Question

In an android website, I found an article about a widget similar to a drop-down list for selecting items. (Following is the link to the site; and it shows all the codes).

http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-spinner.html

It uses the following code to display a message once you have selected a planet.

Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(), "Mars Selected", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

But this message “Planet is Selected” is only going to display for about 3 seconds and then it disappears. how can I output the “Mars Selected” message as a text layout in to the screen(So that it will stay on the screen permanently till I select another item from the list)? How can I use addView(tv) instead of setContentView(tv) Any help would be greatly appreciated.

public class MyOnItemSelectedListener implements OnItemSelectedListener {

   public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int pos, long id) 
   {                   
       if (parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString().equals("Mars"))
       {      TextView tv = new TextView(HelloSpinner.this); 
              tv.setText(parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString() + "Mars Selected");
              setContentView(tv); //How can I use addView(tv); here?
              //Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(), "Mars Selected", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

       }if (parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString().equals("Earth"))
       {      TextView tv = new TextView(HelloSpinner.this); 
              tv.setText(parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString() + "Earth Selected");
              setContentView(tv); //How can I use addView(tv); here?
              //Toast.makeText(parent.getContext(), "Earth Selected", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
       }
   }

   public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView parent) 
   {
         // Do nothing.
   } }

Answer 1

Just add another textview below the spinner like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical" android:padding="10dip"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    <TextView android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_marginTop="10dip" 
        android:text="@string/planet_prompt"/>
    <Spinner android:id="@+id/spinner" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:prompt="@string/planet_prompt"/>
    <TextView android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_marginTop="10dip" 
        android:id="@+id/label"/>
</LinearLayout>

Then in your code do some thing like

TextView label = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.label);
label.setText(THE STRING FROM THE SPINNER);

Ideally you should only call setContentView one time during onCreate. To updated the screen you should add and remove view and not call setContentView multiple times.