Android: AutocompleteTextView weird behavior

Question

I am facing a weird problem with AutoCompleteTextView. My code is as follows,

    AutoCompleteTextView  searchText = //findView...
private ArrayList<String> suggestions = null;
private ArrayAdapter<String> suggestionAdapter = null;
suggestionAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list, suggestions);
searchText.setAdapter(suggestionAdapter);

And down the code, I am populating the arrayList in a for loop.

    for (int i = 0; i < nl.getLength(); i++) {
        Element suggestion = (Element)nl.item(i);
        String name = suggestion.getAttribute("data");
        suggestions.add(name);
    }

This is not showing me the suggestions while I type into the text view.

However, when I add any strings to the arraylist outside the for loop (like, right after the loop), I am able to see the suggestions. Its been bugging me for the last two hours. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

And believe me I am typing one of the known text that I am populating in the for loop.

Thx! Rahul.

Answer 1

Do not set the adapter before the forloop. Add all the Strings to the ArrayList of Strings and thne after the for loop use this:

suggestionAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list, suggestions);
AutoCompleteTextView  searchText = //findView...
searchText.setAdapter(suggestionAdapter);

hope this works.

Answer 2

put the following line after the for loop.

suggestionAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

or put the following line in the first code.

suggestionAdapter.setNotifyOnChange(true)

More details setNotifyOnChange(boolean) , notifyDataSetChanged()