Android ListView Tutorial

ListView is a ViewGroup that displays a list of scrollable items. The list items are automatically inserted into the list using a ListAdapter. This tutorial is all about creating ListView and showing a toast message on selecting single list item.

Here is our step by step tutorial-

1. Create a new project by going to File ⇒ New Android Project.

Project Name : SimpleListView

Package : com.sunil.simplelistview

Main Activity : SimpleListViewActivity.java
Build Target : Android 2.2

2. Once the project is created open your main activity (SimpleListViewActivity.java) and extend the class from ListActivity.

public class SimpleListViewActivity extends ListActivity {

3. Now we need a string resources file to store all list items. So create an XML file under res/values/ folder and name it as list_data.xml and type the following code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string-array name="social_sites">
        <item>Facebook</item>
        <item>Twitter</item>
        <item> LinkedIn</item>
        <item>MySpace</item>
        <item>Google Plus+</item>
        <item>Orkut</item>
        <item>Pinterest</item>
        <item>Meetup</item>
        <item>myLife</item>
        <item>Badoo</item>
    </string-array>
</resources>

4. Now create the layout for each item that will be placed in the ListView. Create an XML file named list_item.xml and save it inside the res/layout/ folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/label"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:padding="10dip"
        android:textSize="16dip"
        android:textStyle="bold" >
</TextView>

5. Open your main activity (SimpleListViewActivity.java) and type the following code.

package com.sunil.simplelistview;

import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class SimpleListViewActivity extends ListActivity {

    // defining array to store string resources
    String[] social_sites;

    @Override
        public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

            // storing string resources into Array
            social_sites = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.social_sites);

            // Binding resources Array to ListAdapter
            this.setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list_item, R.id.label, social_sites));

        }

    @Override
    protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "You have selected : "+social_sites[position], Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
    }

6. Now run your project. You will see the listview with list of array items. When a list item is selected you will see a toast message.