added it in content_listview.xml. You can add it in 2 ways :

1. Simply Drag listview container from left Explorer as shown in below screenshot :

Android Example

2. Second way is to add list view tag in content_listview.xml file as shown below :

<ListView     android:layout_width="wrap_content"      android:layout_height="wrap_content"   android:id="@+id/listView" />

Android Example

Step 6: Create a new activity.I named it as Button Activity

Now we need to add code in ListViewActivity.Java .For List Items we are using a String Array .

First , we need to Retrieve the ListView using method  findViewById. where listView is the id we gave while creating list view in content_listview.xml.

final ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);

Second, Define a new Adapter and assign that adapter to the listView variable we created above.

ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, android.R.id.text1, values); listView.setAdapter(adapter);

Then , we have to define the onlick listener of listView which will run when user click on any of the item .In this code On Click of item a Toast is shown with item position no. and value of that item.

You can find below the whole ListViewActivity.java.

package javainhouse.com.listviewexample; import android.os.Bundle; import android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton; import android.support.design.widget.Snackbar; import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity; import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar; import android.view.View; import android.view.Menu; import android.view.MenuItem; import android.widget.AdapterView; import android.widget.ArrayAdapter; import android.widget.ListView; import android.widget.Toast; public class ListviewActivity extends AppCompatActivity { @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_listview); Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar); setSupportActionBar(toolbar); // Get ListView object from xml final ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView); // Defined Array values to show in ListView String[] values = new String[] { "List View Item1", "List View Item 2", "List View Item 3", "List View Item 4", "List View Item 5", }; // Define a new Adapter ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, android.R.id.text1, values); // Assign adapter to ListView listView.setAdapter(adapter); // ListView Item Click Listener listView.setOnItemClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() { public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) { // ListView Clicked item index int itemPosition = position; // ListView Clicked item value String itemValue = (String) listView.getItemAtPosition(position); // Show Alert Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Position :"+itemPosition+" ListItem : " +itemValue , Toast.LENGTH_LONG) .show(); } }); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present. getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_listview, menu); return true; } @Override public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml. int id = item.getItemId(); //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement if (id == R.id.action_settings) { return true; } return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); } }

Step 7: RUN and Output

Android Example

Android Example

You can see the Toast as well with Position and Listitem value .

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