Android AutoCompleteTextView Example

The AutoCompleteTextView completes the word based on the reserved words, so no need to write all the characters of the word.

In this example, we are displaying the programming languages in the autocompletetextview. All the programming languages are stored in string array. We are using the ArrayAdapter class to display the array content.

Example of Android AutoCompleteTextView

Let's see the simple example of autocompletetextview in android.

activity_main.xml

Drag the AutoCompleteTextView and TextView from the pallete, now the activity_main.xml file will like this:

File: activity_main.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:androclass="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"  
    android:layout_width="match_parent"  
    android:layout_height="match_parent"  
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >  
  
    <TextView  
        android:id="@+id/textView1"  
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"  
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"  
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"  
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"  
        android:layout_marginTop="15dp"  
        android:text="@string/what_is_your_favourite_programming_language_" />  
  
    <AutoCompleteTextView  
        android:id="@+id/autoCompleteTextView1"  
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"  
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"  
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"  
        android:layout_below="@+id/textView1"  
        android:layout_marginLeft="36dp"  
        android:layout_marginTop="17dp"  
        android:ems="10"  
        android:text="">  
  
        <requestFocus />  
    </AutoCompleteTextView>  
      
</RelativeLayout>  

Activity class

Let's write the code of AutoCompleteTextView.

File: MainActivity.java

package com.example.autocompletetextview;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView;
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
String[] language ={"C","C++","Java",".NET","iPhone","Android","ASP.NET","PHP"};
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
//Creating the instance of ArrayAdapter containing list of language names
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>
(this,android.R.layout.select_dialog_item,language);
//Getting the instance of AutoCompleteTextView
AutoCompleteTextView actv= (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.autoCompleteTextView1);
actv.setThreshold(1);//will start working from first character
actv.setAdapter(adapter);//setting the adapter data into the AutoCompleteTextView
actv.setTextColor(Color.RED);
}
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
return true;
}
}