Question

I’m trying to display a TextView on top of a ListView from within a ListActivity, but the text is not showing up.

LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService( Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE );
View layout = inflater.inflate( R.layout.main, null );
TextView myTextView = (TextView)layout.findViewById( R.id.myTextView );
myTextView.setVisibility( View.VISIBLE );
myTextView.setText( R.string.emptyList );
setContentView( layout );

Here is the main layout:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
    <TextView android:id="@+id/myTextView"
        android:paddingLeft="10dp"
        android:paddingTop="10dp"
        android:textSize="16sp"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:visibility="gone"/>    
    <ListView  
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
</LinearLayout>

I want an “Empty list” notice to go at the top of the screen in case the list view is empty.

Answer 1

Why dont you use setEmptyView for your ListView and do your notification that way.

<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ListView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="300dip"
    android:id="@+id/list_view" />
<TextView
    android:id="@+id/empty_list_view"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="List view is empty"
    android:visibility="gone" />
</LinearLayout>

And call in your code.

ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById( R.id.list_view );
listView.setEmptyView( findViewById( R.id.empty_list_view ) );
listView.setAdapter(yourAdapter);

Check these for more info.

Correct use of setEmtpyView in AdapterView

http://www.technotalkative.com/android-listview-setemptyview/