Using Android AutoCompleteTextView with ArrayAdapter<Objects> instead of ArrayAdapter<Strings>

Two ways:

  1. Override toString() in Student class and make it return name. You can get the object that was selected with the following code:

     public static class Student {
    
        private String name;
    
            public Student(String name) {
                this.name = name;
            }
    
            @Override
            public String toString() {
                return name;
            }
    
        }
    
    AutoCompleteTextView tv = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.autoCompleteTextView1);
    final ArrayList<Student> list = new ArrayList<MainActivity.Student>();
    list.add(new Student("Viru"));
    list.add(new Student("Gauti"));
    ArrayAdapter<Student> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<MainActivity.Student>(
            this, android.R.layout.simple_dropdown_item_1line, list);
    tv.setAdapter(adapter);
    
    tv.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {
    
        @Override
        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> arg0, View arg1, int arg2,
                long arg3) {
            Student selected = (Student) arg0.getAdapter().getItem(arg2);
            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this,
                    "Clicked " + arg2 + " name: " + selected.name,
                    Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
    });
    
  2. Implement a custom adapter (by extending BaseAdapter class or ArrayAdapter<Student> class) Check this tutorial : http://www.ezzylearning.com/tutorial.aspx?tid=1763429


You can use an AbstractList to get the String representation of each item in your object list.

private void setupAutoComplete(AutoCompleteTextView view, List<T> objects) {
    List<String> names = new AbstractList<String>() {
        @Override
        public int size() { return objects.size(); }

        @Override
        public String get(int location) {
            return objects.get(location).getName();
        }
    };

    view.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, names));
}