[android] How to keep onItemSelected from firing off on a newly instantiated Spinner?

I've thought of some less than elegant ways to solve this, but I know I must be missing something.

My onItemSelected fires off immediately without any interaction with the user, and this is undesired behavior. I wish for the UI to wait until the user selects something before it does anything.

I even tried setting up the listener in the onResume(), hoping that would help, but it doesn't.

How can I stop this from firing off before the user can touch the control?

public class CMSHome extends Activity { 

private Spinner spinner;

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

    // Heres my spinner ///////////////////////////////////////////
    spinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);
    ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(
            this, R.array.pm_list, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
    adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
    };

public void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new MyOnItemSelectedListener());
}

    public class MyOnItemSelectedListener implements OnItemSelectedListener {

    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent,
        View view, int pos, long id) {

     Intent i = new Intent(CMSHome.this, ListProjects.class);
     i.putExtra("bEmpID", parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString());
        startActivity(i);

        Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(), "The pm is " +
          parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView parent) {
      // Do nothing.
    }
}
}

This question is related to android spinner android-spinner

The answer is


I might be answering too late over the post, however I managed to achieve this using Android Data binding library Android Databinding . I created a custom binding to make sure listener is not called until selected item is changed so even if user is selecting same position over and over again event is not fired.

Layout xml file

    <layout>
  <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">


<Spinner
    android:id="@+id/spinner"
    android:layout_width="150dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:spinnerMode="dropdown"
    android:layout_below="@id/member_img"
    android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:background="@drawable/member_btn"
    android:padding="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:layout_marginStart="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:textColor="@color/colorAccent"
    app:position="@{0}"
    />
 </RelativeLayout>
 </layout>

app:position is where you are passing position to be selected.

Custom binding

  @BindingAdapter(value={ "position"}, requireAll=false)
  public static void setSpinnerAdapter(Spinner spinner, int selected) 
  {

    final int [] selectedposition= new int[1];
    selectedposition[0]=selected;


    // custom adapter or you can set default adapter
        CustomSpinnerAdapter customSpinnerAdapter = new CustomSpinnerAdapter(spinner.getContext(), <arraylist you want to add to spinner>);
        spinner.setAdapter(customSpinnerAdapter);
            spinner.setSelection(selected,false);


    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {

            String item = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();
        if( position!=selectedposition[0]) {
                        selectedposition[0]=position;
            // do your stuff here
                    }
                }


        @Override
        public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {

        }
    });
}

You can read more about custom data binding here Android Custom Setter

NOTE

  1. Don't forget to enable databinding in your Gradle file

       android {
     ....
     dataBinding {
     enabled = true
    }
    }
    
  2. Include your layout files in <layout> tags


Referring to the answer of Dan Dyer, try to register the OnSelectListener in a post(Runnable) method:

spinner.post(new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(listener);
    }
});

By doing that for me the wished behavior finally occurred.

In this case it also means that the listener only fires on a changed item.


My small contribution is a variation on some of the above that has suited me a few times.

Declare an integer variable as a default value (or last used value saved in preferences). Use spinner.setSelection(myDefault) to set that value before the listener is registered. In the onItemSelected check whether the new spinner value equals the value you assigned before running any further code.

This has the added advantage of not running code if the user selects the same value again.


The solution with a boolean flag or a counter didn't help me, 'cause during orientation change onItemSelected() calls "overflew" the flag or the counter.

I subclassed android.widget.Spinner and made tiny additions. The relevant parts are below. This solution worked for me.

private void setHandleOnItemSelected()
{
  final StackTraceElement [] elements = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();

  for (int index = 1; index < elements.length; index++)
  {
     handleOnItemSelected = elements[index].toString().indexOf("PerformClick") != -1; //$NON-NLS-1$

     if (handleOnItemSelected)
     {
        break;
     }
  }
}

@Override
public void setSelection(int position, boolean animate)
{
  super.setSelection(position, animate);

  setHandleOnItemSelected();
}

@Override
public void setSelection(int position)
{
  super.setSelection(position);

  setHandleOnItemSelected();
}

public boolean shouldHandleOnItemSelected()
{
  return handleOnItemSelected;
}

if () {        
       spinner.setSelection(0);// No reaction to create spinner !!!
     } else {
        spinner.setSelection(intPosition);
     }


spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {

    @Override
    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {

         if (position > 0) {
           // real selection
         }

      }

    @Override
    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {

     }
});

I was in similar situation, and I have a simple solution working for me.

