How can I show a combobox in Android

Question

User · Answer

The questions is perfectly valid and clear since Spinner and ComboBox (read it: Spinner where you can provide a custom value as well) are two different things.

I was looking for the same thing myself and I wasn't satisfied with the given answers. So I created my own thing. Perhaps some will find the following hints useful. I am not providing the full source code as I am using some legacy calls in my own project. It should be pretty clear anyway.

Here is the screenshot of the final thing:

ComboBox on Android

The first thing was to create a view that will look the same as the spinner that hasn't been expanded yet. In the screenshot, on the top of the screen (out of focus) you can see the spinner and the custom view right bellow it. For that purpose I used LinearLayout (actually, I inherited from Linear Layout) with style="?android:attr/spinnerStyle". LinearLayout contains TextView with style="?android:attr/spinnerItemStyle". Complete XML snippet would be:

<com.example.comboboxtest.ComboBox 
    style="?android:attr/spinnerStyle"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        style="?android:attr/spinnerItemStyle"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:ellipsize="marquee"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:text="January"
        android:textAlignment="inherit" 
    />

</com.example.comboboxtest.ComboBox>

As, I mentioned earlier ComboBox inherits from LinearLayout. It also implements OnClickListener which creates a dialog with a custom view inflated from the XML file. Here is the inflated view:

<?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="vertical" 
    >
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal" 
        >
        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/editText"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:ems="10"
            android:hint="Enter custom value ..." >

            <requestFocus />
        </EditText>

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="1"
            android:text="OK" 
        />
    </LinearLayout>

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/listView1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    />

</LinearLayout>

There are two more listeners that you need to implement: onItemClick for the list and onClick for the button. Both of these set the selected value and dismiss the dialog.

For the list, you want it to look the same as expanded Spinner, you can do that providing the list adapter with the appropriate (Spinner) style like this:

ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = 
    new ArrayAdapter<String>(
        activity,
        android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item, 
        states
    );

More or less, that should be it.

User · Answer

Custom made    you can use dropdown hori vertical offset properties to position the list currently  also try android spinnerMode  dialog  it is cooler      Layout      lt LinearLayout         android layout marginBottom  20dp          android layout width  match parent          android layout height  wrap content          android orientation  horizontal  gt           lt AutoCompleteTextView             android layout weight  1              android id    id edit ip              android text  default value              android layout width  0dp              android layout height   wrap content   gt           lt Spinner             android layout marginRight  20dp              android layout width  30dp              android layout height  50dp              android id    id spinner ip              android spinnerMode  dropdown              android entries   array myarray   gt    lt  LinearLayout gt       Java               set auto complete         final AutoCompleteTextView textView    AutoCompleteTextView  findViewById R id edit ip           ArrayAdapter lt String gt  adapter   new ArrayAdapter lt String gt  this  android R layout simple dropdown item 1line  getResources   getStringArray R array myarray            textView setAdapter adapter             set spinner         final Spinner spinner    Spinner  findViewById R id spinner ip           spinner setOnItemSelectedListener new AdapterView OnItemSelectedListener                  Override             public void onItemSelected AdapterView lt   gt  parent  View view  int position  long id                    textView setText spinner getSelectedItem   toString                     textView dismissDropDown                               Override             public void onNothingSelected AdapterView lt   gt  parent                    textView setText spinner getSelectedItem   toString                     textView dismissDropDown                                   res values string    lt string-array name  myarray  gt       lt item gt value1 lt  item gt       lt item gt value2 lt  item gt   lt  string-array gt    Was that useful

User · Answer

For a combobox  http   en wikipedia org wiki Combo box  which allows free text input and has a dropdown listbox I used a AutoCompleteTextView as suggested by vbence   I used the onClickListener to display the dropdown list box when the user selects the control    I believe this resembles this kind of a combobox best   private static final String   STUFF   new String      Thing 1    Thing 2      public void onCreate Bundle b        final AutoCompleteTextView view             AutoCompleteTextView  findViewById R id myAutoCompleteTextView        view setOnClickListener new View OnClickListener                  Override         public void onClick View v                            view showDropDown                           final ArrayAdapter lt String gt  adapter   new ArrayAdapter lt String gt           this           android R layout simple dropdown item 1line          STUFF            view setAdapter adapter

