java - How to get view for an item in listview in android?

Question

Is it possible to get an item view based on its position in the adapter and not in the visible views in the ListView?

I am aware of functions like getChildAt() and getItemIdAtPosition() however they provide information based on the visible views inside ListView. I am also aware that Android recycles views which means that I can only work with the visible views in the ListView.

My objective is to have a universal identifier for each item since I am using CursorAdapter so I don't have to calculate the item's position relative to the visible items.

Answer 1

Here's how I accomplished this. Within my (custom) adapter class:

@Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
  View view = null;
  if (convertView == null) {
    LayoutInflater inflater = context.getLayoutInflater();
    view = inflater.inflate(textViewResourceId, parent, false);
    final ViewHolder viewHolder = new ViewHolder();
    viewHolder.name = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.name);
    viewHolder.button = (ImageButton) view.findViewById(R.id.button);

    viewHolder.button.setOnClickListener
      (new View.OnClickListener() {
      @Override
      public void onClick(View view) {
        int position = (int) viewHolder.button.getTag();
        Log.d(TAG, "Position is: " +position);
      }
    });

    view.setTag(viewHolder);
    viewHolder.button.setTag(items.get(position));

  } else {
    view = convertView;
    ((ViewHolder) view.getTag()).button.setTag(items.get(position));
  }


  ViewHolder holder = (ViewHolder) view.getTag();

  return view;
}

Essentially the trick is to set and retrieve the position index via the setTag and getTag methods. The items variable refers to the ArrayList containing my custom (adapter) objects.

Also see this tutorial for in-depth examples. Let me know if you need me to clarify anything.