It seems like methods setSelection(int position) and setSelected(int position, boolean animate) have different internal implementation.

When you use the second method setSelected(int position, boolean animate) with false animate flag, you get the selection without firing onItemSelected listener.


That's my final and easy to use solution :

public class ManualSelectedSpinner extends Spinner {
    //get a reference for the internal listener
    private OnItemSelectedListener mListener;

    public ManualSelectedSpinner(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public ManualSelectedSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public ManualSelectedSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
    }

    @Override
    public void setOnItemSelectedListener(@Nullable OnItemSelectedListener listener) {
        mListener = listener;
        super.setOnItemSelectedListener(listener);
    }

    public void setSelectionWithoutInformListener(int position){
        super.setOnItemSelectedListener(null);
        super.setSelection(position);
        super.setOnItemSelectedListener(mListener);
    }

    public void setSelectionWithoutInformListener(int position, boolean animate){
        super.setOnItemSelectedListener(null);
        super.setSelection(position, animate);
        super.setOnItemSelectedListener(mListener);
    }
}

Use the default setSelection(...) for default behaviour or use setSelectionWithoutInformListener(...) for selecting an item in the spinner without triggering OnItemSelectedListener callback.


if you need to recreate activity on the fly eg: changing themes , a simple flag/counter wont work

use onUserInteraction() function to detect user activity,

reference : https://stackoverflow.com/a/25070696/4772917


Just to flesh out hints at using the onTouchListener to distinguish between automatic calls to the setOnItemSelectedListener (which are part of Activity initialization, etc.) vs. calls to it triggered by actual user interaction, I did the following after trying some other suggestions here and found that it worked well with the fewest lines of code.

Just set an Boolean field for your Activity/Fragment like:

private Boolean spinnerTouched = false;

Then just before you set your spinner's setOnItemSelectedListener, set an onTouchListener:

    spinner.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            System.out.println("Real touch felt.");
            spinnerTouched = true;
            return false;
        }
    });

    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
    ...
         if (spinnerTouched){
         //Do the stuff you only want triggered by real user interaction.
        }
        spinnerTouched = false;

Unfortunately it seems that the two most commonly suggested solutions to this issue, namely counting callback occurrences and posting a Runnable to set the callback at a later time can both fail when for example accessibility options are enabled. Here's a helper class that works around these issues. Further explenation is in the comment block.

import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import android.widget.SpinnerAdapter;

