Auto Complete Text View Tutorial in Android

Auto Complete Text View :

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In Auto Complete Text View whenever we start writing a text in the Edit View than it will automatically show the available options related to that text as you stored in an array or in a database. You can see the example shown in the following screenshot :

In this example, I am storing the available options in the array and than just set the adapter for simple dropdown list available in android environment with that list.

To make this type of application you need to use the AutoCompleteTextView class available in android environment rather than simple TextView or EditView.

Let’s start coding by creating a project in Eclipse : File => New => Android Application Project and give a package name as com.javalanguageprogramming.autocompletetextdemo.

Copy the code for activity_main.xml as shown below :

   
 <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  
   xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"  
   android:layout_width="match_parent"  
   android:layout_height="match_parent"  
   >  
   
   <AutoCompleteTextView  
     android:id="@+id/autoText"  
     android:layout_width="220dp"  
     android:layout_height="50dp"  
     android:layout_marginLeft="40dp"  
     android:layout_marginTop="50dp"  
     />  
   
 </LinearLayout>  
   

In this xml file I am using AutoCompleteTextView for completing of text automatically from String array.

Now consider the code for Main.java as shown below :

 package com.javalanguageprogramming.autocompletetextdemo;  
   
 import android.app.Activity;  
 import android.os.Bundle;  
 import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;  
 import android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView;  
   
   
 public class MainActivity extends Activity {  
   
      AutoCompleteTextView autoText;  
      @Override  
      protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {  
           super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);  
           setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);  
             
           //initialize auto complete text view  
           autoText = (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.autoText);  
             
           //make an array for the suggestions  
           String[] suggest = {"aa", "all", "auto", "ask", "bb", "bat", "bad", "back", "ball", "cat", "java", "Program", "tutorial"};  
             
           //make an array adapter for viewing string array  
           ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(MainActivity.this, android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, suggest);  
             
           //set the adapter to the auto complete text view  
           autoText.setAdapter(adapter);  
      }  
 }  
   

In this Activity, a String array named as “suggest” is used to provide the available options and ArrayAdapter for providing the views to the drop down list.