An Idiot’s guide to Android RecyclerView Part 1

Step by step tutorial on how to define and use RecylerView. Here’s the end preview of what we will make.

RecyclerView List

1. Define a Gradle dependencies for RecyclerView in build.gradle file

dependencies {
    ...
    compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:21.0.+'
}

2. In your activity_main.xml define a RecyclerView tag

3. Create a layout file for individual list item, we named it single_list_item.xml

4. Create a class MyListAdapter and inside it create a inner class MyViewHolder that extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder

/*MyViewHolder class is a place where we will define and reference all the Views defined in our single_list_item.xml file*/

5. Define a TextView instance in MyViewHolder class and reference it using findViewById function inside the constructor

6. Now extend your MyListAdapter class to RecyclerView.Adapter<MyListAdapter.MyViewHolder> and implement all the method by clicking on red bulb appearing on Android Studio

7. Accepting String[] array of list item inside MyListAdapter constructor and completing above todos

// TODO: (1) Send dummy string[] array of list that need to be displayed from MainActivity to MyListAdapter via constructor
// TODO: (2) Set the layout for individual list item inside onCreateViewHolder
// TODO: (3) Return the number of list item in getItemCount
// TODO: (4) Set the data from String[] array to each list item

8. Lastly let’s bind all the things together into MainActivity.java

// TODO: (1) Create a dummy String[] array of data to be sent
// TODO: (2) Create a global variable for RecyclerView and MyListAdapter 
// TODO: (3) Inside onCreate get a reference to the RecyclerView using findViewById and passing the id in it
// TODO: (4) Instantiate MyListAdapter object and pass the dummy data in it
// TODO: (5) Define a LinearLayoutManager object that decide how to display list item, i.e., in list, grid or staggered form 
// TODO: (6) Hook LinearLayoutManager and MyListAdapter to your RecyclerView

Phew! that was a lot. The motive of this article was to have a handy guide to look back whenever you feel stuck. Just bookmark it to have a handy reference. Next step:

An Idiot’s guide to Android RecyclerView Part 2

Creating Lists and Cards | Android Developers

An Idiot’s guide to Android RecyclerView and DataBinding

Please do share and like this article if found beneficial and tell me what next Step by step tutorial you want to see next.