Add a menu to an empty activity

Question

I have made an android application in Android Studio and would like to create a option menu on it. I created it as an empty activity and now realize I would have been better creating a blank activity to get the option menu. Is there anyway to create the option menu in a empty activity. If someone could point me to a tutorial that would be great this is my code so far for my menu.

menu_menu

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"     xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"     tools:context="saveourcar.soc.MainActivity">     <item         android:id="@+id/action_Menu"         android:orderInCategory="100"         android:title="Menu"         app:showAsAction="never" >     <menu>         <item             android:id="@+id/instructions"             android:title="Instructions"             android:icon="@drawable/bg"/>         <item             android:id="@+id/hotels"             android:title="Hotels"             android:icon="@drawable/mechanic"/>      </menu>     </item> </menu> 

Main activity

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {     // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will     // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long     // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.     int id = item.getItemId();      //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement     if (id == R.id.action_Menu) {         return true;     }      return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); } 

Answer 1

You need to inflate your menu. These tutorials show how to use menus. So something like this, and choose a better name than menu_menu:

public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {  MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();  inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu_menu, menu);  return true; } 

Answer 2

when you make a menu's layout you need to define it for the Activity you want to place it in. You may do so by:

@Override     public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {         MenuInflater findMenuItems = getMenuInflater();         findMenuItems.inflate(R.menu.main_menu, menu);         return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);     } 

the main_menu is your menu's layout name, and findMenuItems is an optional name.

And to make your menu's items clickable for an About menu and exiting the app you'll need this:

@Override     public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {         switch (item.getItemId()) {             case R.id.aboutMenuItem:                 Intent aboutIntent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, AboutActivity.class);                 startActivity(aboutIntent);                 break;             case R.id.exitMenuItem:                 finish();                 break;         }         return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);     }