Android tip: Populating Multiple ListViews in Single Activity

    In my previous post, you've known how to put GridView and ListView in an Activity (one screen). To day, in this small tip, I'll present a simple way to put 2 ListViews in an Activity (although this is a "pure design", not recommended, in most of cases, please use ExpandableListView instead).

Warning

RecyclerView is developed as the alternative widget to build list and grid layout in Android, so this solution maybe obsolete. Please read my newer post to learn how to use RecyclerView with this design!

    Our idea is "disable ListView scrolling", set their height expand to max based on their children and finally, put all them in to a ScrollView. So that, actually we scroll this ScrollView. Programmatically code for get ListView dynamic height:

    /**
     * Set listview height based on listview children
     *
     * @param listView
     */
    public static void setDynamicHeight(ListView listView) {
        ListAdapter adapter = listView.getAdapter();
        //check adapter if null
        if (adapter == null) {
            return;
        }
        int height = 0;
        int desiredWidth = MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(listView.getWidth(), MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
        for (int i = 0; i < adapter.getCount(); i++) {
            View listItem = adapter.getView(i, null, listView);
            listItem.measure(desiredWidth, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
            height += listItem.getMeasuredHeight();
        }
        ViewGroup.LayoutParams layoutParams = listView.getLayoutParams();
        layoutParams.height = height + (listView.getDividerHeight() * (adapter.getCount() - 1));
        listView.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);
        listView.requestLayout();
    }

    In the Activity layout, put all ListViews into a ScrollView as root view:

activity_main.xml

<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:fillViewport="true" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:padding="10dip" >

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:text="@string/asia" />

        <ListView
            android:id="@+id/listView1"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dip"
            android:background="#B29090" >
        </ListView>

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dip"
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:text="@string/europe" />

        <ListView
            android:id="@+id/listView2"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginTop="10dip"
            android:background="#4A9C67" >
        </ListView>
    </LinearLayout>

</ScrollView>

    Full source code for this main activity:

MainActivity.java

package hongthaiit.blogspot.com.multiplelistviews;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.MeasureSpec;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    private ListView asiaListView;
    private ListView europeListView;

    private String[] asiaCountries = {"Vietnam", "China", "Japan", "Korea", "India", "Singapore", "Thailand", "Malaysia"};
    private String[] europeCountries = {"France", "Germany", "Sweden", "Denmark", "England", "Spain", "Portugal", "Norway"};

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

        //locate Views
        asiaListView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView1);
        europeListView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView2);

        //set all Listview adapter
        asiaListView.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, asiaCountries));
        europeListView.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, europeCountries));

        //set dynmic height for all listviews
        setDynamicHeight(asiaListView);
        setDynamicHeight(europeListView);
    }

    /**
     * Set listview height based on listview children
     *
     * @param listView
     */
    public static void setDynamicHeight(ListView listView) {
        ListAdapter adapter = listView.getAdapter();
        //check adapter if null
        if (adapter == null) {
            return;
        }
        int height = 0;
        int desiredWidth = MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(listView.getWidth(), MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
        for (int i = 0; i < adapter.getCount(); i++) {
            View listItem = adapter.getView(i, null, listView);
            listItem.measure(desiredWidth, MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
            height += listItem.getMeasuredHeight();
        }
        ViewGroup.LayoutParams layoutParams = listView.getLayoutParams();
        layoutParams.height = height + (listView.getDividerHeight() * (adapter.getCount() - 1));
        listView.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);
        listView.requestLayout();
    }
}

    Running program, we have this result:

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Author : Hong Thai

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