android tutorial Adding Search Functionality to ListView

Adding search functionality to listview will filters the list data with a matching string, hence provides user an easy way to find the information he needs. In this tutorial i am discussing how to enable search filter to android ListView. 1. Create a new project in Eclipse File New ⇒ Android ⇒ Application Project and fill the required details. 2. Create required files needed to generate a listview. I am using my defaultactivity_main.xml as listview and created a new xml file for single listitem namedlist_item.xml. Also make sure that you have created a EditText above the listview which will be used to search the listview. activity_main.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:layout_width="fill_parent"     android:layout_height="fill_parent"     android:orientation="vertical" >           <!-- Editext for Search -->     <EditText android:id="@+id/inputSearch"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:hint="Search products.."         android:inputType="textVisiblePassword"/>        <!-- List View -->     <ListView         android:id="@+id/list_view"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content" />    </LinearLayout> list_item.xml <?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="match_parent"     android:orientation="vertical" >           <!-- Single ListItem -->           <!-- Product Name -->     <TextView android:id="@+id/product_name"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:padding="10dip"         android:textSize="16dip"         android:textStyle="bold"/>    </LinearLayout> 3. Now open your MainActivity.java and paste the following code to create a simple ListView. In the following code i stored all the list data in an array called products[] and attached to listview  using simple ArrayAdapter. MainActivity.java package king.muchbeer.androidlistviewwithsearch; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.HashMap; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.text.Editable; import android.text.TextWatcher; import android.widget.ArrayAdapter; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.ListView; public class MainActivity extends Activity {           // List view     private ListView lv;           // Listview Adapter     ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;           // Search EditText     EditText inputSearch;                 // ArrayList for Listview     ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> productList;     @Override     public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);                   // Listview Data         String products[] = {"Dell Inspiron", "HTC One X", "HTC Wildfire S", "HTC Sense", "HTC Sensation XE",                                 "iPhone 4S", "Samsung Galaxy Note 800",                                 "Samsung Galaxy S3", "MacBook Air", "Mac Mini", "MacBook Pro"};                   lv = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.list_view);         inputSearch = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.inputSearch);                   // Adding items to listview         adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list_item, R.id.product_name, products);         lv.setAdapter(adapter);                   /**          * Enabling Search Filter          * */         inputSearch.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {                           @Override             public void onTextChanged(CharSequence cs, int arg1, int arg2, int arg3) {                 // When user changed the Text                 MainActivity.this.adapter.getFilter().filter(cs);               }                           @Override             public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence arg0, int arg1, int arg2,                     int arg3) {                 // TODO Auto-generated method stub                               }                           @Override             public void afterTextChanged(Editable arg0) {                 // TODO Auto-generated method stub                                      }         });     }    } Android ListView Enabling Search Functionality 4. Search functionality can be enabled by writing simple lines of code. All you need to do is adding addTextChangedListener to EditText. Once user enters a new data in EditText we need to get the text from it and passing it to array adapter filter. All the following code in your MainActivity.java MainActivity.java inputSearch.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {           @Override     public void onTextChanged(CharSequence cs, int arg1, int arg2, int arg3) {         // When user changed the Text         MainActivity.this.adapter.getFilter().filter(cs);       }           @Override     public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence arg0, int arg1, int arg2,             int arg3) {         // TODO Auto-generated method stub               }           @Override     public void afterTextChanged(Editable arg0) {         // TODO Auto-generated method stub                              } }); 5. Finally add the following property in your AndroidManifest.xml file to hide the keyboard  on loading Activity. AndroidManifest <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     package="king.muchbeer.androidlistviewwithsearch"     android:versionCode="1"     android:versionName="1.0" >     <uses-sdk         android:minSdkVersion="8"         android:targetSdkVersion="15" />     <application         android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"         android:label="@string/app_name"         android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >         <activity             android:name=".MainActivity"             android:label="@string/title_activity_main"             android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden">             <intent-filter>                 <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />                 <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />             </intent-filter>         </activity>     </application> </manifest> Image of final output