How to populate custom layout ListView with data from list of arrays

Question

I have a layout defined with some buttons, and a ListView widget. I also have a layout xml defined for each row in the ListView, with 2 TextViews. I also have data in the format List<String[]> where the String[] is populated with 3 items. I want to display the data in the ListView, with 2 of the 3 items from the String array (contained in each element of the list) assigned to one of the TextView rows in the ListView layout.

I can get a ListView, using one of the default views, to display the full list of just a single item in the array, by breaking it down into a single array of values, and using ArrayAdapter<String>, but I dont know how to do it for multiple rows in the ListView layout.

Would much appreciate any help.

Also, in addition, if the data in the original List<String[]> list should change, how can I refresh the ListView widget?

Thanks for any advice.

Jave · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-09 15:27:22Z

1

You should create your own extension of the ArrayAdapter:

class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String[]>{
        public MyAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId, ArrayList<String[]> objects) {
            super(context, textViewResourceId, objects);
        }

        @Override
        public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
            if( convertView== null ) convertView = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.your_layout, null);

            String[] strings = getItem(position);
            TextView line1 = (TextView)convertView.findViewById(R.id.line1);
            line1.setText(strings[0])
            TextView line2 = (TextView)convertView.findViewById(R.id.line2);
            line2.setText(strings[0])
            //...

            return convertView;
        }
    }

To refresh your list, call the adapters notifyDataSetChanged() method.

edited Dec 9, 2011 at 15:27

answered Dec 9, 2011 at 13:39

Jave

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3 Comments

Jave Over a year ago

FYI: this is the third time in just a few days I have answered a question with "create your own adapter" :p

Kevin Appleyard Over a year ago

Fantastic, thankyou. I guess I should have mentioned, I'm completely new to android coding (and in fact java), so although I did search, maybe I was looking for the wrong thing. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to respond. A quick point, you have return layout in here, I had to change it to return convertView, which seems to work. Any hints about how I can refresh this view from say another button in the activity when the underlying data has changed?

Jave Over a year ago

Edited my answer to include that (and also fix the small layout problem. (I tend to create a new view named layout in my adapters if it is a layout rather than just a view...)) Good luck with the programming :)

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