Android ListView setSelection() does not seem to work.

Question

I have a ListActivity that implements onListItemClick() and calls a doSomething() function of the class. The latter contains l.setSelection(position) where l is the ListView object.

Now there is a onClickListener() listening for a button click that perfoms some actions and that too calls doSomething().

In the first case, the selected item get positioned appropriately, but in the latter, nothing happens.

Any clues about this strange behaviour and how I might make it work?

Answer 1

setSelection() does not necessarily have visual impact. The selection bar only appears if you use the D-pad/trackball to navigate the list. If you tap on the screen to click something, the selection bar appears briefly and vanishes.

Hence, setSelection() will only have a visual impact if the activity is not in touch mode (i.e., the last thing the user did was use the D-pad/trackball).

I am not 100% certain this explains your phenomenon given the description you provided, but I figured it is worth a shot...

Answer 2

You might need to wrap setSelection() in a posted Runnable (reference).

Answer 3

use requestFocusFromTouch() before calling setSelection()