Question

I am using the following code in xml to generate two RadioButtons with a divider between them:

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

        <RadioButton
            android:id="@+id/radioButton1"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
            android:paddingLeft="60dp"
            android:text="Male" />

        <View
            android:id="@+id/firstDivider"
            android:layout_width="2dp"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_marginLeft="40dp"
            android:background="#939393" />

          <RadioButton
            android:id="@+id/radioButton1"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginLeft="20dp"
            android:paddingLeft="60dp"
            android:text="Female" />

    </LinearLayout>

This works fine, and is being used inside a ViewPager (in one of the tabs).

Interestingly, if I scroll back and forth enough inside my ViewPager, the text on one of the buttons changes to Female. So, in the end, I get 2 Female RadioButtons.

This looks like it has something to do with View Recycling, but since they’re 2 distinctly hard coded buttons (and not ListView items, for example), I’m not sure why it’s happening.

Sure, I can add button.setText(...) in java (which hopefully will fix it), but I’ve just noticed this and I had no explanation for it.

Edit: As expected, when I do Force Close and restart the application, it switches back to normal- and I have to repeat the procedure to get two Female buttons. If I switch to another activity/etc/etc, it still stays to two “female” buttons.

Answer 1

The resource id for both RadioButtons is android:id="@+id/radioButton1".

Android automatically saves “state” of UI elements (widgets) if created in a layout file and they have ids.

The fact that the second RadioButton had the text “Female” meant it would over-write the saving of the first’s text “Male” but both would receive the same text when re-created due to the same id.