How can I change the background color for an specific row properly in a ListView? (Android)

Question

I have spent some days trying to solve a problem I have with ListViews on Android. I would like to implement a single selection list box using a ListView. So, I would like to have only one row with a predefined light background color and the rest with another preselected color. The problem I have is that when I click over a specific row is another row which is highlighted and not the one I pressed. I added several messages to Log what is happening but all seems to work fine. Here is my code:

public class TryListViewActivity extends Activity {
    protected static final int NO_SELECTED_COLOR = 0xFF191919;
    protected static final int SELECTED_COLOR = 0xFF3366CC;

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        ListView listView = new ListView(this);
        ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        list.add("Option 1");
        list.add("Option 2");
        list.add("Option 3");
        list.add("Option 4");
        list.add("Option 5");
        list.add("Option 6");
        list.add("Option 7");
        list.add("Option 8");
        list.add("Option 9");
        list.add("Option 10");
        list.add("Option 11");
        list.add("Option 12");
        list.add("Option 13");
        list.add("Option 14");
        list.add("Option 15");

        ArrayAdapter<String> listAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(
            this,
            R.layout.list_box_entry,
            list
        );
        listView.setAdapter(listAdapter);

        listView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);

        // Set the listener
        listView.setOnItemClickListener(
            new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() {
                public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view,
                    int position, long id) {
                    Log.i(
                        "Log",
                        "[SingleSelectionListBox] Item clicked: position="
                        + position + ";id=" + id
                    );

                    // First, set all rows to be unselected
                    int counter  = parent.getCount();
                    Log.i(
                        "Log",
                        "[SingleSelectionListBox] "
                        + counter + " items found inside the parent"
                    );
                    int children = parent.getChildCount();
                    Log.i(
                        "Log",
                        "[SingleSelectionListBox] "
                        + children + " views found inside the parent"
                    );
                    for(int i=0;i<children;i++) {
                        Log.i(
                            "Log",
                            "[SingleSelectionListBox] Child "
                            + i + " has message "
                            + ((TextView)parent.getChildAt(i)).getText()
                        );
                    }

                    // Too inefficient but for now is OK
                    for(int i=0;i<children;i++)
                        parent.getChildAt(i)
                            .setBackgroundColor(NO_SELECTED_COLOR);
                    Log.i("Log",
                        "[SingleSelectionListBox] First visible position: "
                        + parent.getFirstVisiblePosition()
                    );

                    // Set the background color
                    TextView textView = (TextView)(parent.getChildAt(
                        position-parent.getFirstVisiblePosition()));
                    textView.setBackgroundColor(SELECTED_COLOR);
                    Log.i(
                        "Log",
                        "[SingleSelectionListBox] Text inside the "
                        + " View changing the color " + textView.getText()
                    );
                }
            }
        );
        setContentView(listView);
    }
}

Inside the resources (res/layout) I inserted a file called list_text_entry.xml with the following content

<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:gravity="center"
  android:textColor="#FFFFFF" android:padding="10dp" android:textSize="16sp">
</TextView>

For example, If I click over the "Option 11" entry when the listView has been previously scrolled down until the first row I see is "Option 4", the "Option 7" row appears as selected being the only one carrying a blue color in the background. Can someone explain what happens here to me? I post below the messages I got throw the Log.

[SingleSelectionListBox] Item clicked: position=10;id=10
[SingleSelectionListBox] 15 items found inside the parent
[SingleSelectionListBox] 11 views found inside the parent
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 0 has message Option 4
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 1 has message Option 5
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 2 has message Option 6
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 3 has message Option 7
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 4 has message Option 8
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 5 has message Option 9
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 6 has message Option 10
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 7 has message Option 11
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 8 has message Option 12
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 9 has message Option 13
[SingleSelectionListBox] Child 10 has message Option 14
[SingleSelectionListBox] First visible position: 3
[SingleSelectionListBox] Text inside the View changing the color Option 11

As I can guess all children inside the ViewGroup as ordered from top to bottom and even when I do this in the code:

TextView textView = (TextView)(parent.getChildAt(
    position-parent.getFirstVisiblePosition()
));
textView.setBackgroundColor(SELECTED_COLOR);

Appears the message Option 11 but is really the option 7 selected. Is this a bug from Android?

Answer 1

I have used this code it works nice you should try this:

listView.getChildAt(0).setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE);