Added in API level 1
Deprecated in API level 30

ListActivity

open class ListActivity : Activity
kotlin.Any
   ↳ android.content.Context
   ↳ android.content.ContextWrapper
   ↳ android.view.ContextThemeWrapper
   ↳ android.app.Activity
   ↳ android.app.ListActivity

An activity that displays a list of items by binding to a data source such as an array or Cursor, and exposes event handlers when the user selects an item.

ListActivity hosts a ListView object that can be bound to different data sources, typically either an array or a Cursor holding query results. Binding, screen layout, and row layout are discussed in the following sections.

Screen Layout

ListActivity has a default layout that consists of a single, full-screen list in the center of the screen. However, if you desire, you can customize the screen layout by setting your own view layout with setContentView() in onCreate(). To do this, your own view MUST contain a ListView object with the id "@android:id/list" (or android.R.id#list if it's in code)

Optionally, your custom view can contain another view object of any type to display when the list view is empty. This "empty list" notifier must have an id "android:id/empty". Note that when an empty view is present, the list view will be hidden when there is no data to display.

The following code demonstrates an (ugly) custom screen layout. It has a list with a green background, and an alternate red "no data" message.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          android:orientation="vertical"
          android:layout_width="match_parent"
          android:layout_height="match_parent"
          android:paddingLeft="8dp"
          android:paddingRight="8dp">
 
      <ListView android:id="@android:id/list"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:background="#00FF00"
                android:layout_weight="1"
                android:drawSelectorOnTop="false"/>
 
      <TextView android:id="@android:id/empty"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:background="#FF0000"
                android:text="No data"/>
  </LinearLayout>
  

Row Layout

You can specify the layout of individual rows in the list. You do this by specifying a layout resource in the ListAdapter object hosted by the activity (the ListAdapter binds the ListView to the data; more on this later).

A ListAdapter constructor takes a parameter that specifies a layout resource for each row. It also has two additional parameters that let you specify which data field to associate with which object in the row layout resource. These two parameters are typically parallel arrays.

Android provides some standard row layout resources. These are in the android.R.layout class, and have names such as simple_list_item_1, simple_list_item_2, and two_line_list_item. The following layout XML is the source for the resource two_line_list_item, which displays two data fields,one above the other, for each list row.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:orientation="vertical">
 
      <TextView android:id="@+id/text1"
          android:textSize="16sp"
          android:textStyle="bold"
          android:layout_width="match_parent"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
 
      <TextView android:id="@+id/text2"
          android:textSize="16sp"
          android:layout_width="match_parent"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
  </LinearLayout>
  

You must identify the data bound to each TextView object in this layout. The syntax for this is discussed in the next section.

Binding to Data

You bind the ListActivity's ListView object to data using a class that implements the ListAdapter interface. Android provides two standard list adapters: SimpleAdapter for static data (Maps), and SimpleCursorAdapter for Cursor query results.

The following code from a custom ListActivity demonstrates querying the Contacts provider for all contacts, then binding the Name and Company fields to a two line row layout in the activity's ListView.

public class MyListAdapter extends ListActivity {
 
      @Override
      protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
          super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
 
          // We'll define a custom screen layout here (the one shown above), but
          // typically, you could just use the standard ListActivity layout.
          setContentView(R.layout.custom_list_activity_view);
 
          // Query for all people contacts using the <code><a docref="android.provider.Contacts.People">android.provider.Contacts.People</a></code>convenience class.
          // Put a managed wrapper around the retrieved cursor so we don't have to worry about
          // requerying or closing it as the activity changes state.
          mCursor = this.getContentResolver().query(People.CONTENT_URI, null, null, null, null);
          startManagingCursor(mCursor);
 
          // Now create a new list adapter bound to the cursor.
          // SimpleListAdapter is designed for binding to a Cursor.
          ListAdapter adapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(
                  this, // Context.
                  android.R.layout.two_line_list_item,  // Specify the row template to use (here, two columns bound to the two retrieved cursor
  rows).
                  mCursor,                                              // Pass in the cursor to bind to.
                  new String[] {People.NAME, People.COMPANY},           // Array of cursor columns to bind to.
                  new int[] {android.R.id.text1, android.R.id.text2});  // Parallel array of which template objects to bind to those columns.
 
          // Bind to our new adapter.
          setListAdapter(adapter);
      }
  }
  

Summary

Inherited constants
Public constructors

Public methods
open ListAdapter!

Get the ListAdapter associated with this activity's ListView.

open ListView!

Get the activity's list view widget.

open Long

Get the cursor row ID of the currently selected list item.

open Int

Get the position of the currently selected list item.

open Unit

Updates the screen state (current list and other views) when the content changes.

open Unit

Provide the cursor for the list view.

open Unit
setSelection(position: Int)

Set the currently selected list item to the specified position with the adapter's data

Protected methods
open Unit

open Unit
onListItemClick(l: ListView!, v: View!, position: Int, id: Long)

This method will be called when an item in the list is selected.

open Unit

Ensures the list view has been created before Activity restores all of the view states.

Inherited functions
Inherited properties

Public constructors

ListActivity

ListActivity()

Public methods

getListAdapter

Added in API level 1
open fun getListAdapter(): ListAdapter!

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Get the ListAdapter associated with this activity's ListView.

getListView

Added in API level 1
open fun getListView(): ListView!

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Get the activity's list view widget.

getSelectedItemId

Added in API level 1
open fun getSelectedItemId(): Long

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Get the cursor row ID of the currently selected list item.

getSelectedItemPosition

Added in API level 1
open fun getSelectedItemPosition(): Int

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Get the position of the currently selected list item.

onContentChanged

Added in API level 1
open fun onContentChanged(): Unit

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Updates the screen state (current list and other views) when the content changes.

setListAdapter

Added in API level 1
open fun setListAdapter(adapter: ListAdapter!): Unit

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Provide the cursor for the list view.

setSelection

Added in API level 1
open fun setSelection(position: Int): Unit

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Set the currently selected list item to the specified position with the adapter's data

Parameters
position Int:

Protected methods

onDestroy

Added in API level 1
protected open fun onDestroy(): Unit

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

onListItemClick

Added in API level 1
protected open fun onListItemClick(
    l: ListView!,
    v: View!,
    position: Int,
    id: Long
): Unit

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

This method will be called when an item in the list is selected. Subclasses should override. Subclasses can call getListView().getItemAtPosition(position) if they need to access the data associated with the selected item.

Parameters
l ListView!: The ListView where the click happened
v View!: The view that was clicked within the ListView
position Int: The position of the view in the list
id Long: The row id of the item that was clicked

onRestoreInstanceState

Added in API level 1
protected open fun onRestoreInstanceState(state: Bundle): Unit

Deprecated: Deprecated in Java.

Ensures the list view has been created before Activity restores all of the view states.

Parameters
savedInstanceState the data most recently supplied in #onSaveInstanceState. This value cannot be null.