Using NumberPicker Widget with Strings

Question

Is there a way to use the Android NumberPicker widget for choosing strings instead of integers?

score 249 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '12 at 18:27

249

NumberPicker picker = new NumberPicker(this);
picker.setMinValue(0);
picker.setMaxValue(2);
picker.setDisplayedValues( new String[] { "Belgium", "France", "United Kingdom" } );

answered Nov 27 '12 at 18:27

nan

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The key for me there was you have to set the displayedValues AND the min and max before it works. Thanks. – Ben Clayton Aug 29 '13 at 08:20
This's much better than the chosen answer above. – Linh Lino Feb 18 '14 at 02:25
2

But when i click on the text, the soft keyboard pops out and I can edit the text. – Confuse Sep 11 '14 at 11:25
15

@ArulxZ If you haven't already figured this out, just call picker.setDescendantFocusability(ViewGroup.FOCUS_BLOCK_DESCENDANTS); to prevent the keyboard from popping up. – Karim Varela Jun 01 '15 at 20:21
This helped me! But it appears the value 0 and I can't remove it.. Any idea? To explain in my picker appears 0, Belgium, France, United Kingdom – user4292106 Mar 18 '16 at 11:36
you saved my day ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ – Leo Nguyen Mar 28 '16 at 07:26
**FYI**: input values from keyboard can be disabled by `picker.setDescendantFocusability(ViewGroup.FOCUS_BLOCK_DESCE‌NDANTS);` as @KarimVarela mentioned, however it can be very useful. It allows to input only existing values, and then finds appropriate index – Pavel May 15 '17 at 00:48
I am trying various answers from few hours but nothing is showing up. I am calling the above codes under a function when clicked on a textView – MrinmoyMk Aug 05 '20 at 15:41

harshitpthk · Answer 2 · 2017-04-30T08:57:33.337

39

NumberPicker numberPicker = new NumberPicker(this);
String[] arrayString= new String[]{"hakuna","matata","timon","and","pumba"};
numberPicker.setMinValue(0);
numberPicker.setMaxValue(arrayString.length-1);

numberPicker.setFormatter(new NumberPicker.Formatter() {
  @Override
  public String format(int value) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    return arrayString[value];
  }
});

hope that helps!

edited Apr 30 '17 at 08:57

answered Oct 19 '14 at 13:12

harshitpthk

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This is by far the best answer. – samatron Sep 04 '15 at 23:21
if it is an array, then it doesn't have size() and get() methods. size() should be replaced with .length, and get() replaced with arrayString[value] – RexSplode Mar 03 '17 at 15:06
If you use formatter instead of `setDisplayedValues`, the NumberPicker won't measure its width properly, so your text might be clipped even if it can fit properly. – Matvey Rybakov Sep 28 '17 at 09:39

FunkTheMonk · Answer 3 · 2011-11-22T16:09:58.663

15

String value = String.valueOf(picker.getValue());

You could mean something else, but it isn't very clear what you mean.

UPDATED:

You can fake it by setting your own formatter:

CountryFormatter implements Formatter {
    public String toString(int value) {
        switch(value) {
            case 0:
                return "England";
            case 1:
                return "France";
        }
        return "Unknown";
    }
}

picker.setFormatter(new CountryFormatter());

getValue() will still return an int, so you probably want to map the names of countries to their ids.

ADDED: The implementation of NumberPicker has:

public void setRange(int start, int end, String[] displayedValues)

Which seems to do a better job of what you want then the above formatter.. although it isn't mentioned in the documentation so probably isn't part of the public api

edited Nov 22 '11 at 16:09

answered Nov 22 '11 at 13:00

FunkTheMonk

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I would like to use it to choose for example a country. Just like the Spinner Widget does, but without opening an additional frame at the bottom to choose a value. – timoschloesser Nov 22 '11 at 15:04
Updated answer, however there are probably better ways to list countries than trying to hack NumberPicker to do this sort of thing. – FunkTheMonk Nov 22 '11 at 15:58
@FunkTheMonk I couldn't find this `setRange()` method in the docs at all! Any ideas why? – iTurki Aug 12 '12 at 23:15
None documented methods aren't part of the public API - they aren't officially supported by google and they will probably change in the future - you use at your own risk. – FunkTheMonk Aug 13 '12 at 13:16
1

In my case, this solution had a small bug, when touching one of the options, it glitched or disappeared, i dont know very well why. nan's answer didnt had this issue. Anyone can tell me what could be happening? Anyway, i think nan's answer is better and should be the accepted answer. But perhaps i'm missing something? – acrespo Dec 06 '13 at 19:09
I had this problem: `when touching one of the options, it glitched or disappeared`. The solution was to use setDisplayedValues together with `android:descendantFocusability="blocksDescendants"`. At least it loks ok now with this settings. – marcinj Jan 20 '17 at 00:24
I found a solution for the glitch that works in APIs 18-26 without using reflection and without using `setDisplayedValues()` here https://stackoverflow.com/a/44949069/3918479 – Sebastian Jul 06 '17 at 12:40

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 09 '16 at 03:10

try this solution, may help you

    NumberPicker pickers = new NumberPicker(this);
    String[] arrayPicker= new String[]{"abc","def","ghi","jkl","mno"};

    //set min value zero
    pickers.setMinValue(0);
    //set max value from length array string reduced 1
    pickers.setMaxValue(arrayPicker.length - 1);
    //implement array string to number picker
    pickers.setDisplayedValues(arrayPicker);
    //disable soft keyboard
    pickers.setDescendantFocusability(NumberPicker.FOCUS_BLOCK_DESCENDANTS);
    //set wrap true or false, try it you will know the difference
    pickers.setWrapSelectorWheel(false);

    //create button to test selected text string
    btnPicker.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {
            //get position (int) from number picker
            int pos = pickers.getValue();
            //get string from number picker and position
            String selecPicker = arrayPicker[pos];  
            //test toast to get selected text string
            Toast.makeText(context, selecPicker , Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

        }
    });

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 16 '18 at 15:35

This worked for me.

public class YourClassName extends AppCompatActivity {

NumberPicker picker = null;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.your_activity_layout_file);

    picker = (NumberPicker) findViewById(R.id.pickerId_From_your_Layout_file);

     picker.setMinValue(0);
    picker.setMaxValue(3);
    picker.setDisplayedValues(new String[]{"English", "French","Kiswahili","عربى"});
}
}

Using NumberPicker Widget with Strings

5 Answers5

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