Android AutoCompleteTextView Example

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

Android AutoCompleteTextView is a editable text field, it displays a list of suggestions in a drop down menu from which user can select only one suggestion or value.

Android AutoCompleteTextView is the subclass of EditText class. The MultiAutoCompleteTextView is the subclass of AutoCompleteTextView class.

Android AutoCompleteTextView Example

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.

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;
	}

}

download this example