/**
 * Spinner Helper class that works around some common issues 
 * with the stock Android Spinner
 * 
 * A Spinner will normally call it's OnItemSelectedListener
 * when you use setSelection(...) in your initialization code. 
 * This is usually unwanted behavior, and a common work-around 
 * is to use spinner.post(...) with a Runnable to assign the 
 * OnItemSelectedListener after layout.
 * 
 * If you do not call setSelection(...) manually, the callback
 * may be called with the first item in the adapter you have 
 * set. The common work-around for that is to count callbacks.
 * 
 * While these workarounds usually *seem* to work, the callback
 * may still be called repeatedly for other reasons while the 
 * selection hasn't actually changed. This will happen for 
 * example, if the user has accessibility options enabled - 
 * which is more common than you might think as several apps 
 * use this for different purposes, like detecting which 
 * notifications are active.
 * 
 * Ideally, your OnItemSelectedListener callback should be
 * coded defensively so that no problem would occur even
 * if the callback was called repeatedly with the same values
 * without any user interaction, so no workarounds are needed.
 * 
 * This class does that for you. It keeps track of the values
 * you have set with the setSelection(...) methods, and 
 * proxies the OnItemSelectedListener callback so your callback
 * only gets called if the selected item's position differs 
 * from the one you have set by code, or the first item if you
 * did not set it.
 * 
 * This also means that if the user actually clicks the item
 * that was previously selected by code (or the first item
 * if you didn't set a selection by code), the callback will 
 * not fire.
 * 
 * To implement, replace current occurrences of:
 * 
 *     Spinner spinner = 
 *         (Spinner)findViewById(R.id.xxx);
 *     
 * with:
 * 
 *     SpinnerHelper spinner = 
 *         new SpinnerHelper(findViewById(R.id.xxx))
 *         
 * SpinnerHelper proxies the (my) most used calls to Spinner
 * but not all of them. Should a method not be available, use: 
 * 
 *      spinner.getSpinner().someMethod(...)
 *
 * Or just add the proxy method yourself :)
 * 
 * (Quickly) Tested on devices from 2.3.6 through 4.2.2
 * 
 * @author Jorrit "Chainfire" Jongma
 * @license WTFPL (do whatever you want with this, nobody cares)
 */
public class SpinnerHelper implements OnItemSelectedListener {
    private final Spinner spinner;

    private int lastPosition = -1;
    private OnItemSelectedListener proxiedItemSelectedListener = null;  

    public SpinnerHelper(Object spinner) {
         this.spinner = (spinner != null) ? (Spinner)spinner : null;        
    }

    public Spinner getSpinner() {
        return spinner;
    }

    public void setSelection(int position) { 
        lastPosition = Math.max(-1, position);
        spinner.setSelection(position);     
    }

    public void setSelection(int position, boolean animate) {
        lastPosition = Math.max(-1, position);
        spinner.setSelection(position, animate);        
    }

    public void setOnItemSelectedListener(OnItemSelectedListener listener) {
        proxiedItemSelectedListener = listener;
        spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(listener == null ? null : this);
    }   

    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
        if (position != lastPosition) {
            lastPosition = position;
            if (proxiedItemSelectedListener != null) {
                proxiedItemSelectedListener.onItemSelected(
                        parent, view, position, id
                );
            }
        }
    }

    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {
        if (-1 != lastPosition) {
            lastPosition = -1;
            if (proxiedItemSelectedListener != null) {
                proxiedItemSelectedListener.onNothingSelected(
                        parent
                );
            }
        }
    }

    public void setAdapter(SpinnerAdapter adapter) {
        if (adapter.getCount() > 0) {
            lastPosition = 0;
        }
        spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
    }

    public SpinnerAdapter getAdapter() { return spinner.getAdapter(); } 
    public int getCount() { return spinner.getCount(); }    
    public Object getItemAtPosition(int position) { return spinner.getItemAtPosition(position); }   
    public long getItemIdAtPosition(int position) { return spinner.getItemIdAtPosition(position); }
    public Object getSelectedItem() { return spinner.getSelectedItem(); }
    public long getSelectedItemId() { return spinner.getSelectedItemId(); }
    public int getSelectedItemPosition() { return spinner.getSelectedItemPosition(); }
    public void setEnabled(boolean enabled) { spinner.setEnabled(enabled); }
    public boolean isEnabled() { return spinner.isEnabled(); }
}

I got a very simple answer , 100% sure it works:

boolean Touched=false; // this a a global variable

public void changetouchvalue()
{
   Touched=true;
}

// this code is written just before onItemSelectedListener

 spinner.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            System.out.println("Real touch felt.");
            changetouchvalue();
            return false;
        }
    });

//inside your spinner.SetonItemSelectedListener , you have a function named OnItemSelected iside that function write the following code

if(Touched)
{
 // the code u want to do in touch event
}

mYear.setOnItemSelectedListener(new OnItemSelectedListener() {
            @Override
            public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View arg1, int item, long arg3) {
                if (mYearSpinnerAdapter.isEnabled(item)) {

                }
            }

            @Override
            public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {
            }
        });

