Android Spinner using ArrayList<String>

Question

I have been using values of spinner from XML string-arrays so far like:

Spinner karant_sp; 
karant_sp = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner1); 
ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> karant_adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(this, R.array.karant_list, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
karant_adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
karant_sp.setAdapter(karant_adapter);
karant_sp.setSelection(0);
karant_sp.setOnItemSelectedListener(new select_karant());

Can I use a local java ArrayList-String as the list of items to be displayed in drop down menu?

Something like:

Spinner karant_sp; 
ArrayList<String> return_likes = new ArrayList<String>();
return_likes.add("Hello");
return_likes.add("world");
karant_sp = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner1); 
ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> karant_adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(this, return_likes, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item);
karant_adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
karant_sp.setAdapter(karant_adapter);
karant_sp.setSelection(0);
karant_sp.setOnItemSelectedListener(new select_karant());

I know the above code doesn't work, but I would like to know something which works using ArrayList-string.

Solution

Yes. Just don't call createFromResource() on your Adapter. Use one of the constructors instead. Something like

ArrayAdapter<String> karant_adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,
     android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, return_likes);

This is just an example you might have to change something else to get it working depending on what isn't working. But The ArrayAdapter Docs should help.

Comments

[MRX]

And why you are using 2 arraylist.... your arr is refering to Global arraylist but not the arraylist in which you are saving your data

[Devrath]

This is the most simplest way which can be used to populate spinner dynamically[+1]