[android] What does LayoutInflater in Android do?

What is the use of LayoutInflater in Android?

What does LayoutInflator do?

When I first started Android programming, I was really confused by LayoutInflater and findViewById. Sometimes we used one and sometimes the other.

• LayoutInflater is used to create a new View (or Layout) object from one of your xml layouts.
• findViewById just gives you a reference to a view than has already been created. You might think that you haven't created any views yet, but whenever you call setContentView in onCreate, the activity's layout along with its subviews gets inflated (created) behind the scenes.

So if the view already exists, then use findViewById. If not, then create it with a LayoutInflater.

Example

Here is a mini project I made that shows both LayoutInflater and findViewById in action. With no special code, the layout looks like this.

The blue square is a custom layout inserted into the main layout with include (see here for more). It was inflated automatically because it is part of the content view. As you can see, there is nothing special about the code.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }
}

Now let's inflate (create) another copy of our custom layout and add it in.

LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
View myLayout = inflater.inflate(R.layout.my_layout, mainLayout, false);

To inflate the new view layout, all I did was tell the inflater the name of my xml file (my_layout), the parent layout that I want to add it to (mainLayout), and that I don't actually want to add it yet (false). (I could also set the parent to null, but then the layout parameters of my custom layout's root view would be ignored.)

Here it is again in context.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

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

        // inflate the main layout for the activity
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        // get a reference to the already created main layout
        LinearLayout mainLayout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.activity_main_layout);

        // inflate (create) another copy of our custom layout
        LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
        View myLayout = inflater.inflate(R.layout.my_layout, mainLayout, false);

        // make changes to our custom layout and its subviews
        myLayout.setBackgroundColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.colorAccent));
        TextView textView = (TextView) myLayout.findViewById(R.id.textView);
        textView.setText("New Layout");

        // add our custom layout to the main layout
        mainLayout.addView(myLayout);
    }
}

Notice how findViewById is used only after a layout has already been inflated.

Supplemental Code

Here is the xml for the example above.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/activity_main_layout"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:padding="16dp">

    <!-- Here is the inserted layout -->
    <include layout="@layout/my_layout"/>

</LinearLayout>

my_layout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="100dp"
    android:layout_height="100dp"
    android:background="@color/colorPrimary">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:padding="5dp"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:text="My Layout"/>

</RelativeLayout>

When do you need LayoutInflater

• The most common time most people use it is in a RecyclerView. (See these RecyclerView examples for a list or a grid.) You have to inflate a new layout for every single visible item in the list or grid.
• You also can use a layout inflater if you have a complex layout that you want to add programmatically (like we did in our example). You could do it all in code, but it is much easier to define it in xml first and then just inflate it.

What inflater does

It takes a xml layout as input (say) and converts it to View object.

Why needed

Let us think a scenario where we need to create a custom listview. Now each row should be custom. But how can we do it. Its not possible to assign a xml layout to a row of listview. So, we create a View object. Thus we can access the elements in it (textview,imageview etc) and also assign the object as row of listview

So, whenever we need to assign view type object somewhere and we have our custom xml design we just convert it to object by inflater and use it.

The LayoutInflater class is used to instantiate the contents of layout XML files into their corresponding View objects.

In other words, it takes an XML file as input and builds the View objects from it.

LayoutInflater is a fundamental component in Android. You must use it all the time to turn xml files into view hierarchies.

This class is used to instantiate layout XML file into its corresponding View objects. It is never be used directly -- use getLayoutInflater() or getSystemService(String) to retrieve a standard LayoutInflater instance that is already hooked up to the current context and correctly configured for the device you are running on. For example:

LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)context.getSystemService
      (Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);

Reference: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/LayoutInflater.html

here is an example for geting a refrence for the root View of a layout , inflating it and using it with setContentView(View view)

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    LayoutInflater li=getLayoutInflater();
    View rootView=li.inflate(R.layout.activity_main,null);
    setContentView(rootView);


}

LayoutInflater.inflate() provides a means to convert a res/layout/*.xml file defining a view into an actual View object usable in your application source code.

basic two steps: get the inflater and then inflate the resource

How do you get the inflater?

LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) context
            .getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);

How do you get the view assuming the xml file is "list_item.xml"?

View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_item, parent, false);

LayoutInflater is a class used to instantiate layout XML file into its corresponding view objects which can be used in Java programs. In simple terms, there are two ways to create UI in android. One is a static way and another is dynamic or programmatically. Suppose we have a simple layout main.xml having one textview and one edittext as follows.

<?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"
    android:id="@+id/layout1"
    >
<TextView
        android:id="@+id/namelabel"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Enter your name"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" >
    </TextView>
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/name"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_marginTop="14dp"
        android:ems="10">
    </EditText>
</LinearLayout>

We can display this layout in static way by

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.main);

A dynamic way of creating a view means the view is not mentioned in our main.xml but we want to show with this in run time. For example, we have another XML in layout folder as footer.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/TextView1"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:text="Add your record"
    android:textSize="24sp" >
 </TextView>

We want to show this textbox in run time within our main UI. So here we will inflate text.xml. See how:

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.main);
  final LayoutInflater  inflater = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
  TextView t = (TextView)inflater.inflate(R.layout.footer,null);

  lLayout = (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.layout1);
  lLayout.addView(t);

Here I have used getSystemService (String) to retrieve a LayoutInflater instance. I can use getLayoutInflator() too to inflate instead of using getSystemService (String) like below:

LayoutInflator inflater = getLayoutInflater();
TextView t = (TextView) inflater.inflate(R.layout.footer, null);
lLayout.addView(t);

Inflater actually some sort of convert to data, views, instances, to visible UI representation.. ..thus it make use of data feed into from maybe adapters, etc. programmatically. then integrating it with an xml you defined, that tells it how the data should be represented in UI

my customize list hope it illustrate concept

public class second extends ListActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.second);
//  TextView textview=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView1);
//  textview.setText(getIntent().getExtras().getString("value"));

    setListAdapter(new MyAdapter(this,R.layout.list_item,R.id.textView1, getResources().getStringArray(R.array.counteries)));
}

private class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String>{

    public MyAdapter(Context context, int resource, int textViewResourceId,
            String[] objects) {
        super(context, resource, textViewResourceId, objects);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        LayoutInflater inflater=(LayoutInflater) getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        View row=inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_item,parent,false);
        String[]items=getResources().getStringArray(R.array.counteries);

        ImageView iv=(ImageView) row.findViewById(R.id.imageView1);
        TextView tv=(TextView) row.findViewById(R.id.textView1);
        tv.setText(items[position]);

        if(items[position].equals("unitedstates")){
            iv.setImageResource(R.drawable.usa);
        }else   if(items[position].equals("Russia")){
            iv.setImageResource(R.drawable.russia);
        }else   if(items[position].equals("Japan")){
            iv.setImageResource(R.drawable.japan);
        }
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return row;
    }

}

}

Layout inflater is a class that reads the xml appearance description and convert them into java based View objects.

Here is another example similar to the previous one, but extended to further demonstrate inflate parameters and dynamic behavior it can provide.

Suppose your ListView row layout can have variable number of TextViews. So first you inflate the base item View (just like the previous example), and then loop dynamically adding TextViews at run-time. Using android:layout_weight additionally aligns everything perfectly.

Here are the Layouts resources:

list_layout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:orientation="horizontal" >
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/field1"
        android:layout_width="0dp"  
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_weight="2"/>
    <TextView 
        android:id="@+id/field2"
        android:layout_width="0dp"  
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_weight="1"
/>
</LinearLayout>

schedule_layout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="0dp"  
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_weight="1"/>

Override getView method in extension of BaseAdapter class

@Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
    LayoutInflater inflater = activity.getLayoutInflater();
    View lst_item_view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_layout, null);
    TextView t1 = (TextView) lst_item_view.findViewById(R.id.field1);
    TextView t2 = (TextView) lst_item_view.findViewById(R.id.field2);
    t1.setText("some value");
    t2.setText("another value");

    // dinamically add TextViews for each item in ArrayList list_schedule
    for(int i = 0; i < list_schedule.size(); i++){
        View schedule_view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.schedule_layout, (ViewGroup) lst_item_view, false);
        ((TextView)schedule_view).setText(list_schedule.get(i));
        ((ViewGroup) lst_item_view).addView(schedule_view);
    }
    return lst_item_view;
}

Note different inflate method calls:

inflater.inflate(R.layout.list_layout, null); // no parent
inflater.inflate(R.layout.schedule_layout, (ViewGroup) lst_item_view, false); // with parent preserving LayoutParams

LayoutInflater creates View objects based on layouts defined in XML. There are several different ways to use LayoutInflater, including creating custom Views, inflating Fragment views into Activity views, creating Dialogs, or simply inflating a layout file View into an Activity.

There are a lot of misconceptions about how the inflation process works. I think this comes from poor of the documentation for the inflate() method. If you want to learn about the inflate() method in detail, I wrote a blog post about it here:

https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/understanding-androids-layoutinflater-inflate/

Inflating means reading the XML file that describes a layout (or GUI element) and to create the actual objects that correspond to it, and thus make the object visible within an Android app.

final Dialog mDateTimeDialog = new Dialog(MainActivity.this);

// Inflate the root layout
final RelativeLayout mDateTimeDialogView = (RelativeLayout) getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.date_time_dialog, null);

// Grab widget instance
final DateTimePicker mDateTimePicker = (DateTimePicker) mDateTimeDialogView.findViewById(R.id.DateTimePicker);

This file could saved as date_time_dialog.xml:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/DateTimeDialog" android:layout_width="100px"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <com.dt.datetimepicker.DateTimePicker
            android:id="@+id/DateTimePicker" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/ControlButtons"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_below="@+id/DateTimePicker"
            android:padding="5dip">
            <Button android:id="@+id/SetDateTime" android:layout_width="0dip"
                    android:text="@android:string/ok" android:layout_weight="1"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                   />
            <Button android:id="@+id/ResetDateTime" android:layout_width="0dip"
                    android:text="Reset" android:layout_weight="1"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    />
            <Button android:id="@+id/CancelDialog" android:layout_width="0dip"
                    android:text="@android:string/cancel" android:layout_weight="1"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                     />
    </LinearLayout>

This file could saved as date_time_picker.xml:

 <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" `enter code here`
    android:padding="5dip" android:id="@+id/DateTimePicker">
<LinearLayout
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:baselineAligned="true"
android:orientation="horizontal">

    <LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/month_container"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="1dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
    android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:orientation="vertical">
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/month_plus"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"  
        android:background="@drawable/image_button_up_final"/>
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/month_display"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="35dp"
        android:background="@drawable/picker_middle"
        android:focusable="false"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:textColor="#000000">
    </EditText>
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/month_minus"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"       
        android:background="@drawable/image_button_down_final"/>
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/date_container"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="0.5dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
    android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:orientation="vertical">
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/date_plus"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"       
        android:background="@drawable/image_button_up_final"/>
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/date_display"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="35dp"
        android:background="@drawable/picker_middle"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:focusable="false"
        android:inputType="number"
        android:textColor="#000000"
        android:singleLine="true"/>
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/date_minus"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"      
        android:background="@drawable/image_button_down_final"/>
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
    android:id="@+id/year_container"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_marginLeft="0.5dp"
    android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
    android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
    android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:orientation="vertical">
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/year_plus"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"       
            android:background="@drawable/image_button_up_final"/>
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/year_display"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="35dp"
        android:background="@drawable/picker_middle"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:focusable="false"
        android:inputType="number"
        android:textColor="#000000"
        android:singleLine="true"/>
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/year_minus"
        android:layout_width="45dp"
        android:layout_height="45dp"       
        android:background="@drawable/image_button_down_final"/>
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/hour_container"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
        android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        <Button
            android:id="@+id/hour_plus"
            android:layout_width="45dp"
            android:layout_height="45dp"          
            android:background="@drawable/image_button_up_final"/>
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/hour_display"
            android:layout_width="45dp"
            android:layout_height="35dp"
            android:background="@drawable/picker_middle"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:focusable="false"
            android:inputType="number"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:singleLine="true">
        </EditText>
        <Button
            android:id="@+id/hour_minus"
            android:layout_width="45dp"
            android:layout_height="45dp"       
            android:background="@drawable/image_button_down_final"/>
    </LinearLayout>
    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/min_container"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="0.35dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
        android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        <Button
            android:id="@+id/min_plus"
            android:layout_width="45dp"
            android:layout_height="45dp"       
            android:background="@drawable/image_button_up_final"/>
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/min_display"
            android:layout_width="45dp"
            android:layout_height="35dp"
            android:background="@drawable/picker_middle"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:focusable="false"
            android:inputType="number"
            android:textColor="#000000"
            android:singleLine="true"/>
        <Button
            android:id="@+id/min_minus"
            android:layout_width="45dp"
            android:layout_height="45dp"       
            android:background="@drawable/image_button_down_final"/>
    </LinearLayout>

    <LinearLayout 
        android:id="@+id/meridiem_container"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="0.35dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="5dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
        android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:orientation="vertical">
        <ToggleButton 
            android:id="@+id/toggle_display"
            style="@style/SpecialToggleButton"
            android:layout_width="40dp"
            android:layout_height="32dp"
            android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
            android:layout_marginTop="45dp"
            android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
            android:padding="5dp"
            android:gravity="center"
            android:textOn="@string/meridiem_AM"
            android:textOff="@string/meridiem_PM"
            android:checked="true"/>

           <!--  android:checked="true" --> 

    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout>
</RelativeLayout>

The MainActivity class saved as MainActivity.java:

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    EditText editText;
    Button button_click;
    public static Activity me = null;
    String meridiem;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        editText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.edittext1);
        button_click = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button1);
        button_click.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view){
                final Dialog mDateTimeDialog = new Dialog(MainActivity.this);
                final RelativeLayout mDateTimeDialogView = (RelativeLayout)   getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.date_time_dialog, null);
                final DateTimePicker mDateTimePicker = (DateTimePicker) mDateTimeDialogView.findViewById(R.id.DateTimePicker);
                // mDateTimePicker.setDateChangedListener();
                ((Button) mDateTimeDialogView.findViewById(R.id.SetDateTime)).setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
                    public void onClick(View v) {
                        mDateTimePicker.clearFocus();
                        int hour = mDateTimePicker.getHour();
                        String result_string = mDateTimePicker.getMonth() +" "+   String.valueOf(mDateTimePicker.getDay()) + ", " + String.valueOf(mDateTimePicker.getYear())
                        + "  " +(mDateTimePicker.getHour()<=9? String.valueOf("0"+mDateTimePicker.getHour()) : String.valueOf(mDateTimePicker.getHour())) + ":" + (mDateTimePicker.getMinute()<=9?String.valueOf("0"+mDateTimePicker.getMinute()):String.valueOf(mDateTimePicker.getMinute()))+" "+mDateTimePicker.getMeridiem();
                        editText.setText(result_string);
                        mDateTimeDialog.dismiss();
                    }
                });
                // Cancel the dialog when the "Cancel" button is clicked
                ((Button) mDateTimeDialogView.findViewById(R.id.CancelDialog)).setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
                    public void onClick(View v) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        mDateTimeDialog.cancel();
                    }
                });
                // Reset Date and Time pickers when the "Reset" button is clicked
                ((Button) mDateTimeDialogView.findViewById(R.id.ResetDateTime)).setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
                    public void onClick(View v) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                        mDateTimePicker.reset();
                    }
                });

                // Setup TimePicker
                // No title on the dialog window
                mDateTimeDialog.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
                // Set the dialog content view
                mDateTimeDialog.setContentView(mDateTimeDialogView);
                // Display the dialog
                mDateTimeDialog.show();
            }
        });
    }
}