After pulling my hair out for a long time now I've created my own Spinner class. I've added a method to it which disconnects and connects the listener appropriately.

public class SaneSpinner extends Spinner {
    public SaneSpinner(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public SaneSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public SaneSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
    }

    // set the ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent argument to true to avoid firing an event
    public void setSelection(int position, boolean animate, boolean ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent) {
        OnItemSelectedListener l = getOnItemSelectedListener();
        if (ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent) {
            setOnItemSelectedListener(null);
        }

        super.setSelection(position, animate);

        if (ceaseFireOnItemClickEvent) {
            setOnItemSelectedListener(l);
        }
    }
}

Use it in your XML like this:

<my.package.name.SaneSpinner
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@+id/mySaneSpinner"
    android:entries="@array/supportedCurrenciesFullName"
    android:layout_weight="2" />

All you have to do is retrieve the instance of SaneSpinner after inflation and call set selection like this:

mMySaneSpinner.setSelection(1, true, true);

With this, no event is fired and user interaction is not interrupted. This reduced my code complexity a lot. This should be included in stock Android since it really is a PITA.


It's not a particularly elegant solution, but I find it works reliably. Simply set the listeners on a delayed thread from inside onResume. You're then free to do any initialisation you like, and the UI will then make any layout changes, and then set the listeners.

Thread t = new Thread(){
            public void run() {
                try{                
                    Thread.sleep(1000);
                    getActivity().runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {                        
                        @Override
                        public void run() {
                            setSpinnerListeners();

                        }
                    });
                }
                catch(Exception e){
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            };
        };
        t.start();

This is not an elegant solution either. In fact it's rather Rube-Goldberg but it seems to work. I make sure the spinner has been used at least once by extending the array adapter and overriding its getDropDownView. In the new getDropDownView method I have a boolean flag that is set to show the dropdown menu has been used at least once. I ignore calls to the listener until the flag is set.

MainActivity.onCreate():

ActionBar ab = getActionBar();
ab.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
ab.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST);
ab.setListNavigationCallbacks(null, null);

ArrayList<String> abList = new ArrayList<String>();
abList.add("line 1");
...

ArAd  abAdapt = new ArAd (this
   , android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1
   , android.R.id.text1, abList);
ab.setListNavigationCallbacks(abAdapt, MainActivity.this);

overriden array adapter:

private static boolean viewed = false;
private class ArAd extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
    private ArAd(Activity a
            , int layoutId, int resId, ArrayList<String> list) {
        super(a, layoutId, resId, list);
        viewed = false;
    }
    @Override
    public View getDropDownView(int position, View convertView,
            ViewGroup parent) {
        viewed = true;
        return super.getDropDownView(position, convertView, parent);
    }
}

modified listener:

@Override
public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(
   int itemPosition, long itemId) {
   if (viewed) {
     ...
   }
   return false;
}

I would try to call

spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new MyOnItemSelectedListener());

after you call setAdapter(). Also try out calling before the adapter.

You always have the solution to go with subclassing, where you can wrap a boolean flag to your overriden setAdapter method to skip the event.


Lots of answers already, here's mine.

I extend AppCompatSpinner and add a method pgmSetSelection(int pos) that allows programmatic selection setting without triggering a selection callback. I've coded this with RxJava so that the selection events are delivered via an Observable.

package com.controlj.view;

import android.content.Context;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;

import io.reactivex.Observable;

/**
 * Created by clyde on 22/11/17.
 */

public class FilteredSpinner extends android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatSpinner {
    private int lastSelection = INVALID_POSITION;


    public void pgmSetSelection(int i) {
        lastSelection = i;
        setSelection(i);
    }

    /**
     * Observe item selections within this spinner. Events will not be delivered if they were triggered
     * by a call to setSelection(). Selection of nothing will return an event equal to INVALID_POSITION
     *
     * @return an Observable delivering selection events
     */
    public Observable<Integer> observeSelections() {
        return Observable.create(emitter -> {
            setOnItemSelectedListener(new OnItemSelectedListener() {
                @Override
                public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int i, long l) {
                    if(i != lastSelection) {
                        lastSelection = i;
                        emitter.onNext(i);
                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {
                    onItemSelected(adapterView, null, INVALID_POSITION, 0);
                }
            });
        });
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, int mode) {
        super(context, mode);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
    }

    public FilteredSpinner(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr, int mode) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr, mode);
    }
}

