CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidautocompletetextview
Kenny Ma
Kenny Ma

Reputation: 385

Android: AutoCompleteTextView with default suggestions

How do I show some default suggestions for AutoCompleteTextView before the user type anything? I cannot find a way to do this even with creating a custom class that extends AutoCompleteTextView.

I want to show suggestions for common input values to save the user from typing.

Any suggestions?

Upvotes: 7

Views: 5963

Answers (3)

Michel
Michel

Reputation: 617

Itay Kahana's answer is indeed correct. The only thing I would add is that instead of creating a temp() function, to override the onFocusChanged function. Personally I used the following:

 @Override
        protected void onFocusChanged (boolean focused, int direction, Rect previouslyFocusedRect) {
            if(focused)
                performFiltering("", 0);
            super.onFocusChanged(focused, direction, previouslyFocusedRect);
        }

Upvotes: 2

Itay Kahana
Itay Kahana

Reputation: 2445

You should subclass AutoCompleteTextView and override enoughToFilter() to return true all the time. After that you can call performFiltering("",0) (it's a protected function, so you can export this call via a public function in your class).

Something like that:

public class ContactsAutoCompleteTextView extends AutoCompleteTextView {


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

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

    public ContactsAutoCompleteTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean enoughToFilter() {
        return true;
    }

    public void temp() {
        performFiltering("",0);
    }
}

Upvotes: 5

David Olsson
David Olsson

Reputation: 8225

If you dont need it to be dynamic I would go by having a string array in the resources, and then just load the array when the AutoCompleteTextView is about to be viewed. Like:

 public class CountriesActivity extends Activity {
     protected void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
         super.onCreate(icicle);
         setContentView(R.layout.countries);

         ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,
                 android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, COUNTRIES);
         AutoCompleteTextView textView = (AutoCompleteTextView)
                 findViewById(R.id.countries_list);
         textView.setAdapter(adapter);
     }

     private static final String[] COUNTRIES = new String[] {
         "Belgium", "France", "Italy", "Germany", "Spain"
     };
 }

Which can be found on http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/AutoCompleteTextView.html

Another way which I have done a couple of times which allows it to learn from the user is o use a database connection with IE a simple cursor. When you create the db you could insert some default values. Here´s an example with using simple cursor adapter: http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f4/how-to-use-autocompletetextview-with-simplecursoradapter-15875/

Edit 1:

One idea to show the list before the user starts type is to have a simple listview below the EditText. Not sure if you could call the autocompletetextview to show the suggestions, should be possible somehow. Perhaps you need to create your own autocompletetextiew class.

Upvotes: -1

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