Android Beginner: How can I build a dynamic Hello World app?

Question

First things, first, I'm just starting with Android Application Development and would like to make a basic starter app. I have a Hello World app which will display the text Hello World when a button is pressed, but I would like to know how I can include a text box for a name, so the user can enter their name and then have the app say hello to them when they press the button.

Any help would be appriciated because I haven't a clue if I'm honest, I'm still figuring out what most of the code does but creating simple apps like this help me further my understanding.

Thank you,

Max

Answer 1

For the text box you'll probably want to use a EditText . Make sure to insert it into your layout xml and give it a name you can reference, like nameTextBox or something. It should look something like

<EditText android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/nameTextBox" android:layout_width="match_parent"></EditText>

Then when your activity runs, make sure to put it into a variable like you probably did your HelloButton . So

setContentView(R.layout.layout);
nameBox = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.nameTextBox);

Then when the user clicks the button go ahead and grab whatever is in the nameBox . If you're using a ClickListener for your button this would go inside the OnClick method, just before you print out the text.

String name = nameBox.getText().toString(); // Inherits toString from CharSequence
// code to display concatenate and display your hello string goes here 

Answer 2

I advise you to look at the samples provided by google on the android developer page.

http://developer.android.com/resources/browser.html?tag=sample

Look how things are done there and use that to make your own