An example of its usage, called in onCreateView() in a Fragment for example:

    mySpinner = view.findViewById(R.id.history);
    mySpinner.observeSelections()
        .subscribe(this::setSelection);

where setSelection() is a method in the enclosing view that looks like this, and which is called both from user selection events via the Observable and also elsewhere programmatically, so the logic for handling selections is common to both selection methods.

private void setSelection(int position) {
    if(adapter.isEmpty())
        position = INVALID_POSITION;
    else if(position >= adapter.getCount())
        position = adapter.getCount() - 1;
    MyData result = null;
    mySpinner.pgmSetSelection(position);
    if(position != INVALID_POSITION) {
        result = adapter.getItem(position);
    }
    display(result);  // show the selected item somewhere
}

After having had the same problem, I came to this solutions using tags. The idea behind it is simple: Whenever the spinner is changed programatically, make sure the tag reflects the selected position. In the listener then you check if the selected position equals the tag. If it does, the spinner selection was changed programatically.

Below is my new "spinner proxy" class:

package com.samplepackage;

import com.samplepackage.R;
import android.widget.Spinner;

public class SpinnerFixed {

    private Spinner mSpinner;

    public SpinnerFixed(View spinner) {
         mSpinner = (Spinner)spinner;
         mSpinner.setTag(R.id.spinner_pos, -2);
    }

    public boolean isUiTriggered() {
         int tag = ((Integer)mSpinner.getTag(R.id.spinner_pos)).intValue();
         int pos = mSpinner.getSelectedItemPosition();
         mSpinner.setTag(R.id.spinner_pos, pos);
         return (tag != -2 && tag != pos);
    }

    public void setSelection(int position) {
        mSpinner.setTag(R.id.spinner_pos, position);
        mSpinner.setSelection(position);
    }

    public void setSelection(int position, boolean animate) {
        mSpinner.setTag(R.id.spinner_pos, position);
        mSpinner.setSelection(position, animate);
    }

    // If you need to proxy more methods, use "Generate Delegate Methods"
    // from the context menu in Eclipse.
}

You will also need an XML file with the tag setup in your Values directory. I named my file spinner_tag.xml, but that's up to you. It looks like this:

<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <item name="spinner_pos" type="id" />
</resources>

Now replace

Spinner myspinner;
...
myspinner = (Spinner)findViewById(R.id.myspinner);

in your code with

SpinnerFixed myspinner;
...
myspinner = new SpinnerFixed(findViewById(R.id.myspinner));

And make your handler somewhat look like this:

myspinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {

    @Override
    public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
        if (myspinner.isUiTriggered()) {
            // Code you want to execute only on UI selects of the spinner
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {
    }
});

The function isUiTriggered() will return true if and only if the spinner has been changed by the user. Note that this function has a side effect - it will set the tag, so a second call in the same listener call will always return false.

This wrapper will also handle the problem with the listener being called during layout creation.

Have fun, Jens.


The use of Runnables is completely incorrect.

Use setSelection(position, false); in the initial selection before setOnItemSelectedListener(listener)

This way you set your selection with no animation which causes the on item selected listener to be called. But the listener is null so nothing is run. Then your listener is assigned.

