--- title: "Spinner Control in Android" description: "In this article I am going to explain the Spinner control and how to add data as well as creating selector for selected Item." author: "Manoj Pandey" published: 2014-03-26 updated: 2019-09-07 canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1387/spinner-control-in-android category: "android" tags: ["android"] reading_time: 3 minutes --- # Spinner Control in Android In this article I am going to explain the Spinner control and how to [add data](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/287/how-to-add-data-in-drop-down-list) as well as creating [selector](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/504/what-is-id-selector) for selected Item.\ The spinner [controls](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/66/how-to-create-controls-at-run-time-in-csharp-dot-net) is similar to the Combo Box in C#. It displays a list to select from in a popup window so it may become a [better choice](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/97753/which-is-a-better-choice-netflix-or-hbo) over List View if you want to save space. **Follow the steps which are given below and you can use this example for [learning](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/88279/my-journey-learning-content-writing-at-mindstick-training-from-experienced-content-writers) the [concepts](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13127/macro-and-microeconomics-concepts-in-relation-to-global-organization-management) of Spinner Selector.** - Open Eclipse - Select New [Android Application](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1653/creating-libraries-for-android-applications) [Project](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/story/1788/things-to-ensure-your-construction-project-is-successful) - Enter Application Name as SpinnerSample - Click Next - Click Finish. Now go to the **res/Layout/activity_main.xml** and add paste the following code ``` xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:focusableInTouchMode="false" android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin" android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin" android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" android:scrollbarAlwaysDrawVerticalTrack="false" tools:context=".MainActivity" > ``` Paste the following code in **SpinnerSample/src/ com.example.spinnersample/** **MainActivity.java** ``` package com.example.spinnersample; public class MainActivity extends Activity implements OnItemSelectedListener { Spinner spin; String[] myArray = { "Select City . . ", "Peris", "Mumbai", "London",  "Canada", "Delhi", "Rome", "Italy", "Lahore", "Washingaton", "Chennai" }; @SuppressLint("NewApi") @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); spin = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spin_CityList); spin.setOnItemSelectedListener(this); //set the value in spinner control which is set by setadapter method. spin.setAdapter(new MyAdapter(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item, myArray)); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu); return true; } public void onItemSelected(AdapterView parent, View view, int pos, long id) { //Get the value of selected position String sCity = parent.getItemAtPosition(pos).toString(); if (sCity == "Select City . . ") { } else { Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, " This city is- : " + sCity, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); }} @Override public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView arg0) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } // This class is made for to find the items of spinner in textview which textview is created dynamically in the program and class is extends by Array adapter. // This class should be extends by ArrayAdapter. public class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter { public MyAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId, String[] objects) { super(context, textViewResourceId, objects); // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub } @Override public View getDropDownView(int position, View cnvtView, ViewGroup prnt) { LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater(); View spinnerItem = inflater.inflate( android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, null); TextView mytext = (TextView) spinnerItem .findViewById(android.R.id.text1); mytext.setText(myArray[position]); mytext.setTextColor(Color.RED); mytext.setTextSize(18); int selected = spin.getSelectedItemPosition(); if (position == selected) { if (selected == 0) { } else { //Set the background color of selected item. spinnerItem.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN); } } return spinnerItem; } } } ``` Now **Run the Android application** Choose any one of city (as shown below). ![Spinner Control in Android](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/c5e8b081-e855-413d-b8d6-0ff084193d5c/images/ec0bf64c-9209-498b-b78a-d8aaefeeb567.png) After selection of any city like Canada then (as shown below) ![Spinner Control in Android](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/c5e8b081-e855-413d-b8d6-0ff084193d5c/images/9a44662c-d855-42d4-a23f-e97274f37e7f.png) And you can see spinner item, Canada city is highlighted. ![Spinner Control in Android](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/c5e8b081-e855-413d-b8d6-0ff084193d5c/images/9658f379-1e83-44b0-b5e6-3d7d0a6286a2.png) Thanks for reading this article. You can enter your valuable comments and suggestion to improve this article in the comment box. --- Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1387/spinner-control-in-android Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.