Android Spinner Tutotial

Spinner is a widget which provides a quick way to select a value from a set. A spinner presents multiple options/items to the user from which user can select one option.

For ex.  In game application when we want user to select a particular level he/she wants to play, we can use spinner to multiples levels in which can select one level.

Using Spinner

Steps to use spinner in your application

1: Defining the spinner in your .xml/layout file by using “Spinner” tag

<!—Declaring Spinner in xml -->

    <Spinner

        android:id="@+id/spinner"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:prompt="@string/spinner_title"

    />

2: Create an array/arraylist of strings that will be set as the items of spinner.

String spinnerItems[]={"Level 1","Level 2","Level 3","Level 4","Level 5",};

3: Create adapter and set it with spinner

// Create adapter for spinner

ArrayAdapter  dataAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, spinnerItems);

// attaching data adapter to spinner

mySpinnerObject.setAdapter(dataAdapter);

4: Set  clicklistener on Spinner

// set clicklistener on Spinner

 mySpinnerObject.setOnItemSelectedListener(this);

5: override  onItemSelected() method, this method gets called by the System when an item is selected. This method receives the position parameter which signifies the index of the array/arraylist which is selected by the user.

@Override

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

{

                         

// get the selected Spinner's Item

            String itemSelected = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();

}

Let put all this together and develop an android application to learn how to use spinner.

Demo Application: “Working with Spinner”

What we will do: We will present a list of levels “Level 1,Level 2,Level 3,Level 4,Level 5" to the user and show the level selected by the user using Toast.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    android:orientation="vertical"

    android:padding="10dip"

    android:layout_width="fill_parent"

    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TextView

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:text="Select the Level"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:textColor="#0000FF"

        android:textSize="20dp"

        android:textStyle="bold"

    />

    <!-- Spinner Element -->

    <Spinner

        android:id="@+id/spinner"

        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

    />

  </LinearLayout>

SpinnerMainActivity.java

public class SpinnerMainActivity extends Activity implements OnItemSelectedListener

{

     Spinner mySpinner;

      /* create array of string of levels

     * to be set as Spinner Item

     */

    String spinnerItems[]={"Level 1","Level 2","Level 3","Level 4","Level 5",};

   

     @Override

     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)

     {

          super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

          setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

         

          // get the Spinner reference

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

       

               // set clicklistener on Spinner

               mySpinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(this);

       

              // Create adapter for spinner

          ArrayAdapter  dataAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, spinnerItems);

          // Drop down layout style - list view with radio button

                    dataAdapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);

          // attaching data adapter to spinner

          mySpinner.setAdapter(dataAdapter);

     }

     /* onItemSelected() method gets called by the System

      * when an item is selected

      * This method receives the position parameter

      * which signifies the index of the array

      * which is selected

      */

     @Override

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

        {

           

              // get the selected Spinner's Item

              String itemSelected = parent.getItemAtPosition(position).toString();

              // Showing selected spinner item

              Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),  itemSelected+"  Selected", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

          }

      

      

       @Override

          public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView view)

          {

              // TODO Auto-generated method stub

          }

}

 

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