Calling finish() on an Android activity doesn't actually finish

Question

I'm calling finish() but my activity keeps on going.

I have an activity which is invoked by a menu from the main activity screen. In my activity's onCreate() method I have the following code fragment:

    // Make sure there are some events in the list.     if (theEventArrayList.isEmpty()){         Toast.makeText(this, "Event List is empty", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();         finish();     }     SummarizeCurrentEvent();     graphEvents(); 

If the list is empty it puts up the Toast, and I can set breakpoint on the call to finish(). If I step from that in the debugger it goes to straight to SummarizeCurrentEvent(). I thought finish() would exit the activity. Is this not the case? Where can I find out more information about this method?

Answer 1

You should put a return statement after that finish, because the method that called finish will be executed completely otherwise.

also, see this question: about finish() in android

Answer 2

finish() just tells the activity to do what it needs to do to finish, eg. shutdown, call on onPause, report result to parent, etc. It doesn't do an exit() call or anything.

You should return after the finish() call.