So follow this exact sequence:

Spinner s = (Spinner)Util.findViewById(view, R.id.sound, R.id.spinner);
s.setAdapter(adapter);
s.setSelection(position, false);
s.setOnItemSelectedListener(listener);

Not a prefect solution but if your happy with having the starting string as just a place holder you can add place holder spring value ("Day_of_Work_Out")

  @Override
        public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
            String name = (String) parent.getItemAtPosition(position);
            if (name.equals("Day_of_Work_Out")) {

            }else {

                workOutD = name;
                Intent intent = new Intent();
                workOutNam = workOutName.getText().toString();

                if (workOutNam == null) {

                    startActivity(intent);
                    Log.i("NewWorkOutActivity","Name is null");

                }else {
                    Log.i("NewWorkOutActivity","Name Not null");
                    Toast.makeText(NewWorkOutActivity.this, "Please Select a Day", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                }


            }
        }

No unwanted events from the layout phase if you defer adding the listener till the layout is finished:

spinner.getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(
    new ViewTreeObserver.OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
        @Override
        public void onGlobalLayout() {
            // Ensure you call it only once works for JELLY_BEAN and later
            spinner.getViewTreeObserver().removeOnGlobalLayoutListener(this);

            // add the listener
            spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new OnItemSelectedListener() {

                @Override
                public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int pos, long id) {
                    // check if pos has changed
                    // then do your work
                }

                @Override
                public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> arg0) {
                }

            });

        }
    });

My solution uses onTouchListener but doesn't restricts from its use. It creates a wrapper for onTouchListener if necessary where setup onItemSelectedListener.

public class Spinner extends android.widget.Spinner {
    /* ...constructors... */

    private OnTouchListener onTouchListener;
    private OnItemSelectedListener onItemSelectedListener;

    @Override
    public void setOnItemSelectedListener(OnItemSelectedListener listener) {
        onItemSelectedListener = listener;
        super.setOnTouchListener(wrapTouchListener(onTouchListener, onItemSelectedListener));
    }

    @Override
    public void setOnTouchListener(OnTouchListener listener) {
        onTouchListener = listener;
        super.setOnTouchListener(wrapTouchListener(onTouchListener, onItemSelectedListener));
    }

    private OnTouchListener wrapTouchListener(final OnTouchListener onTouchListener, final OnItemSelectedListener onItemSelectedListener) {
        return onItemSelectedListener != null ? new OnTouchListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onTouch(View view, MotionEvent motionEvent) {
                Spinner.super.setOnItemSelectedListener(onItemSelectedListener);
                return onTouchListener != null && onTouchListener.onTouch(view, motionEvent);
            }
        } : onTouchListener;
    }
}

I would store the initial index during creation of the onClickListener object.

   int thisInitialIndex = 0;//change as needed

   myspinner.setSelection(thisInitialIndex);

   myspinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {

      int initIndex = thisInitialIndex;

      @Override
      public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
         if (id != initIndex) { //if selectedIndex is the same as initial value
            // your real onselecteditemchange event
         }
      }

      @Override
      public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {
      }
  });

This will happen if you are making selection in code as;

   mSpinner.setSelection(0);

Instead of above statement use

   mSpinner.setSelection(0,false);//just simply do not animate it.

Edit: This method doesn't work for Mi Android Version Mi UI.


I created a small utility method for changing Spinner selection without notifying the user:

private void setSpinnerSelectionWithoutCallingListener(final Spinner spinner, final int selection) {
    final OnItemSelectedListener l = spinner.getOnItemSelectedListener();
    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(null);
    spinner.post(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            spinner.setSelection(selection);
            spinner.post(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(l);
                }
            });
        }
    });
}

It disables the listener, changes the selection, and re-enables the listener after that.

The trick is that calls are asynchronous to the UI thread, so you have to do it in consecutive handler posts.


Design a spinner for common use, just data input and get user's choosen, advantages :

1. Keep spinner style the same for app.
2. Start spinner anywhere.
3. Easy to handle linked spinner(start ReuseSpinner again with different data).

