AutoCompleteTextView not showing any drop down items

Question

My XML:

<AutoCompleteTextView
        android:id="@+id/searchAutoCompleteTextView_feed"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:clickable="true"
        android:completionThreshold="2"
        android:hint="@string/search" />

MY java code:

AutoCompleteTextView eT = (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.searchAutoCompleteTextView_feed);
eT.addTextChangedListener(this);
String[] sa = new String[]{"apple", "mango", "banana", "apple mango", "mango banana"};
ArrayAdapter<String> aAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, sa);
eT.setAdapter(aAdapter);

This is not working atall....i mean its just working like an EditTextView. Where am i wrong??

complete code:

public class FeedListViewActivity extends ListActivity implements TextWatcher{


    private AutoCompleteTextView eT;

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.feed);

        eT = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.searchAutoCompleteTextView_feed);
        eT.addTextChangedListener(this);

                    Thread thread = new Thread(null, loadMoreListItems);
                    thread.start();
    }

    private Runnable returnRes = new Runnable() {
        public void run() {

            //code for other purposes
        }
    };

    private Runnable loadMoreListItems = new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            getProductNames();

            // Done! now continue on the UI thread
            runOnUiThread(returnRes);
        }
    };

    protected void getProductNames() {

            String[] sa = new String[]{"apple", "mango", "banana", "apple mango", "mango banana"};

            ArrayAdapter<String> aAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(getApplicationContext(),
                    android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, sa);
            eT.setAdapter(aAdapter);

    }

    public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count,
            int after) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }
}

Not working at all means? How many characters did you type in to check? — Kazekage Gaara, May 25 '12 at 11:24
You used Threshold as 2 , so it will fire after you typed 2 characters — Venky, May 25 '12 at 11:26
yeah i am typing more than 2 always...its not showing any drop down items — Housefly, May 25 '12 at 11:26
the snippet that you wrote should normally work!! update your code so wwe can help you more did u try to clean your project? — K_Anas, May 25 '12 at 11:50
yeah i tried clean....but do u know if this code works on API 4?? — Housefly, May 25 '12 at 11:51
yeah it works autocompleteTextView is in the android platform since api 1 — K_Anas, May 25 '12 at 11:53
follow this example http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-autocomplete.html — KMI, May 25 '12 at 11:57
@K_Anas i added complete code please check....i tried it in other application (the simplest way possible) and it worked...so what is problem with this code?? — Housefly, May 25 '12 at 12:16
the problem is: You have to do all your updating of Adapter data on the UI thread — K_Anas, May 25 '12 at 12:31
u mean i must setAdapter for the AutoCompleteTextView in UI thread??? — Housefly, May 25 '12 at 12:32
yeah thats right it is working now......actually that array sa needs to fetch some 5-6K strings from server which might cause delay in loading in the screen...hence i was using it in separate thread — Housefly, May 25 '12 at 12:48
i had almost same code but i used ArrayAdapter instead of String[] and it worked — Pouya Danesh, Feb 06 '18 at 12:07

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered May 30 '12 at 11:06

I just saw your other question before seeing this one. I was struggling with autocomplete for some time and I almost reverted to your new implementation of downloading all the keywords until I finally got it to work. What I did was;

//In the onCreate
//The suggestArray is just a static array with a few keywords
this.suggestAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, this.suggestionsView, suggestArray);
//The setNotifyOnChange informs all views attached to the adapter to update themselves 
//if the adapter is changed
this.suggestAdapter.setNotifyOnChange(true);

In my textwatcher's onTextChanged method, I get the suggests using an asynctask

//suggestsThread is an AsyncTask object
suggestsThread.cancel(true);
suggestsThread = new WertAgentThread();
suggestsThread.execute(s.toString());

In the AsyncTask's onPostExecute I then update the autocompletetextview

//suggestions is the result of the http request with the suggestions
this.suggestAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.suggestions, suggestions);
this.suggestions.setAdapter(this.suggestAdapter);
//notifydatasetchanged forces the dropdown to be shown.
this.suggestAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

See setNotifyOnChange and notifyDataSetChanged for more information

It seems like you have not fully understood the concept of the notifyDataSetChanged() method. You are creating a new instance of ArrayAdapter in your onPostExecute method, and set this as the adapter. The notifyDataSetChanged() method call is useless in your example. — X.X_Mass_Developer, Jul 29 '14 at 11:21

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 23 '17 at 12:43

this is a snippet from my project. I think after you got data from services all you have to do is to:

clear your previous data.
clear the previous adapter values.
then add values to your list of data using add() or addAll() method.

notify the data changed by calling notifyDataSetChanged() on adapter.

@Override
public void onGetPatient(List<PatientSearchModel> patientSearchModelList) {

//here we got the raw data traverse it to get the filtered names data for the suggestions

stringArrayListPatients.clear();
stringArrayAdapterPatient.clear();
for (PatientSearchModel patientSearchModel:patientSearchModelList){

    if (patientSearchModel.getFullName()!=null){

        stringArrayListPatients.add(patientSearchModel.getFullName());

    }

}

//update the array adapter for patient search
stringArrayAdapterPatient.addAll(stringArrayListPatients);
stringArrayAdapterPatient.notifyDataSetChanged();

}

but before all this make sure you have attached the adapter to the auto complete textview if don't do it as follows:

ArrayAdapter<String> stringArrayAdapterPatient= new ArrayAdapter<String>(getActivity(),android.support.v7.appcompat.R.layout.select_dialog_item_material,stringArrayListPatients);

completeTextViewPatient.setAdapter(stringArrayAdapterPatient);

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 15 '21 at 14:14

3

Use adapter.notifyDataSetChanged() method to notify the changes in the list, If that is not working then you can show DropDown manually like autoCompleteTextView.showDropDown()

answered Mar 15 '21 at 14:14

Sumit Jain

1,100
1
14
27

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 25 '12 at 11:29

0

    AutoCompleteTextView eT = (AutoCompleteTextView)findViewById(R.id.searchAutoCompleteTextView_feed);
 //   eT.addTextChangedListener(this);
    String[] sa = new String[]{"apple", "mango", "banana", "apple mango", "mango banana"};
    ArrayAdapter<String> aAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, sa);
    eT.setAdapter(aAdapter);

its working just comment on et.addtext line...

answered May 25 '12 at 11:29

jigspatel

400
3
14

does version matters for autocompletetextview???...i dint know...i am some lower api...need to check by changing – Housefly May 25 '12 at 11:41

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 16 '20 at 14:32

The only working solution after updating adapter and notifying about changes instantly show dropDown is reseting AutoCompleteTextView text again, Kotlin example:

 with(autoCompleteTextView) {
       text = text
  // Place cursor to end   
}

Java something like:

autoCompleteTextView.setText(autoCompleteTextView.getText());
// Place cursor to end

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 06 '20 at 08:10

0

AutoCompleteTextView.Invalidate() will do it.

answered May 06 '20 at 08:10

بالمصري يا صاحبي

1

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 23 '22 at 04:56

If anyone is using a custom object array list, and facing this issue, check your model class and see if you have override the correct variable in toString. Overriede toString if you have not override yet.

public class MyModalClass {
    public int id;
    public String path;

    @Override
    public String toString() { //include this in your model and return what you need in your drop down
        return path;
    }
}

AutoCompleteTextView not showing any drop down items

7 Answers7

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