Question

Is possible store a list within application, without necessarily having a database?
Otherwise, what would be the easiest way to store a simple list?

Answer 1

I think it depends on the contents of the list you are working on. If your List is storing “Simple-Objects” only (like List of String List of integer or other Objects with only a few members) you can use SharedPrefenrences which are build in in Android. They need a key and a value. So if your List contains 5 Objects of – lets say Points to keep it simple – you can save them like

SharedPreferences.Editor editor = getSharedPreferences("YourListName", MODE_PRIVATE).edit();
for(int i = 0; i < YOUR_LIST.count() ; i++){
    Point p = YOUR_LIST.get(i);
    editor.putInt("Element" + i + " X", p.x);
    editor.putInt("Element" + i + " Y", p.y);
}
editor.commit();

to recieve this again you could just say

SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences("YourListName", MODE_PRIVATE);
Map<String, ?> map = prefs.getAll();