How to add a Hint in spinner in XML

Question

I am trying to add a Hint in the spinner widget as there is no option of Hint as in EditText, I want to show Gender as a Hint and when clicked it must show only Male and Female not the hint.

How it can be Done Only Using XML

XML code of spinner.

  <Spinner
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/spinner1"
      android:entries="@array/gender"
      android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
      android:layout_marginLeft="25dp"
      android:layout_marginRight="25dp"
      android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

String Array of the spinner

<string-array name="gender">
     <item>Male</item>
     <item>Female</item>
</string-array>

Answer 1

There are two ways you can use spinner:

static way

android:spinnerMode="dialog"

and then set:

android:prompt="@string/hint_resource"

dynamic way

spinner.setPrompt("Gender");

Note: It will work like a Hint but not actually it is.

May it help!

Answer 2

In the adapter you can set the first item as disabled. Below is the sample code

@Override
public boolean isEnabled(int position) {
    if (position == 0) {
        // Disable the first item from Spinner
        // First item will be use for hint
        return false;
    } else {
        return true;
    }
}

And set the first item to grey color.

@Override
public View getDropDownView(int position, View convertView,
                                    ViewGroup parent) {
    View view = super.getDropDownView(position, convertView, parent);
    TextView tv = (TextView) view;
    if (position == 0) {
        // Set the hint text color gray
        tv.setTextColor(Color.GRAY);
    } else {
        tv.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
    }
    return view;
}

And if the user selects the first item then do nothing.

@Override
public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
    String selectedItemText = (String) parent.getItemAtPosition(position);
    // If user change the default selection
    // First item is disable and it is used for hint
    if (position > 0) {
        // Notify the selected item text
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Selected : " + selectedItemText, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
}

Refer the below link for detail.

How to add a hint to Spinner in Android

Answer 3

For Kotlin

What will you get:

• Gray color if the hint is selected

• Drop down list with gray color of the hint

• Black color if something else than the hint is selected

I have added 5. step what changes the color of the text in the spinner depending on the selected item, because I couldn't find it here. In this case it is needed to change the text color to gray when the first item is selected in order to it looks like a hint.

1. Define a spinner in your activity_layout.xml

   <Spinner
       android:id="@+id/mySpinner"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
   

2. Define the string array in string.xml where the first item will be a hint.

   <string-array name="your_string_array">
       <item>Hint...</item>
       <item>Item1</item>
       <item>Item2</item>
       <item>Item3</item>
   </string-array>
   

3. Set up the spinner in the onCreate method in your Activity.kt

   Get string array from resources

       val items= resources.getStringArray(R.array.your_string_array)
   

   Create spinner adapter

       val spinnerAdapter= object : ArrayAdapter<String>(this,android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, items) {
   
       override fun isEnabled(position: Int): Boolean {
           // Disable the first item from Spinner
           // First item will be used for hint
           return position != 0
       }
   
       override fun getDropDownView(
           position: Int,
           convertView: View?,
           parent: ViewGroup
       ): View {
           val view: TextView = super.getDropDownView(position, convertView, parent) as TextView
           //set the color of first item in the drop down list to gray
           if(position == 0) {
               view.setTextColor(Color.GRAY)
           } else {
               //here it is possible to define color for other items by
               //view.setTextColor(Color.RED)
           }
           return view
       }
   
   }
   

4. Set drop down view resource and attach the adapter to your spinner.

   spinnerAdapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item)     
   mySpinner.adapter = spinnerAdapter
   

5. Change the color of the text in the spinner depending on the selected item

   mySpinner.onItemSelectedListener = object: AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener{
       override fun onNothingSelected(parent: AdapterView<*>?) {
       }
   
       override fun onItemSelected(
           parent: AdapterView<*>?,
           view: View?,
           position: Int,
           id: Long
       ) {
           val value = parent!!.getItemAtPosition(position).toString()
           if(value == items[0]){
               (view as TextView).setTextColor(Color.GRAY)
           }
       }
   
   }