User · Answer

Not tested  but the closer you can get seems to be is with AutoCompleteTextView  You can write an adapter wich ignores the filter functions  Something like   class UnconditionalArrayAdapter lt T gt  extends ArrayAdapter lt T gt        final List lt T gt  items      public UnconditionalArrayAdapter Context context  int textViewResourceId  List lt T gt  items            super context  textViewResourceId  items           this items   items             public Filter getFilter             return new NullFilter               class NullFilter extends Filter           protected Filter FilterResults performFiltering CharSequence constraint                final FilterResults results   new FilterResults                results values   items              return results                     protected void publishResults CharSequence constraint  Filter FilterResults results                items clear        items  must be final  thus we need to copy the elements by hand              for  Object item    List  results values                    items add  String  item                             if  results count  gt  0                    notifyDataSetChanged                  else                   notifyDataSetInvalidated                                          then in your onCreate   String   COUNTRIES   new String     Belgium    France    Italy    Germany    List lt String gt  contriesList   Arrays asList COUNTRIES     ArrayAdapter lt String gt  adapter   new UnconditionalArrayAdapter lt String gt  this      android R layout simple dropdown item 1line  contriesList   AutoCompleteTextView textView    AutoCompleteTextView      findViewById R id countries list   textView setAdapter adapter     The code is not tested  there can be some features with the filtering method I did not consider  but there you have it  the basic principles to emulate a ComboBox with an AutoCompleteTextView   Edit Fixed NullFilter implementation   We need access on the items  thus the constructor of the UnconditionalArrayAdapter needs to take a reference to a List  kind of a buffer    You can also use e g  adapter   new UnconditionalArrayAdapter lt String gt       new ArrayList lt String gt    and then use adapter add  Luxemburg    so you don t need to manage the buffer list

User · Answer

Here is an example of custom combobox in android       package myWidgets  import android content Context  import android database Cursor  import android text InputType  import android util AttributeSet  import android view View  import android widget AutoCompleteTextView  import android widget ImageButton  import android widget LinearLayout  import android widget SimpleCursorAdapter   public class ComboBox extends LinearLayout       private AutoCompleteTextView  text     private ImageButton  button      public ComboBox Context context           super context          this createChildControls context            public ComboBox Context context  AttributeSet attrs           super context  attrs          this createChildControls context       private void createChildControls Context context        this setOrientation HORIZONTAL       this setLayoutParams new LayoutParams LayoutParams FILL PARENT                     LayoutParams WRAP CONTENT         text   new AutoCompleteTextView context       text setSingleLine        text setInputType InputType TYPE CLASS TEXT                      InputType TYPE TEXT VARIATION NORMAL                      InputType TYPE TEXT FLAG CAP SENTENCES                      InputType TYPE TEXT FLAG AUTO COMPLETE                      InputType TYPE TEXT FLAG AUTO CORRECT       text setRawInputType InputType TYPE TEXT VARIATION PASSWORD      this addView  text  new LayoutParams LayoutParams WRAP CONTENT                     LayoutParams WRAP CONTENT  1         button   new ImageButton context       button setImageResource android R drawable arrow down float       button setOnClickListener new OnClickListener                 Override            public void onClick View v                        text showDropDown                           this addView  button  new LayoutParams LayoutParams WRAP CONTENT                     LayoutParams WRAP CONTENT                  Sets the source for DDLB suggestions        Cursor MUST be managed by supplier          param source Source of suggestions         param column Which column from source to show          public void setSuggestionSource Cursor source  String column        String   from   new String     column        int   to   new int     android R id text1        SimpleCursorAdapter cursorAdapter   new SimpleCursorAdapter this getContext                       android R layout simple dropdown item 1line  source  from  to          this is to ensure that when suggestion is selected        it provides the value to the textbox     cursorAdapter setStringConversionColumn source getColumnIndex column         text setAdapter cursorAdapter                 Gets the text in the combo box               return Text         public String getText         return  text getText   toString                  Sets the text in combo box         public void setText String text         text setText text            Hope it helps

User · Answer

In android it is called a Spinner you can take a look at the tutorial here   Hello  Spinner  And this is a very vague question  you should try to be more descriptive of your problem

[android] How can I show a combobox in Android?

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