My demo example : ReuseSpinner
pass data to ReuseSpinner :

Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, SpinnerActivity.class);
intent.putExtra(SpinnerActivity.Extra_Resource, arrayList);
startActivityForResult(intent, mRequestCode_select_country_prompt);

get user's choosen :

@Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

        if(requestCode == mRequestCode_select_country && resultCode == RESULT_OK){
            if(data != null){
                Map.Entry<String,String> entry = (Map.Entry<String,String>) data.getSerializableExtra(SpinnerActivity.Result_Data);
                if(entry != null){
                    Log.i(TAG, String.format("get result -> key:%s , value:%s", entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()));

                }
            }
        }
    }

spinner.setSelection(Adapter.NO_SELECTION, false);

I have done with simplest way:

private AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener listener;
private Spinner spinner;

onCreate();

spinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner);

listener = new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int position, long l) {

            Log.i("H - Spinner selected position", position);
        }

        @Override
        public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {

        }
    };

 spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int i, long l) {
            spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(listener);
        }

        @Override
        public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {

        }
    });

Done


I need to use mSpinner in ViewHolder, so the flag mOldPosition is set in the anonymous inner class.

mSpinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
            int mOldPosition = mSpinner.getSelectedItemPosition();

            @Override
            public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long l) {
                if (mOldPosition != position) {
                    mOldPosition = position;
                    //Do something
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView) {
                //Do something
            }
        });

I've found much more elegant solution to this. It involves counting how many times the ArrayAdapter (in your case "adapter")has been invoked. Let's say you have 1 spinner and you call:

int iCountAdapterCalls = 0;

ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(
            this, R.array.pm_list, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter);

Declare an int counter after the onCreate and then inside onItemSelected() method put an "if" condition to check how many times the atapter has been called. In your case you have it called just once so:

if(iCountAdapterCalls < 1)
{
  iCountAdapterCalls++;
  //This section executes in onCreate, during the initialization
}
else
{
  //This section corresponds to user clicks, after the initialization
}

I have had LOTS of issues with the spinner firing of when I didn't want to, and all the answers here are unreliable. They work - but only sometimes. You will eventually run into scenarios where they will fail and introduce bugs into your code.

What worked for me was to store the last selected index in a variable and evaluate it in the listener. If it is the same as the new selected index do nothing and return, else continue with the listener. Do this:

//Declare a int member variable and initialize to 0 (at the top of your class)
private int mLastSpinnerPosition = 0;

//then evaluate it in your listener
@Override
public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> adapterView, View view, int i, long l) {

  if(mLastSpinnerPosition == i){
        return; //do nothing
  }

  mLastSpinnerPosition = i;
  //do the rest of your code now

}

Trust me when I say this, this is by far the most reliable solution. A hack, but it works!


Since nothing worked for me, and I have more than 1 spinner in my view (and IMHO holding a bool map is an overkill) I use the tag to count the clicks :

spinner.setTag(0);
spinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() {
        @Override
        public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
            Integer selections = (Integer) parent.getTag();
            if (selections > 0) {
                // real selection
            }
            parent.setTag(++selections); // (or even just '1')
        }

        @Override
        public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) {
        }
    });

Examples related to android

Under what circumstances can I call findViewById with an Options Menu / Action Bar item? How to implement a simple scenario the OO way My eclipse won't open, i download the bundle pack it keeps saying error log getting " (1) no such column: _id10 " error java doesn't run if structure inside of onclick listener Cannot retrieve string(s) from preferences (settings) strange error in my Animation Drawable how to put image in a bundle and pass it to another activity FragmentActivity to Fragment A failure occurred while executing com.android.build.gradle.internal.tasks

Examples related to spinner

How to add a Hint in spinner in XML Hide Spinner in Input Number - Firefox 29 How can I use onItemSelected in Android? Show default value in Spinner in android Set selected item of spinner programmatically How to set Spinner Default by its Value instead of Position? How to change spinner text size and text color? WPF loading spinner How do I create an Android Spinner as a popup? How to add items to a spinner in Android?

Examples related to android-spinner

Change Spinner dropdown icon How to add a Hint in spinner in XML How to set dropdown arrow in spinner? How to customize a Spinner in Android Android Spinner : Avoid onItemSelected calls during initialization How to create a drop-down list? Best way to show a loading/progress indicator? Android : Fill Spinner From Java Code Programmatically How to change the spinner background in Android? How to set Spinner Default by its Value instead of Position?