How to optimizie ListView with different item's layout

Question

Hi, in my listview I have items with different layouts, in fact they use one sub-layout few times. I cannot use getViewTypeCount() and getItemViewType(), because I don't know how many times the sublayout will be used. Is it possible to optimize somehow getView() method and use it's convertView parameter, or do I have to inflate view each time?

Answer 1

Since you know how many types of layout you would have - it's possible to use those methods.

getViewTypeCount() - this methods returns information how many types of rows do you have in your list

getItemViewType(int position) - returns information which layout type you should use based on position

Then you inflate layout only if it's null and determine type using getItemViewType.

Look at this tutorial for further information.

UPDATE:

To achieve some optimizations in structure that you've described in comment I would suggest:

• Storing views in object called ViewHolder. It would increase speed because you won't have to call findViewById() every time in getView method. See List14 in API demos.
• Create one generic layout that will conform all combinations of properties and hide some elements if current position doesn't have it.

I hope that will help you. If you could provide some XML stub with your data structure and information how exactly you want to map it into row, I would be able to give you more precise advise