Alternating colors in Listview in Android Studio App

Question

I am looking to alternate the colors in my ListView between two separate colors. Here is my ListView attributes.

<ListView
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="match_parent"
                android:id="@+id/efile_results_list_view"
                android:layout_gravity="top"
                android:clickable="true"
                android:background="" />

Here is where I am creating the ListView.

 @Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    super.init(R.layout.activity_efile_results);

    resultListView = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.efile_results_list_view);

    if (ListView() % 2 == 0) {
        resultListView.setBackgroundColor(Color.LTGRAY);
    }
    else {

        resultListView.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE);
    }

    resultListView.setOnItemClickListener(this);

    if(lastRequestedFilings != null)
    {
        filings = lastRequestedFilings;
    }
    else
    {
        filings = new FilingEntity[1];
        filings[0] = new FilingEntity();
    }
    //printResultsToLog();

    populateResultList(filings);
}

Your question asked like that is redundant. See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13109840/android-alternate-row-colors-in-listview — weletonne, Aug 19 '15 at 15:17
UPDATED my answer. I added where I am creating the ListView but not sure what to call in order to change the colors — John Witherspoon, Aug 19 '15 at 16:27

Vadim Caen · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-19T18:58:02.287

You should override getView method in your listview adapter from which you can do the following :

View getView (int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
    ...
    if(position % 2 == 0) {
       convertView.setBackgroundColor(color1);
    else {
       convertView.setBackgroundColor(color2);
    }
return convertView;
}

Of course your convertView should have been created before. If your adapter just extends ArrayAdapter you can just add the following line instead of the dots :

convertView = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);

Checkout this tutorial for more information.

EDIT

I will explain a little bit more.

When you want to use a ListView, you need an Adapter. The adapter is used to render the data, so each row. The ListView is just the container of the row, so if you change the background color of the ListView, you are just changing the color of the whole container. What you want to do is changing the color of each row. You have to do it in the adatper's method getView.

So first you extend for exemple an ArrayAdatper and you override getView

public class MyAdatper extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
    View getView (int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
    convertView = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
    if(position % 2 == 0) {
        convertView.setBackgroundColor(color1);
    else {
        convertView.setBackgroundColor(color2);
    }
    return convertView;
}

Then in your Activity you do :

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    resultListView = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.efile_results_list_view);

    String[] mockValue = {
    "Value 1",
    "value 2",
    "value 3" };

    MyAdatper adapter = new MyAdapter(this, R.layout.list_item,   R.id.info_text, mockValues));
    resultListView.setAdapter(adapter);

}

Finally, create a layout that will represent a row. For example inside list_item.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="100dp"
    android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:layout_margin="10dp">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/info_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent" />

</RelativeLayout>

I suggest that you look at some documentation and some tutorial to know exactly how this is working.

Here I gave you the example for a simple ListView Displaying an Array of String. If you are looking to display more complex views, look for the BaseAdapter.

UPDATED my answer. I added where I am creating the ListView but not sure what to call in order to change the colors. — John Witherspoon, Aug 19 '15 at 16:24

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 19 '15 at 15:15

ListView extends AbsListView, which implements setBackgroundColor(int color), as mentioned in the documentation. Quoting:

public void setBackgroundColor (int color). Added in API level 1. Sets the background color for this view.

Parameters: color - the color of the background

You can use it like this:

ListView saveList = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.some_list);
myList.setBackgroundColor(Color.rgb(102, 102, 255));

To get the RGB color code you can use this website.

Alternating colors in Listview in Android Studio App

2 Answers2