Hello, Views >

Hello, ListView

A ListView is a View that shows items in a vertically scrolling list. The items are acquired from a ListAdapter.

  1. Start a new project/ListActivity called HelloListView.
  2. Open the HelloListView Java file. Make the class extend ListActivity (instead of Activity).
    public class HelloListView extends ListActivity {
  3. Insert the following for the onCreate() method:
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      
      setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,
              android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, COUNTRIES));
      getListView().setTextFilterEnabled(true);
    }
    

    Notice that we don't need to load a layout (at least, not in this case, because we're using the whole screen for our list). Instead, we just call setListAdapter() (which automatically adds a ListView to the ListActivity), and provide it with an ArrayAdapter that binds a simple_list_item_1 layout item to each entry in the COUNTRIES array (added next). The next line of code adds a text filter to the ListView, so that when the user begins typing, the list will filter the entire view to display only the items that match the entry.

  4. Following the onCreate() method, add the String array:
      static final String[] COUNTRIES = new String[] {
        "Afghanistan", "Albania", "Algeria", "American Samoa", "Andorra",
        "Angola", "Anguilla", "Antarctica", "Antigua and Barbuda", "Argentina",
        "Armenia", "Aruba", "Australia", "Austria", "Azerbaijan",
        "Bahrain", "Bangladesh", "Barbados", "Belarus", "Belgium",
        "Belize", "Benin", "Bermuda", "Bhutan", "Bolivia",
        "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "Botswana", "Bouvet Island", "Brazil", "British Indian Ocean Territory",
        "British Virgin Islands", "Brunei", "Bulgaria", "Burkina Faso", "Burundi",
        "Cote d'Ivoire", "Cambodia", "Cameroon", "Canada", "Cape Verde",
        "Cayman Islands", "Central African Republic", "Chad", "Chile", "China",
        "Christmas Island", "Cocos (Keeling) Islands", "Colombia", "Comoros", "Congo",
        "Cook Islands", "Costa Rica", "Croatia", "Cuba", "Cyprus", "Czech Republic",
        "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "Denmark", "Djibouti", "Dominica", "Dominican Republic",
        "East Timor", "Ecuador", "Egypt", "El Salvador", "Equatorial Guinea", "Eritrea",
        "Estonia", "Ethiopia", "Faeroe Islands", "Falkland Islands", "Fiji", "Finland",
        "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", "France", "French Guiana", "French Polynesia",
        "French Southern Territories", "Gabon", "Georgia", "Germany", "Ghana", "Gibraltar",
        "Greece", "Greenland", "Grenada", "Guadeloupe", "Guam", "Guatemala", "Guinea", "Guinea-Bissau",
        "Guyana", "Haiti", "Heard Island and McDonald Islands", "Honduras", "Hong Kong", "Hungary",
        "Iceland", "India", "Indonesia", "Iran", "Iraq", "Ireland", "Israel", "Italy", "Jamaica",
        "Japan", "Jordan", "Kazakhstan", "Kenya", "Kiribati", "Kuwait", "Kyrgyzstan", "Laos",
        "Latvia", "Lebanon", "Lesotho", "Liberia", "Libya", "Liechtenstein", "Lithuania", "Luxembourg",
        "Macau", "Madagascar", "Malawi", "Malaysia", "Maldives", "Mali", "Malta", "Marshall Islands",
        "Martinique", "Mauritania", "Mauritius", "Mayotte", "Mexico", "Micronesia", "Moldova",
        "Monaco", "Mongolia", "Montserrat", "Morocco", "Mozambique", "Myanmar", "Namibia",
        "Nauru", "Nepal", "Netherlands", "Netherlands Antilles", "New Caledonia", "New Zealand",
        "Nicaragua", "Niger", "Nigeria", "Niue", "Norfolk Island", "North Korea", "Northern Marianas",
        "Norway", "Oman", "Pakistan", "Palau", "Panama", "Papua New Guinea", "Paraguay", "Peru",
        "Philippines", "Pitcairn Islands", "Poland", "Portugal", "Puerto Rico", "Qatar",
        "Reunion", "Romania", "Russia", "Rwanda", "Sqo Tome and Principe", "Saint Helena",
        "Saint Kitts and Nevis", "Saint Lucia", "Saint Pierre and Miquelon",
        "Saint Vincent and the Grenadines", "Samoa", "San Marino", "Saudi Arabia", "Senegal",
        "Seychelles", "Sierra Leone", "Singapore", "Slovakia", "Slovenia", "Solomon Islands",
        "Somalia", "South Africa", "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands", "South Korea",
        "Spain", "Sri Lanka", "Sudan", "Suriname", "Svalbard and Jan Mayen", "Swaziland", "Sweden",
        "Switzerland", "Syria", "Taiwan", "Tajikistan", "Tanzania", "Thailand", "The Bahamas",
        "The Gambia", "Togo", "Tokelau", "Tonga", "Trinidad and Tobago", "Tunisia", "Turkey",
        "Turkmenistan", "Turks and Caicos Islands", "Tuvalu", "Virgin Islands", "Uganda",
        "Ukraine", "United Arab Emirates", "United Kingdom",
        "United States", "United States Minor Outlying Islands", "Uruguay", "Uzbekistan",
        "Vanuatu", "Vatican City", "Venezuela", "Vietnam", "Wallis and Futuna", "Western Sahara",
        "Yemen", "Yugoslavia", "Zambia", "Zimbabwe"
      };
    
  5. Run it.

You can scroll the list, or type to filter it. You should see something like this:

References