How to create AutoComplete text view in Android Application

How to create AutoComplete text view in Android Application

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create Auto complete text view. In this example I am using hard corded value, in real world these value can be fetched from DB, RSS feed or from some other sources.

• Create new Android project.
• Add autotext view layout in main.xml file as shown below - 

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

          < LinearLayout

               android:id="@+id/widget32"

               android:layout_width="fill_parent"

               android:layout_height="fill_parent"

               android:orientation="vertical"

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

               < AutoCompleteTextView

                      android:id="@+id/textAutoComplete"

                      android:layout_width="fill_parent"

                      android:layout_height="wrap_content"

                      android:padding="15dp"

                      android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"

                      android:text=""

                      android:textSize="18sp" />

           < /LinearLayout>

• Now need to attach the adapter to this auto complete view in activity class. I am using hard coded string array for demo purpose -

         package com.test.autocompletetest;

         import android.app.Activity;

         import android.os.Bundle;

         import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

         import android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView;

         public class AutoCompleteTest extends Activity {

                private String[] sports = { "Cricket", "Football", "Table tenis", "Hockey", "Others" };

                AutoCompleteTextView acTextView;

                /** Called when the activity is first created. */

               @Override

               public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

                      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

                      setContentView(R.layout.main);

        

                      ArrayAdapter adapter = 

                                   new ArrayAdapter

                                           (this,android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, sports);

        

                      acTextView = (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.textAutoComplete);

        

                       //Assigning the threshold value for auto complete view, so here once 

                      //user type one character then all the items from the adapter matching 

                      //that character will be displayed.

                      acTextView.setThreshold(1);

                     //Assigning the adapter to auto complete view.

                     acTextView.setAdapter(adapter);                

               }

        }

• Run the application and you will see the auto complete text view will be populated with matching to your first character which you type.