how to show hint/hidden text in spinner in android

Question

I have the requirement to show hints in a spinner (android).

I tried with different solutions but have not solved the issue yet, so how to do that?

Answer 1

I handle this by using a button instead of a Spinner. I have the sample project up on GitHub.

In the project, i'm displaying both the Spinner and button to show that they indeed look identical. Except the button you can set the initial text to whatever you want (e.g. a hint).

Here's what the activity looks like:

package com.stevebergamini.spinnerbutton;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.Spinner;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    Spinner spinner1;
    Button button1;
    AlertDialog ad;
    String[] countries;

    int selected = -1;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        spinner1 = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner1);
        button1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);

        countries = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.country_names);

        //  You can also use an adapter for the allert dialog if you'd like
        //  ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item, countries);        

        ad = new AlertDialog.Builder(MainActivity.this).setSingleChoiceItems(countries, selected,  
                new  DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {

                        @Override
                        public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                            button1.setText(countries[which]);
                            selected = which;
                            ad.dismiss();

                        }}).setTitle(R.string.select_country).create(); 


        button1.setOnClickListener( new OnClickListener(){

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                ad.getListView().setSelection(selected);
                ad.show();              
            }});

    }

}

Answer 2

Try this:

    ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(getActivity(), android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item) {

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        View v = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
        if (position == getCount()) {
            ((TextView)v.findViewById(android.R.id.text1)).setText("");
            ((TextView)v.findViewById(android.R.id.text1)).setHint(getItem(getCount())); //"Hint to be displayed"
        }

        return v;
    }       

    @Override
    public int getCount() {
        return super.getCount()-1; // you dont display last item. It is used as hint.
    }

};

adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
adapter.add("Item 1");
adapter.add("Item 2");
adapter.add("Hint to be displayed");

spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
spinner.setSelection(adapter.getCount()); //displaying hint

Source: Android: Spinner hint

Another example on github: https://github.com/ravivyas84/AndroidSpinnerHint (By Ravi Vyas)

A little cheat you can use if it helps you is that you can just change the text color to grey. It might not work for many circumstances.

Hope It Helps! Good Luck!