---
title: "Simple Search implementation in android"  
description: "Hi everyone, here we are going to learn how to implement search functionality in android"  
author: "Anonymous User"  
published: 2014-12-29  
updated: 2019-09-07  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1550/simple-search-implementation-in-android  
category: "android"  
tags: ["android", "android activity", "android layout", "android edittext", "android listview"]  
reading_time: 5 minutes  

---

# Simple Search implementation in android

In my last post, we see how to implement pop-menus in Android : Show Simple Pop-up Menu in Android. Here we implement how to apply search in list view\

Adding [search functionality](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/158701/how-can-implement-client-side-data-filtering-or-search-functionality-using-jquery) to [listview](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12744/listview-in-android) will filters the list data with a matching string, hence provides user an easy way to find the information he needs. In this [article](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/81489/kashmir-now-after-an-year-of-abrogation-of-article-370) we are going to see how to enable search filter to android ListView.

Pre-Requisites:

1. Ellipse SDK

2. Android SDK

3. ADT plugin

\
Or [Android Studio](https://www.mindstick.com/blog/10942/android-studio-vs-eclipse) and a compatible version of JAVA SDK

Install and configure the above utilities.

Now create a new Android [project](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/story/1788/things-to-ensure-your-construction-project-is-successful) namely “SearchableFunction”.

##### Add Widgets to our GUI:

Now, we need to add views in our view groups, i.e. add widgets to our GUI. We need an EditText widget and a Listview widget for our app’s GUI

For this, navigate to res/Layout/main.xml from package [explorer](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/81617/now-it-is-time-to-say-goodbye-to-internet-explorer) . Open main.xml

Add following code into it:

```
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"    android:layout_width="match_parent"    android:layout_height="match_parent"    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"    tools:context=".MainActivity"    android:orientation="vertical">         <TextView        android:layout_width="wrap_content"        android:layout_height="wrap_content"        android:text="Names" />        <!-- Editext for
Search -->    <EditText android:id="@+id/inputSearch"android:layout_width="fill_parent"      android:layout_height="wrap_content"      android:hint="Search names.."      />       <!-- List View
-->    <ListView        android:id="@+id/list_view"        android:layout_width="fill_parent"        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
/>  </LinearLayout>
```

##### Add Search functionality:

To add search functionality to our app we need to implement addTextChangedListener() on our Edittext widget

So first we create a listview with list items and the list give the appropriate results on the basis of input name in the EditText

So our final code for main [Activity](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/23119/how-to-save-activity-state-in-android) class will look like this:

```
package com.example.searchablefunction;import java.util.ArrayList;import android.os.Bundle;import android.app.Activity;import android.content.Context;import android.text.Editable;import android.text.TextWatcher;import android.view.Menu;import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;import android.widget.EditText;import android.widget.ListView;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
      Context context = this;      // List view      private ListView myListView;      // Listview Adapter      ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;      // Search EditText      EditText inputSearch;
      // ArrayList for Listview      ArrayList<String> myListNames;
      @Override      protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);            setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);            myListView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.list_view);            inputSearch = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.inputSearch);            myListNames = new ArrayList<String>();            // Add items to arrayList            myListNames.add("Tom");            myListNames.add("Sam");            myListNames.add("John");            myListNames.add("Hary");            myListNames.add("Tim");
            myListNames.add("Jim");            myListNames.add("Jimmy");            // Adding items to Listview            adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(context,                        android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, myListNames);
            // set ArrayAdapter to listview
            myListView.setAdapter(adapter);
             // Enable search filter
            inputSearch.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() {
                  @Override
                 public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before,
                              int count) {
                      // When user changed the Text
                        adapter.getFilter().filter(s);
                 }

                  @Override
                  public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int count,
                            int after) {
                       // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                   }
                   @Override
                 public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) {
                        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                  }
           });
       }      @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;
      }
}
```

##### Running our Application

So our app looks like:

![Simple Search implementation in android](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/7aa8b64d-c337-404c-9d30-348c6a387980/images/a0ef5979-932b-40ac-b399-722349012d4b.png)

Type a letter in the text field, only filtered elements appear based on search filter

![Simple Search implementation in android](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/7aa8b64d-c337-404c-9d30-348c6a387980/images/3f2290a9-b4c8-4afb-9b9d-7226638f7199.png)

Type a name and the result will be shown in listview:

![Simple Search implementation in android](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/7aa8b64d-c337-404c-9d30-348c6a387980/images/6ca0ebee-7f91-470d-bf68-eac20c2629b7.png)

\

I my next post ,we see a UI pattern for Navigation drawer : Navigation Drawer Implementation in Android

Thanks for reading this post.

Happy Coding!!

---

Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1550/simple-search-implementation-in-android

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