Showing empty view when ListView is empty

Question

For some reason the empty view, a TextView in this case, always appears even when the ListView is not empty. I thought the ListView would automatically detect when to show the empty view.

<RelativeLayout android:id="@+id/LinearLayoutAR"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent">
    <ListView android:id="@+id/ARListView"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"></ListView>
    <ProgressBar android:id="@+id/arProgressBar"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"></ProgressBar>
    <!-- Here is the view to show if the list is emtpy -->
    <TextView android:id="@id/android:empty"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:text="No Results" />
</RelativeLayout>

How can I hook up the empty view properly?

infl3x · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-26 13:16:42Z

189

When you extend FragmentActivity or Activity and not ListActivity, you'll want to take a look at:

ListView.setEmptyView()

edited May 26, 2017 at 13:16

infl3x

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answered May 26, 2011 at 8:31

appsthatmatter

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1 Comment

JinSnow Over a year ago

any idea how to do that in app inventor?

gprathour · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-19 10:29:06Z

137

It should be like this:

<TextView android:id="@android:id/empty"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:text="No Results" />

Note the id attribute.

edited Aug 19, 2017 at 10:29

gprathour

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answered Sep 22, 2010 at 16:48

Nathan Schwermann

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9 Comments

Nathan Schwermann Over a year ago

you have to be using a ListViewActivity for it to work this way.

Sheehan Alam Over a year ago

oh I see, my ListView is actually inside of a ViewFlipper. Is there another way I can present the view when the list is empty?

Nathan Schwermann Over a year ago

you have implement the logic yourself, take a look at the sourcecode for ListViewActivity to see how they do it, or when you make your query check to see if it is empty, if so set your text view to VISIBLE, otherwise set it to GONE

user590849 Over a year ago

using the textview when you are using a custom adapter is not working.

Buffalo Over a year ago

@schwiz false! you don't need a ListViewActivity to use the empty functionality.

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appsthatmatter · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-01 13:51:13Z

119

As appsthatmatter says, in the layout something like:

<ListView android:id="@+id/listView" ... />
<TextView android:id="@+id/emptyElement" ... />

and in the linked Activity:

this.listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);
this.listView.setEmptyView(findViewById(R.id.emptyElement));

Does also work with a GridView...

edited Feb 1, 2017 at 13:51

appsthatmatter

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answered Apr 13, 2012 at 23:24

Eddy

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3 Comments

Evan R. Over a year ago

After at least an hour of trying various things, and having nothing work (showing the "empty" text in addition to data in the listview), this worked for me when using a ListView in an Activity instead of extending ListActivity. Thank You Eddy!

Harsha M V Over a year ago

Should i make the TextView hidden or something ?

scragar Over a year ago

@Harsha android:visibility="gone"

OneCricketeer · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-14 07:22:55Z

45

I tried all the above solutions.I came up solving the issue.Here I am posting the full solution.

The xml file:

<RelativeLayout
    android:id="@+id/header_main_page_clist1"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_margin="20dp"
    android:paddingBottom="10dp"
    android:background="#ffffff" >

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/lv_msglist"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:divider="@color/divider_color"
        android:dividerHeight="1dp" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/emptyElement"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:text="NO MESSAGES AVAILABLE!"
        android:textColor="#525252"
        android:textSize="19.0sp"
        android:visibility="gone" />
</RelativeLayout>

The textView ("@+id/emptyElement") is the placeholder for the empty listview.

Here is the code for java page:

lvmessage=(ListView)findViewById(R.id.lv_msglist);
lvmessage.setAdapter(adapter);
lvmessage.setEmptyView(findViewById(R.id.emptyElement));

Remember to place the emptyView after binding the adapter to listview.Mine was not working for first time and after I moved the setEmptyView after the setAdapter it is now working.

Output:

enter image description here

edited Sep 14, 2016 at 7:22

OneCricketeer

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answered Jan 28, 2015 at 9:01

kgandroid

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1 Comment

Bheid Over a year ago

this worked for me after adding android:layout_below="@+id/lv_msglist" for emptyElement

LOG_TAG · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-02 07:32:19Z

16

I highly recommend you to use ViewStubs like this

<FrameLayout
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:layout_weight="1" >

    <ListView
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent" />

    <ViewStub
        android:id="@android:id/empty"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:layout="@layout/empty" />
</FrameLayout>

See the full example from Cyril Mottier

answered Jan 2, 2014 at 7:32

LOG_TAG

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Comments

Yaojin · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-13 05:43:50Z

8

<ListView android:id="@+id/listView" ... />
<TextView android:id="@+id/empty" ... />
and in the linked Activity:

this.listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);
this.listView.setEmptyView(findViewById(R.id.empty));

This works clearly with FragmentActivity if you are using the support library. Tested this by building for API 17 i.e. 4.2.2 image.

answered Aug 13, 2013 at 5:43

Yaojin

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Comments

Mizipzor · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-01 16:06:49Z

Activity code, its important to extend ListActivity.

package com.example.mylistactivity;

import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import com.example.mylistactivity.R;

// It's important to extend ListActivity rather than Activity
public class MyListActivity extends ListActivity {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.mylist);

        // shows list view
        String[] values = new String[] { "foo", "bar" };

        // shows empty view
        values = new String[] { };

        setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(
                this,
                android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,
                android.R.id.text1,
                values));
    }
}

Layout xml, the id in both views are important.

<?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">

    <!-- the android:id is important -->
    <ListView
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>

    <!-- the android:id is important -->
    <TextView
        android:id="@android:id/empty"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:text="i am empty"/>
</LinearLayout>

Luís Ramalho · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-12 18:44:27Z

7

Just to add that you don't really need to create new IDs, something like the following will work.

In the layout:

<ListView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@android:id/list"/>

<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@android:id/empty"
    android:text="Empty"/>

Then in the activity:

    ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById(android.R.id.list);
    listView.setEmptyView(findViewById(android.R.id.empty));

answered Feb 12, 2015 at 18:44

Luís Ramalho

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Comments

Sergei Glotov · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-25 20:26:13Z

4

I had this problem. I had to make my class extend ListActivity rather than Activity, and rename my list in the XML to android:id="@android:id/list"

edited Apr 25, 2012 at 20:26

Sergei Glotov

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answered Apr 25, 2012 at 17:58

Matt

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Comments

Michael Winkler · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-29 08:29:01Z

2

A programmatically solution will be:

TextView textView = new TextView(context);
textView.setId(android.R.id.empty);
textView.setLayoutParams(new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
textView.setText("No result found");
listView.setEmptyView(textView);

answered Apr 29, 2019 at 8:29

Michael Winkler

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Comments

khelwood · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-06 08:10:32Z

-3

First check the list contains some values:

if (list.isEmpty()) {
    listview.setVisibility(View.GONE);
}

If it is then OK, otherwise use:

else {
     listview.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
}

edited Nov 6, 2014 at 8:10

khelwood

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answered Nov 6, 2014 at 7:28

Avnish Kumar

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4 Comments

Roy Lee Over a year ago

would you care to further elaborate what is a list?

Avnish Kumar Over a year ago

It's an ArrayList<xyz>

Avnish Kumar Over a year ago

Object[] response = Utility.parseStationresponce(object); int statusCode = (Integer) response[0]; @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") ArrayList<Stations> list = (ArrayList<Stations>) response[2];

Roy Lee Over a year ago

Well good , I suggest you put that as part of your answer than comments. This is important to get others to comprehend the specific context of what you are writing. Furthermore, it is also best if you can relate your answer to OP's question. Finally, Welcome to SO.

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