Auto Complete

If you want to receive suggestions, you can type in an editable text field, so you can do it automatically via full text view. This suggests automatically when the user is typing. The list of suggestions is displayed in the drop down menu, from which the user can choose an item to change the contents of the edit box

To use autocomplete text you must first create an autocompleteviewview field in XML. Its syntax is given below

   android:id="@+id/autoCompleteTextView1"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
   android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
   android:layout_marginTop="65dp"
   android:ems="10" >

After that, you have to get a reference of this textview in java. Its syntax is given below.

private AutoCompleteTextView actv;
actv = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.autoCompleteTextView1); 

The next thing you need to do is specify the list of suggestion items to display. You can specify the list item as string array in Java or in strings.xm Its syntax is given below

String[] countries = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.list_of_countries);
ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,countries);
actv.setAdapter(adapter);

The array adapter is responsible for displaying data in the suggestion box of the class text field. The SetAdapter method is used to set the full text merge adapter. Apart from these methods, other methods of auto completion are listed below.

Sr.No	Method & description
1	getAdapter() This method returns a filterable list adapter used for auto completion
2	getCompletionHint() This method returns optional hint text displayed at the bottom of the the matching list
3	getDropDownAnchor() This method returns returns the id for the view that the auto-complete drop down list is anchored to.
4	getListSelection() This method returns the position of the dropdown view selection, if there is one
5	isPopupShowing() This method indicates whether the popup menu is showing
6	setText(CharSequence text, boolean filter) This method sets text except that it can disable filtering
7	showDropDown() This method displays the drop down on screen.

Example

The example below illustrates the use of the AutoCompleteTextView class, it balances a basic application that allows you to write and it shows suggestions on your device.

To experiment with this example, you need to run it on a real device or in an emulator.

Steps	Description
1	You will use Android Studio to create an Android application under a package package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication. While creating this project, make sure you Target SDK and Compile With at the latest version of Android SDK to use higher levels of APIs.
2	Modify src/MainActivity.java file to add AutoCompleteTextView code
3	Modify layout XML file res/layout/activity_main.xml add any GUI component if required.
4	Run the application and choose a running android device and install the application on it and verify the results.

Here is the content of src/MainActivity.java

package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;

import android.media.AudioManager;
import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.media.MediaRecorder;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;

import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.animation.Animation;
import android.view.animation.AnimationUtils;

import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.MultiAutoCompleteTextView;
import android.widget.Toast;
import java.io.IOException;


public class MainActivity extends Activity {
   AutoCompleteTextView text;
   MultiAutoCompleteTextView text1;
   String[] languages={"Android ","java","IOS","SQL","JDBC","Web services"};
   
   @Override
   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
      
      text=(AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.autoCompleteTextView1);
      text1=(MultiAutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.multiAutoCompleteTextView1);
      
      ArrayAdapter adapter = new ArrayAdapter(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,languages);
      
      text.setAdapter(adapter);
      text.setThreshold(1);
      
      text1.setAdapter(adapter);
      text1.setTokenizer(new MultiAutoCompleteTextView.CommaTokenizer());
   }
   
   @Override
   public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
      // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
      getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
      return true;
   }
   
   @Override
   public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
      // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
      // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
      // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
      
      int id = item.getItemId();
      
      //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
      if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
         return true;
      }
      return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
   }
}

Here is the content of activity_main.xml

 xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent" android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
   android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" tools:context=".MainActivity">
   
   
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Android Auto Complete"
      android:id="@+id/textView"
      android:textSize="30dp"
      android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
      android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
      android:layout_alignParentEnd="true" />
      
   
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Fastread"
      android:id="@+id/textView2"
      android:textColor="#ff3eff0f"
      android:textSize="35dp"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/imageView"
      android:src="@drawable/logo"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_alignStart="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_alignRight="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_alignEnd="@+id/textView2" />
      
   
      android:id="@+id/autoCompleteTextView1"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:ems="10"
      android:layout_below="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_alignStart="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_marginTop="72dp"
      android:hint="AutoComplete TextView">
       />
   
   
   
      android:id="@+id/multiAutoCompleteTextView1"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:ems="10"
      android:layout_below="@+id/autoCompleteTextView1"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/autoCompleteTextView1"
      android:layout_alignStart="@+id/autoCompleteTextView1"
      android:hint="Multi Auto Complete " />
      

Here is the content of Strings.xml

    name="app_name">My Application
    name="hello_world">Hello world!
    name="action_settings">Settings

Here is the content of AndroidManifest.xml

xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.autocomplete"
   android:versionCode="1"
   android:versionName="1.0" >

   
      android:allowBackup="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
      
      
         android:name="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication.MainActivity"
         android:label="@string/app_name" >
         
         
             android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
             android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
       

Let's try to run your application. I assume you have connected your AVD while doing environment setup. To run the app from Android Studio, open one of your project's activity files and click Run icon from the toolbar. Android studio will install this application in your AVD and your AVD will display a screen